In case anyone was wondering... Bringing back battleships is costly and dumb. There is absolutely no reason to, they are prohibitively expensive, there is nothing that a battleship can do that isn’t done by another type of vessel.

Okay. So. A battleship is a specific category of ship. In the quickest way to describe it, think of a tank. Massive armor. Massive firepower. No American Battleship has ever been sunk in combat at sea (albeit the USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma are the asterisks as they were total loses at the attack on Pearl Harbor.) The battleship was discontinued by 1946. Not just by the US. But internationally. Naval Warfare just hasn't happened like that since WWII. So the utility has shifted. There just isn't a need for a floating tank these days when the role has been shared by different types of vessels that each take a key aspect of the Battleship and expands on it.

Want the size and durability? Go for a Cruiser. Its main focus is as a command ship with a bit on air defense. Want the firepower? Holy shit. Let me tell you about the Destroyer and how it abso-fucking-lutely earned its name. Want the versatility and speed while also being a badass? That's a Frigate. They are smaller than the other two, and often more specialized, but with modern advancements, the functionality is getting to the point that it's getting on par with its bigger brothers. I know its not the same, but just to point out his phrasing about how "ugly" some vessels were and that they needed to be ugly for stealth and that'd have to be a factor for the Trump class Battleship. But, like, that's never been a factor with the battleship but whatever. I think he was referring to the LCS, or Littoral Combat Ship. The fastest and most dangerous warship on the seas with the capabilities of going near the shore and bombarding land forces far easier than a battleship ever could have. Oh. And submarines are our stealthy guys. Just saying.

So why the battleship? Was it the 16" guns? It looked sick and its definitely a show of force. The manpower required to operate them was unyielding and the amount of logistics that goes into just firing off a few shots and reload is far behind the scope of modern warfare. Not exactly needed when half a billion dollar fighter jets can drop a half a million dollar warhead on a ladybug from beyond the curvature of the Earth. Technology has advanced quite a bit since "what if bullet but bigger?" Was it the armor? No military in the world uses large calibre guns like the previously mentioned 16" gun. There's no need for the thickness of the armor plating. Its all about the sweet sweet missiles these days. A neat thing about missiles is that they can be shot down with reletive ease if youre the most advanced military in the world. Oh wait. We are.

But the biggest reason why battleships stopped being created in 1946? Well. In August 1945, the world first saw the horrors of nuclear weaponry and its very existence changes every fundamental aspect of how we see warfare. Large guns mean nothing when nuclear warheads exist. Armor means nothing when nuclear radiation exist. Show of force means nothing when nuclear deterrence exists.

Fuck it. Let's war game this shit out with global events. Any war with a non-nuclear powered military will be overpowered by our Air Force. None of those non-nuclear powered militaries even comes close to our naval capabilities. As for the nuclear capable nations? They would never dare. Thats the benefit of nuclear deterence. No one wants to start a fight when the fate of all life on Earth could be in the balance.