In the 1980s, the US Navy decided to modernize the Iowa Class battleship after they were put back into service. This is the time when many ideas llike supercarriers were floated, as the next upgrades for the large battlehips but was not push through.
Iowa's class warships were built in the Second World War, they were Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin as the biggest ships in the US Navy. Each one was almost 900-feet long with a 60,000-ton displacement, with 9-inch guns firing heavy projectiles to any target.
Those that saw service had been upgraded with a cruise missile, ship killers, and Phalanx point-defense batteries. The timing was perfect and the Iowa class saw action in Lebanon and Iraq, doing what they did in WWII. But the Cold War ended and the old warriors had to retire as museums in their old glory.
Before they were returned to the frontlines in the 80s, getting them into service is the first step only. No one knew how many ideas were floated whether to keep them as battleships or make the hybrid carrier battleships, reported the Nationalist Interest.
Supercarriers
The USN had toyed with the concept of the battle carrier to make the Iowas into battleship and carrier hybrids as the most capable, powerful vessels in America's arsenal.
This suggests that conversions will load countless marines and launch Harrier jump jets by the dozens, and using atomic missiles as well. Since it was not realistic, it had to be scrapped, cite TakTikz. This was one of the ideas to modernize Iowa Class battleships.
Amphibious Battlewagon
Way back in the 1960s, they had an idea to use the Iowas as troop-carrying ships, and remove the heavy armament. Instead, there's a hanger for 30 helicopters and a flight deck for them to operate from.
It included landing craft and tanks with vehicles to bring marines to shore, with a total of 1,800 marines onboard. A year later, this concept would become the WASP class LHD, the carried marines, and equipment for a marine expeditionary unit (MEUs) that realized amphibious operations.
Height of naval might the Battle Carrier
America was busy spending to fight the Vietnam war which canceled plans for battleship redesign. The USS New Jersey was sent to Asia to fight in that conflict by the US military for a short time.
President Ronald Reagan wanted new ships to be built. All four Iowas were part of the ambitious plan in the 80s. The first part of the modernization and subsequent upgrades were adding land-attack Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon ship killers, and Phalanx CIWS. This was achieved in 1985, and the four battleships were on duty again.
Hybridizing battleships and carriers would increase its range and a lot as planned. For example, exchanging jump jets for the large turret is a good trade-off. This includes cruise-missile capability for long-distance strikes would have given an Iowa class and equal footing with Nimitz supercarrier.
The Future
Now, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer is supposed to be a grandchild of these plans for the Iowa class. It will be giving better firing cover for storming marines, though smaller and more stealth-oriented, not what a large bruiser the Iowa battleship is. Zumwalt is their modern successor customed for the future conflict.
The question of how to modernize Iowa Class battleships has ended as the Zumwalt and later developments would be more suited. Finally, the Iowa giant battlewagon sleeps as a new generation of vessels takes the stage, noted CDR salamander.
