We Spent a Billion Dollars Fighting the Houthis…and Lost - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
Why does it seem the Pentagon is far better at spending money than actually putting together a successful operation? The failed “Operation Prosperity Guardian” and the disastrous floating Gaza pier are but two recent examples of enormously expensive initia...
That's what the Iowa class battleships were before they were mothballed. Had the big guns and Tomahawks
As much as I love the Iowa class, there's a whole lot of design space between an old school battle ship and a design for an modern in shore fighting frigate(?).
The point is that they knew it could work, they just didn't do it because gotta spend da money.
Plus, maintenance costs are going to be vastly higher for a battleship than a frigate or a cruiser, almost regardless of what kind of weaponry it's fielding.
A classic battleship have huge amounts of armor. Modern navel engagements don't require a ship to be able to shrug off 20mm cannon fire, they require surviving a Harpoon missile.