Supply ships to Georgia....

[Hornet33]

Yeah but even though I was sad to see the old battle wagons go for the last time (maybe since 2 of them are still on the inactive reserve list) there really wasn't a need for those 16 inch guns anymore. Yeah they could put a butt whooping on anything within 24-28 miles but when you can fire 1 cruise missile that will go hundreds of miles and hit the first time, those big guns were just overkill at that point. Not to mention the cost of keeping a 50 year old ship of that size in operation and manned. You can man 3 AEGIS cruisers with the crew of 1 Iowa class BB.

Still I drive past the USS Wisconsin all the time in downtown Norfolk and it is still an impressive site.

[Mr No Name]

The BBs could, however sit somewhere for days lobbing volkswagens at the bad guys and had tomahawk cruise missiles as well...  I'll never forget the ONE time I got to see a BB broadside fired in 87 or 88... stunning!  Never say never, the New Jersey was written off after WW2, Korea, Vietnam... yet came back to pummel syrian bananas... Fact is, although they are costly, they certainly have the space to be upgraded with countermeasures and new armament and are the most survivable of all ships.  I still kinda like the idea they had about removing the aft 16" mounts, installing ramps and deploying harriers on those things... yeah - i know - harriers suck now but the F-35 would have slipped in nicely... this is a crude idea what it was supposed to look like:

[Hornet33]

They never would have done it though. Adding the ski jumps off either beam would have really screwed those ships up, not to mention they would no longer be able to pass through the Panama canal. They only had a few feet to spare when they were designed in the first place for the canal, and that was a requirement for the ship.

Really the ONLY way to make the ship viable in this day and age would be to replace the boilers with reactors and make it a nuke, gut every wire and cable on the thing and start from scratch with all brand new electronics and weapons systems.

Considering what that would cost, better to leave them mothballed.

[boxboy28]

I know the russians didnt like Ike the first time the met him i wonder what they thought the 2nd time around?