Navy builds awesome ship we totally don't need.

[fstarcstar]

[Spider]

It doesn't. The only thing this ship is unique suited for is openly attacking a coastline.

(It'll look cool on a recruiting poster, though.)

[The Comrade]

[NAB]

I, for one, long for the return of the Battleship chucking volkswagens downrange for effect. Seriously, that's some awesome shit. Much cooler than some jdam you never see coming.

[Spider]

For an accompaniment to microwave popcorn, you should watch Battleship. At one point they actually powerslide the USS Missouri around about 75 degrees. I lol'ed, but damn it was fun to see those old 16 inch guns blazing away.

[Boris Johnson]

[Spider]

Well, the Iowa class ships were updated extensively, loaded out with modern missile systems and point defenses, so no, they don't have any more of a weakness in that sense than anything else. The difference is they are better able to absorb damage.

I'd actually be interested to see what effect those modern missiles that made it through the defenses would have on armor that thick. Below the waterline those things are a foot thick hardened steel, with additional bulkheads and compartments to absorb impacts. The rest of the ship is armored against crazy huge armor-piercing projectiles. A couple of critical areas on those things had 17 inch thick armor!

Modern warships are mostly armored only to a token degree. They don't need to be able to take hits like the old ones did.

As to torpedoes, a BB would require the same submarine support as any other warship, though it would at least have a chance. A Burke class ship would be one shotted in all liklihood if a torpedo were allowed to get through.

[Boris Johnson]

[Spider]

Well, warfare kinda sucks if your on the wrong end of it, no doubt. Point I'm making is that a WW2 era warship, being heavily armored, may have a distinct advantage over a modern ship when it comes to surviving a hit by a missile that is designed to sink the modern, unarmored ship.

[dontworrybehappy]

Not a chance. With advances in ship technology come advances in missile technology. I don't know too many old WW2 era ships that could take many of these and stay afloat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Harpoon

or this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-123_Skipper

or this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_(missile)

We do have some badass shit don't we?

Imagine being in a helo and launching that thing. What a rush!