United States battleship retirement debate
[1] The Navy decommissioned Missouri after determining that her fire support function could be replaced by ship and submarine-launched missiles and aircraft-launched precision guided munitions.
The U.S. Navy retained the four Iowa-class battleships long after other nations scrapped their big-gun fleets in favor of aircraft carriers and submarines.
[2] Congress was largely responsible for keeping the four Iowa-class battleships in the United States Navy reserve fleets and on the NVR as long as they did.
[7][8][9][10] The navy struck all four ships and had made plans to donate them, but Congress intervened with the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996.
The ship was to mount a pair of Advanced Gun Systems capable of firing specially designed Long Range Land Attack Projectiles some 60 miles (100 km) inland.
[17][18] The discontinuation of the class was due in part to concerns that the Zumwalt-class ships would deprive other projects of needed funding, a concern that was raised by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Congressional Research Service (CRS), and the Government Accountability Office, all of which issued reports that suggested that total cost of each ship would be as high as $5 billion or more.
DDG 1000 Zumwalt provides a broad range of capabilities that are vital both to supporting the Global War on Terror and to fighting and winning major combatant operations.
[citation needed] This move drew fire from sources familiar with the subject; among them were dissenting members of the United States Marine Corps.
The committee views the Navy's strategy for providing naval surface fire support as 'high risk,' and will continue to monitor progress accordingly."
In terms of schedule, the Navy's program management office estimated that reactivation would take 20 to 40 months, given the loss of corporate memory and the shipyard industrial base.
At a minimum, these modernization improvements included command and control, communications, computers, and intelligence equipment; environmental protection (including ozone-depleting substances); a plastic-waste processor; pulper/shredder and wastewater alterations; firefighting/fire safety and women-at-sea alterations; a modernized sensor suite (air and surface search radar); and new combat and self-defense systems.
[5][11] During the period of time in which the battleships were out of commission in the United States, several technological updates and breakthroughs enabled naval ships, submarines, and aircraft to compensate for the absence of big guns within the fleet.
[citation needed] During World War II, aircraft were used with devastating effect for both strategic bombing and for close support of ground troops, by all combatants.
[30] By the time of the Korean War, air power had been supplemented by the introduction of the jet engine, which allowed fighter and bomber aircraft to fly faster.
[citation needed] Starting after the invasion of Iraq, the air force began arming unmanned drone aircraft to perform strike missions.
Guided missiles could also fire much further than any naval gun, allowing for strikes deep into the heart of enemy territory without risking the lives of pilots or airplanes.
This led to a major shift in naval thinking, and as a result ships became more dependent on missile magazines than on their guns for offensive and defensive capabilities.
[citation needed] In the 1960s, following a requirement established by Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) for a new gun capable of firing semi-active laser guided projectiles (SAL GP), the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division worked on the Major Caliber Lightweight Gun (MCLWG) program, testing capability of destroyer-sized ships to provide shore bombardment support with the range previously available from decommissioned cruisers.
[citation needed] Ship-based gunfire was also used during Operation Praying Mantis in 1988 to neutralize Iranian gun emplacements on oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
The main problem the navy has had with implementing a railgun cannon system is that the guns wear out due to the immense heat produced by firing.
For the 2022 fiscal year, the U.S. Navy did not request any funding for the railgun program, citing cost overruns, problems with integration into the surface fleet, and other issues.
[42] Apart from railguns, 16 inch scramjet rounds with ranges of up to 400 nautical miles (740.8 kilometers) that have a 9-minute time of flight were proposed by Pratt and Whitney, working with Dr. Dennis Reilly, a plasma physicist with extensive experience with munitions, but the Navy had no interested sponsor.
James T. Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps has said that missiles fired from the littoral combat ship could fulfill the USMC needs for NGFS.
[46] The Loitering Attack Missile could have matched the required range, but it was cancelled in 2011[47] and the LCS would still have fallen short in terms of rounds ready to fire.
