Originally Posted by rickusn

This from a well respected naval analyst sums up my perspective quite nicely:

"Back in the 1980s, I was involved in some of the studies that lead to the battleships being recommissioned. Even back then, their guns weren't an issue - there was serious discussion of reactivating the ships but leaving the guns mothballed to save money. They were missile-shooters pure and simple; a cheap way of getting a lot of Tomahawks to sea quickly.

Many people here probably remember from the old days that I was a strong advocate of keeping all four ships in commission and returning them to service when they were pulled. However, that ended when the recommissionable fleet dropped to two hulls and the manpower crunch hit in its full fury. Together, those two made it just not worthwhile. I had to let it go; we had more missile tubes than we needed and the battleships just didn't offer us enough to justify their pricetag.

I'm sorry to see the old girls go, I really am. The truth is though, they just don't have a place in the modern fleet, "