"Shane D. Maudiss" wrote in message
m...
What do I need for a modern battleship ?

What do you need your "battleship" to do?

For anti-ship and anti-submarine considerations, torpedoes and depth charges
can be fashioned, with alittle know-how, and mounted to a fairly light hull.

For anti-aircraft work, you'll need effective machinegun/autocannon
emplacements, or missile batteries. Also possible to mount to a hull that's
not too heavy.

Sonar and Radar are commercially available, but target tracking isn't
something the local boat store is going to consider a consumer product. You
could arm a good sized cargo vessel with rotating torpedo launchers on
tripod carriage, with atleast one gun for anti-air purposes, but the cost
might be pretty high, and such armaments would definately get you boarded or
SUNK just about anywhere I can think of.

You'll need "sovereign waters" first and foremost, a place to berth this
hot-rod attack cruiser. What makes a battleship truly effective is it's
resupply. All the impressive firepower in existence isn't going to do a
lick of good if you can't sustain it for the duration. A resupply base is
essential, a port to pull in for refit/repairs, and you begin to see why one
can't just go plating up a shrimp boat.