Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
battleships will always be infinitely more bada$$ than subs
If that was even remotely true they'd still be building them. Battleships were probably the most expensive and least effective weapons in military history. They never truly impacted the outcome of any war.
Then you need to read up on your battleship history. Battleships played a huge part in WWI, in the Jap/Russian war, WWII, even Korea and Vietnam.
Look at the vast amount of British naval resources just one battleship, the Bismarck, tied up.
Same with the German pocket battleship, the Graf Spee.
The Bismarck's sister ship, Tirpitz, impacted shipping until nearly the end of the war, just by existing.
Look up Convoy PQ 17. 25 out of 36 ships lost, simply because intelligence reported the Tirpitz was hunting them, so the convoy scattered and the U-boats slaughtered them.
Tirpitz never even left port.
The loss of the US battleline at Pearl Harbor forced the US to fight a carrier war. This would not have been the US Navy's first choice to battle the Japs if all the BB's were still intact.
Korea...only the USS Missouri was still in service at the start of the war. The US Navy quickly recommissioned the rest of the Iowa class when they saw how effective Missouri was.
Vietnam...USS New Jersey was quickly recommissioned and spent a bit of time off the coast of Vietnam. Whenever the VC heard the Jersey was nearby, they would evactuate the entire area in range of her guns.
They did no such thing when carriers were nearby.
In fact, they feared the New Jersey so much that one of the conditions for them to start negotiations was that she be removed from the area.
Prior to WWI, nations with battleships would often send them to "show the flag" off the coast of hotspots of conflict, etc. Often just the arrival of a few BB's was enough to calm everyone down and avoid war or stop uprisings.
The Battleship Arms Race leading up to WWI was one of the contributing factors to the start of the war.
Our troops could still use some battleship support today. There's basically nothing that can resist their fire, and only a couple of countries have any missiles that could severely damage a BB....and that's if the missile could even get through. And Battleships are still some of the fastest, and maybe even THE fastest ships in the fleet.
The Navy is wasting time building the next version of the modern day BB, which probably won't be ready for another 10-15 years, while they could have 4 kick-ass BB's in service right now.
What would North Korea have thought a year or so ago if Bush could have sent a couple of BB's to patrol offshore? Something like 70% of NK's military targets are in range of the 16 inchers.
Battleships intimidate. They inspire awe. They are beautiful.
When the USS Missouri was recommissioned in the 80's, over 10,000 people turned out.
On her shakedown cruise, and basically a world tour, people in foreign countries regularly jammed the shoreline just to get a glimpse of a real battleship.
Contrast this with our supercarriers visiting, with minimal attendance by foreign gawkers.
I can keep on all night about the effectiveness of battleships, but you get the idea.