current battleships
 

does anyone use battleships any more because all that i hear about are destroyers?

The last Battleships were decomissioned in 2006 (The Iowa-class Battleships USS Iowa and USS Wisconsin), Even then, they were kept as shore-bombardement platforms not as ships designed to fight other ships, the era of the Battleship ended after WWII

The largest surface ships today are the Kirov-class Battlecruisers I believe...

oh ok

Have a look here:

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/gun_ship.htm

Too bad that the Kirov-class Battlecruisers will go out of service soon, it is so nice with big ships.:cry:

Battleships aren't really needed anymore. The current premier weapon is tubed VLS rounds, and that can fit on a ship of any size. Though bigger certainly gives you more rounds.

PD

Actually the Kirov "Battlecruiser" is a misnomer.
I suppose it is a leftover from Reagan era "evil empire" rhetoric. If the soviet union had "Battlecruisers", the US Navy had to recomission its battleships.
The russians always called them "large missile cruisers".
They are twice as large as the largest US missile cruisers, though the last heavy gun cruisers like USS Salem are similar in size. They're just huge nuclear powered guided missile cruisers and incidentially the first really large ships to feature VLS launchers.
And they won't be out of service anytime soon. Petr Velikij is in service and Admiral Nachimov returned to service in 2005. So 2 of 4 are in service.

Correct!

They were given the term battle cruiser because they were larger that the standard cruiser of the day, and it was an easy way for the U.S. Navy to get funding to get them going again.

I remember seeing one of the Iowa's (The Mighty Mo I think?:hmm:) when see visted Australia in 1988. An impressive ship!

If you want a floating gas guzzler with a sign that says 'SINK ME' hung from its conning tower.

The Pyotr Velikiy was only commishinied about 8 years ago...

A nice looking ship though :yep:

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8499/92723914ln0.jpg

I think they're beautiful ships.
I mean, aesthetics really shouldn't come into warship design, but sometimes it works :)

they do have very clean lines, I'll give them that.

Yeah, I agree. It's just a pity they're such a flop.