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The United States Announces the Return of the Battleship [or is it a Cruiser]
Added 2025-12-23 20:25:28 +0000 UTCIn this episode, Sal Mercogliano — a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — discusses the announcement by the United States of a new large surface combatant, to be named USS Defiant, a battleship.
Comments
https://news.usni.org/2025/12/04/investigations-show-failures-behind-carrier-harry-s-truman-collision-loss-of-3-super-hornets
Sal Mercogliano
2025-12-24 17:16:35 +0000 UTCWhere do I go to see the report on Ticonderoga class Gettysburg mediterranean deployment?
Isaiah Laderman
2025-12-24 16:22:21 +0000 UTCI’m not a naval expert, my military experience is playing Risk as a kid in the 1970’s but if thousands of inexpensive aerial and ocean going submersible drones can easily vanquish large ships, isn’t building large ships today just building expensive targets for these inexpensive drones? I read near 80% of all wounded or unalived in the Ukraine and Russian war, that for both sides these casualties are now due to drone warfare.
Jim Carlson
2025-12-24 09:04:23 +0000 UTCI dont think Bath can handle a ship of this length.
Sal Mercogliano
2025-12-24 02:04:25 +0000 UTChttps://centerformaritimestrategy.org/publications/reviving-the-escort-carrier-for-the-drone-age/ Here's your drone carrier "Langley." I'd love to see you do a video on the concept.
Ed B.
2025-12-24 00:36:53 +0000 UTCAt 22:00, you comment that there are three shipyards capable of building ships that size. You missed at least one--BIW. The LLTF that replaced the end-launch ways at BIW was originally engineered to support LPD-17 constrction. "In 1998, HEGER was tasked with assisting GENERAL DYNAMICS – BATH IRON WORKS (BIW) located in Bath, Maine in developing a performance specification for a 28,000 ton floating dock with capability of transferring vessels to and from shore." "The design vessels, for transfer from shore and launch, were considered to be the DDG-51, LPD-17, and DDG-1000 class vessels." "The dock is designed such that it is moored adjacent to the Land Level Transfer Facility (LLTF), where vessels are constructed, by grounding the floating dock on series of an underwater support grids. The grids are designed to support the entire weight of the dock with vessels loaded upon it. With the dock moored in this fashion, transfer cars can be propelled to safely move the ship from land to the dock. The dock then lifts itself off the grid and translates laterally to a dredged submergence basin." Nominally, the floating drydock is 750' long, but it is not uncommon to have bow & stern overhang, assuming the shoring and loads can be engineered to support it. I'd submit NASSCO in San Diego has the physical plant to build ships of that size, too, but they lack combatant construction experience.
Douglas Rampersad
2025-12-23 21:31:45 +0000 UTCI can hear Drach and Dr. Clarke in my head once you used the term "Pocket Battleship". However, the proposed tonnage is somewhat in line with the Treaty Battleships. Twenty-five would nearly replace the original Ticonderoga class CG's on a one for one basis.
Steven Palmer
2025-12-23 21:21:30 +0000 UTC
