Over the last 20 years or so I have followed a number of discussions (and read at least one historical paper) on various boards about reactivating the CA's. My $.02 worth, reactivating the Iowas probably made more sense at the time than re activating the CA's.Des Moines and Salem were decommissioned around 1960 but are still sitting around in the reserve fleet until 1991. An Iowa-style modernization might bring the crew down to about 1,200, and a Des Moines's reliable 8-inch automatics can sling two-thirds as much HC per minute as an Iowa. Newport News lasted until 1975, so she might be a source of parts depending on how much she took off the other two to stay in the gunline off Vietnam.
If someone can scrounge up a lot of money, eight remaining turrets on the three cruisers is enough for four big strike cruisers with SHORAD, anti-ship missiles, land attack capability, and fleet flag spaces. A ship with 8-inch RF guns would also be better in a surface engagement against modern (read: unarmored) warships than an Iowa.
New build ships using the old 8" turrets sounds interesting and IMHO probably would have been a good option if the money was available.
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