Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Summary and Key Points: The USS Illinois (BB-65) was authorized as the fifth Iowa-class battleship, but unlike its predecessors, it utilized an all-welded construction...
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Summary and Key Points: The USS Illinois (BB-65) was authorized as the fifth Iowa-class battleship, but unlike its predecessors, it utilized an all-welded construction...
Summary and Key Points: The USS Kentucky (BB-66) occupies a unique place in naval history as the “ghost” of the Iowa class—a 57,000-ton fast...
Summary and Key Points: Wasn’t the battleship supposed to be obsolete? Debate over the proposed Trump-class battleships centers on whether they would be operationally...
Synopsis: The proposed Trump-class warship, informally dubbed USS Defiant, is framed as a 35,000-ton “battleship,” but the argument here is that it’s closer to...
Synopsis: The Alaska-class emerged from a pre–World War II scramble to counter rival “pocket battleships” and super-cruiser threats with a fast, hard-hitting “tweener.” -On...
Summary and Key Points: We compare the proposed Trump-class “USS Defiant” concept with the Iowa-class ships built for World War II. -The Trump-class is...
Synopsis: The Battleship Missouri (BB-63) entered service in 1944 as a fast Iowa-class battleship built for carrier-era warfare—high speed, heavy armor, and nine 16-inch...
Synopsis: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Musashi—sister ship to Yamato—was among the largest warships ever built, displacing about 73,000 tons and mounting 18.1-inch guns...
Summary and Key Points: The battleship-to-carrier comparison is emotionally satisfying but strategically wrong. Battleships became obsolete because their core mission—surface gunnery and line-of-sight combat—was...
Summary and Key Points: The proposed Trump-class battleship is intended to restore “mass” in naval firepower as the U.S. Navy faces a fleet-size gap...