Iowa Class Battleship - Gunfire Support Role

Gunfire Support Role

Following the 1991 Gulf War and the subsequent Dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States Navy began to decommission and mothball many of the ships it had brought out of its reserve fleet in the drive to attain a 600-ship Navy. At the height of Navy Secretary John F. Lehman's 600-ship Navy plan, nearly 600 ships of all types were active within the Navy. This included fifteen aircraft carriers, four battleships and over 100 submarines, along with various other types of ships the overall plan specified. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 the Navy sought to return to its traditional, 313-ship composition. While reducing the fleet created under the 600-ship Navy program, the decision was made to deactivate the four recommissioned Iowa-class battleships and return them to the reserve fleet.

In 1995, the decommissioned battleships were removed from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) after it was determined by ranking US Navy officials that there was no place for a battleship in the modern navy. In response to the striking of the battleships from the Naval Vessel Register a movement began to reinstate the battleships, on the grounds that these vessels had superior firepower over the then-existing 5 in guns found on the Spruance-class destroyers, Kidd-class destroyers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and Ticonderoga-class cruisers. Citing concern over the lack of available gunfire to support amphibious operations, Congress demanded that the United States Navy reinstate two battleships to the naval vessel register and maintain them with the mothball fleet, until the Navy could certify it had gunfire support within the current fleet that would meet or exceed the battleship's capability.

The debate over battleships in the modern navy continued until 2006, when the two reinstated battleships were stricken after naval officials submitted a two-part plan that calls for the near-term goal of increasing the range of the guns currently in use on the Flight I Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with specially designed ammunition intended to allow a five-inch projectile fired from these guns to travel an estimated 40 nautical miles (70 km) inland. The long-term goal calls for the replacement of the two battleships with vessels of the as-yet-unconstructed Zumwalt class of guided-missile destroyers. These ships are to be outfitted with an advanced gun system (AGS) that will fire specially developed 6 in Long Range Land Attack Projectiles for shore bombardment; however, the long-term goal for the Zumwalt class is to have the ships mount railguns or free-electron lasers.