Well - as far as I'm aware - the only country who still has a Battleship in the active fleet is Russia. I belive most of these "stealth" ships were designed as Frigates rather than being battleships (which are altogether a totally different class of vessel - as an IFV is different to an MBT)
But - Is there a point for battleships?
I guess the best place to answer that question is in the current arguments about the american DDX vessels and the suggested re-fitting of their retired Battleships.
DDX - huge amount of firepower, small ship, small crew, huge cost.
Battleship - huge amount of firepower, big ship, big crew (without wide ranging replacement of ship systems), comparativly low cost against DDX.
So - pretty head to head imo. The major plus to a battleship, as I see it, is the pure intimidation and propaganda factor of a battleship fireing all of its guns at coastal targets.
From a Soldiers perspective - as long as they can place lots of death and destruction on a target of my choosing, quickly and most importantly, accurately, I couldn't really care less where it comes from! Airpower is still unable to totally fill this role in most circumstances due to the limitations on loiter time aircraft obviously have - with a battleship, it's loiter time is almost indefinite, and as long as your within range, you can have a massive amount of fire support almost immediately.
*all my opinion obviously*
stealth evolution
Linear Mode
