Well, we're going to war, so POST AWESOME MILITARY PICS

[Verto]

Originally posted by Plan Austral
I mean, America owes a lot of its international postition to wars.

So do most other countries.

C'mon, more pics!

[Dis]

Battleships are obsolete.

We don't currently have any in service for a reason.

[Zylka]

I hadn't a clue they were officially out of service. Thought even a few might be put away for shelling use of beach-heads in campaigns with less threatening opposition

[Dis]

I think we should keep them in service because they look cool

but they take like 1700 people to operate. Very expensive to operarte. They put some missle tubes on them to make them more effective. Actually that was their primary weapon in the Gulf War.

[Zylka]

The fact that pretty much any backyard nation could sink one with a small shore based missle is a serious issue probably.... 1700 people are a lot to risk to one shot, for the minimal advantages gained

[Dis]

they don't go down that easy!

[Zylka]

mmmk

I just vaguely remember stories of a British cruiser/destroyer being sunk off of Argentina by a single exeter missle

Granted battleships have much heavier hulls... but the risk seems plausible

[Alexander's Horse]

Gassed British soldiers, World War 1. Cool makeshift bandages over their blind eyes.

[Spiffor]

This bomb could look much cooler if only it was paint in a fancy colour
(current warfare, this is Grozny, again)

[Eli]

Poor MiG goes down...

[Dis]

wow! how did someone get that good of a picture? did the pilot eject? Actually I think I see his helmet. I think that has a second person too. I don't want to think where his helmet is...

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Zylka
mmmk

I just vaguely remember stories of a British cruiser/destroyer being sunk off of Argentina by a single exeter missle

Granted battleships have much heavier hulls... but the risk seems plausible

The missile you're thinking of is the French-made Exocet, which was used to sink / damage several British frigates or destroyers. In those cases, shipboard fires, plus large holes near the waterline did a lot of damage, but the Exocet couldn't even penetrate battleship armor (above the waterline, you're talking around 18" vs. about 2"

The largest ship lost (and the major loss of life in the Falklands) was the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano, which was a WW-2 vintage US cruiser sold to Argentina after WW2. It had no ASW capability, no escort, and was operating where British subs were known to be operation. Sheer stupidity, and three torpedo hits in rapid succession made for a very fast sinking, and some 500 men lost.

The four battleships (four Iowa class) recommisioned by Reagan for the cold war were pretty quickly decommissioned - not only did you have the direct cost of operating them, but they needed to have battle groups built around them to give them fleet air defense and anti-submarine protection. Their shore bombardment range is too limited, and it was too much cost (and too little effiency) to refit the gun turrets with Tomahawk launchers.

The final fatal problem happened with the turret #2 explosion on the USS Iowa - the 16 inch main guns haven't been made for decades, nor does anyone make their ordnance, so once it was found the ordance had problems, the ships were just SOL.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Dissident
couldn't resist. See, we have been on the recieving end of war.

Still sends chills down my spine...

[Asher]

Originally posted by SlowwHand

Alcatraz is a prison off San Francisco, Diss.
You never heard of Alcatraz ? As in Birdman of... ?

Alcatraz is awesome...I've toured it about four times now, still fascinated with it.

[Dis]

I also seen that in the movie: So i married an Axe murderer

You can call me Vicki

In any case I was on an LPH. I posted a picture earlier. These ships are their replacement. Much bigger and has the capability of deploying boats.



LSD's were also part of the battle group