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they should have never retired the old Big Gun ships. even if they are outdated there is nothing more demoralizing that a damn 16in shell crashing down and blowing the hell outta everything around. They need to keep them for that simple fact. Lob shells 100+ miles in land and the enemy is gonna run, especially the cowards we are fighting today.
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Ah, but there's the rub. Those 16-inch guns have a range of only ("only" he says-sheesh!) about 20 miles or so. Not 100 miles.
And that's the rub. When you get right down to it, the battleship is just a
weapons platform, albeit a mighty frakin' impressive one. Today's guided missle cruisers can launch missles further than those 16-inch guns can reach and with better precision. Carrier-based aircraft can deliver hammer blows several hundred miles away. And if you really want to shove things around, the boomers can launch a missle from underwater over 500nm away. The Battleships' day has come and gone.
Still... the
psychological effect of a dreadnought sitting off your coast and lighting up the sky as it lobs a Chevrolet-sized explosive at you is demoralizing. Especially when you hear the booms about 9 seconds before the shells arrive due to their trajectory.