It's about damned time

[just Warren]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

You have acquired a powerful ally! 

[just Warren]

Eh, for the money you'd spend getting 16" guns going again, you could probably finalize the Navy's railgun program and put those on instead, to be powered by said nuclear plants.

http://www.cnet.com/news/futuristic-navy-railgun-with-220-mile-range-closer-to-reality/

Only a 5 incher. Still a lot to be happy about though.

Less room needed for powder so more room for shells plus a high rate of fire at a vast range? Yes.

[just Warren]

I don't think you need to up-armor them, so much as reactive and stand-off armor them (in addition to a metric buttload of ADA capability).

Lose the oil fired boilers and drop in a pair of nuke plants (one forward, one aft).  Put a bunch of those azipods on it to drive it.   Nothing like watching at BB do a pivot steer in the water.  

Four Turrets of triple 16" (or 18") guns (I bet you can find the plans and dust them off, still several steel mills in the US, if not, "Hello Krupp!!").  And use the 8 round per minute auto-loading system the Bundeswehr uses in t PZH 2000 (It fire a 5  round TOT barrage with one tube!!! )  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7XFwT4REHg

Throw in a Metric Revload of all kinds of "Fark you and everyone in the same grid as you" missiles,  a good ADA suite of missiles and CIWS, plus a super duper Aegis system to control it all.  A few drones just to round out the "F YOU!!!" suite of weapons and call it good.

You'd only need a crew of a few hundred, maybe a thousand, tops.  

Carriers still do the "Force Projection" mission, but Marines and (new) BB(G)'s do the "We own this here piece of ocean front real estate now" thing.

If you're building a huge ship that needs relatively few sailors would it make sense to have analog and mechanical back-ups for as much of the electronics as possible? The room would be there and if you catch an EMP that gets through you can switch to mechanicals while you repair the other system.

[41magsnub]

http://www.cnet.com/news/futuristic-navy-railgun-with-220-mile-range-closer-to-reality/

Only a 5 incher. Still a lot to be happy about though.

Less room needed for powder so more room for shells plus a high rate of fire at a vast range? Yes.

Once something is going railgun speed, I think the actual mass of the projectile is a little less important.

[Firethorn]

If you're building a huge ship that needs relatively few sailors would it make sense to have analog and mechanical back-ups for as much of the electronics as possible? The room would be there and if you catch an EMP that gets through you can switch to mechanicals while you repair the other system.

No, the answer here is to EMP shield all the electronics because you wouldn't have the crew or knowledge available to run off the analog and mechanical backups. 

EMP shielding isn't magical, and being in a ship has already done something like 90% of the work for you. 

[just Warren]

Once something is going railgun speed, I think the actual mass of the projectile is a little less important.

And if it can fire fast to enough to make it's own barrage...

That means a lot more room for shells. And maybe a lot more guns. Just bristling with guns.

There wouldn't be anything in 220 miles that would dare cross you. Of course that brings it's own problems as politicians tend to push up against and sometimes outright blow past the capability of the armed forces in pursuit of short-sighted political gains and so things get over extended and vulnerable.

With all that extra range at our fingertips why not meddle in Country X even more?

[Scout26]

I have to post this, simply because the Bundeswehr's Artillerieschule is in Idar-Oberstein which is on the north side of the Baumholder MTA.  So a lot of the scenes in this clip are from my old stomping grounds (and the Canteen at the Artillerieschule once a month did an outstanding Speissbraten cook out.    )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxvS7lEaZ3M