Iowa class refit

[TsrJoe]

http://towerofjade.com/bi/iowarefit.html

[Jschmus]

That's an ambitious intellectual exercise.

[pyro-manic]

Good grief. The word insane comes to mind. I'm not going to go through the whole thing to pick holes, but there are some big problems in there. It's pretty detailed, and would certainly make an interesting model. Personally, I wouldn't bother starting with Iowa at all. Easier to start from scratch using a CVN hull as a base.

[Joe C-P]

Sigh.

As the biggest fan of USS New Jersey here, I thought it would have been cool to see her with SAMs, a VLS aft, more aircraft capacity, and sure, nuclear engines. But their basic technology is 7 decades old, and these plans always have two other flaws - too many eggs in one basket, and too many crew in one ship.
More ships spread the risk around, and divide the enemy's attention.
I could go on, but I won't bore you with the many technical reasons the Iowas are best left retired.

More interesting would have been what to do with USS Kentucky and USS Illinois, the partially-completed sister ships. Kentucky was farther along than Illinois. I've done the Kentucky as a BBG with a Talos after, Tartars and 5" singles amidships, and the two main turrets forward. It's almost done, only needing rigging and fixing to its base.

[Cliffy B]

More interesting would have been what to do with USS Kentucky and USS Illinois, the partially-completed sister ships. Kentucky was farther along than Illinois. I've done the Kentucky as a BBG with a Talos after, Tartars and 5" singles amidships, and the two main turrets forward. It's almost done, only needing rigging and fixing to its base.

Is there a thread somewhere with this beast?  I must see photos!!!! 

[dragon]

Now if there was money for this, they could only play with IOWA and WISCONSIN.  NEW JERSEY is a floating museum in Camden NJ, on the other side of the river from Philadelphia PA (can be seen from the USS OLYMPIA in Philadelphia).  MISSOURI is also a floating museum in Pearl Harbour HI.  IOWA is in the best place on Earth for testing the concepts on the computers and cyber-stuff side (part of the "Ghost fleet" near Martinez CA, not too far from Silicon Valley).

Sounds like the naval version of Dale Brown's "Flight of the Old Dog".

[anthonyp]

Now if there was money for this, they could only play with IOWA and WISCONSIN.  NEW JERSEY is a floating museum in Camden NJ, on the other side of the river from Philadelphia PA (can be seen from the USS OLYMPIA in Philadelphia).  MISSOURI is also a floating museum in Pearl Harbour HI.  IOWA is in the best place on Earth for testing the concepts on the computers and cyber-stuff side (part of the "Ghost fleet" near Martinez CA, not too far from Silicon Valley).

Sounds like the naval version of Dale Brown's "Flight of the Old Dog".

Wisconsin was struck a few years ago and is a museum in Norfolk now.

Iowa is still in Suisan Bay, but like Joe's said, her tech is over 70 years old now.  Doing anything more with her than turning into a museum is useless (manpower and cost wise).

I agree with Pyro, though, start off with a Nimitz class hull as a base and go from there.  I've got one under construction, and I know CanisD did one or two up in artwork form a few years back.

[royabulgaf]

The whole problem with the "let's put all this stuff on the Iowa" concept is its value consists of three things:

1.  16" guns.
2.  Thick armor.
3.  It's paid for!

Any other use starts costing money, a lot of money, and as others have said, working with 70 year old technology and equipment. 

[Joe C-P]

More interesting would have been what to do with USS Kentucky and USS Illinois, the partially-completed sister ships. Kentucky was farther along than Illinois. I've done the Kentucky as a BBG with a Talos after, Tartars and 5" singles amidships, and the two main turrets forward. It's almost done, only needing rigging and fixing to its base.

Is there a thread somewhere with this beast?  I must see photos!!!! 

No photos yet. Only a couple neighborhood kids have seen it. If I can find a rigging diagramme I can finish it.

[Joe C-P]

Per at least one request, I've posted a couple shots of the nearly finished USS Kentucky, BBG-66, in the Current Projects section.