Hi shipmates,
Here is a video of the demise of Britain's largest and last battleship, HMS Vanguard. The footage show's her as she is about to be scrapped. It's all very sad! I think the government and MOD were very short sighted, and unfortunately it's a lamentable quality that still afflicts them even today.
Even today, our current government cuts the defence budget and slashes military assets to such a degree that we barely have enough material to defend our interests, even though threats are beginning to multiply all over the world.
There is an old saying: 'If you fail to learn the lessons of history, you are doomed to repeat them. It would seem that our current class of historical illiterates are doomed to repeat them.
Ship historians and military planners state that there is no place in modern warfare for a battleship? I disagree, with a destroyer screen providing air defence and with the battleship modernised, they can still be a very potent force.
A battleship with 16 inch guns can still fire a shell over twenty miles, and any modern warship on the receiving end of one of these would be virtually vaporized.
The shells themselves could be modernized for instance to incorporate GPS guidance technology. This is already a proven technology in artillery shells, making them super accurate.
With the boilers taken away and a nuclear reactor installed the ship has an unlimited range, also creating deck space to incorporate Tomahawk Cruise Missiles and other missile assets etc..
So there is plenty that can still be done with battleships!
Anyway here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cpbOlvXH5Y