Topic: Battleships... should they return to the USN?

84RFK · May 5th, 2008

Battleships in their old role (going out to sink another battleship) are in any means obsolete.
But as a threat to any oponent without air-superiority or naval capacity they would perform well.
Acting as a massive artillery platform they could be placed off the coast and be able to launch their 12" shells with reasonable accuracy over the target, and as a sailor on a US battleship once told me, you can shoot down a missile, the cruise-missiles are easy targets compared to a 12" shell.
Nothing can stop a 12" shell from reaching the target once it's launched.

But it would require a whole new doctrine to do it.

So the return of the battleship is a far fetched idea.

May 5th, 2008
84RFK Optio Gear	Battleships in their old role (going out to sink another battleship) are in any means obsolete. But as a threat to any oponent without air-superiority or naval capacity they would perform well. Acting as a massive artillery platform they could be placed off the coast and be able to launch their 12" shells with reasonable accuracy over the target, and as a sailor on a US battleship once told me, you can shoot down a missile, the cruise-missiles are easy targets compared to a 12" shell. Nothing can stop a 12" shell from reaching the target once it's launched. But it would require a whole new doctrine to do it. So the return of the battleship is a far fetched idea.