![]() In actual tactical use in the gulf war they did not seem to worry about danger too much. ![]() The idea was not necessarily to survive but to last long enough to provide warning and make a surprise attack impossible. ![]() The soviets viewed them as first strike gear, so that any aggression on their part would be preceded by an attack on the battleships. They were tactical in nature but they freaked the soviets out because they flew so low that they could bypass early warning radars that were designed to pick up ballistic missiles. ![]() The tomahawks were never part of the nuclear triad insofar as they were never worked into possible American strategic response plans. A soviet first strike could not occur with a battleship operating off the coast that was potentially armed with TLAM-Ns. In essence they were the surface versions of ssbns. In high threat areas they offered a more survivable alternative to sending in aircraft carriers as command and control ships for surface action groups. The first tomahawks to be placed aboard surface vessels were on the Iowas. Blesch's mouth when I talked to him for my thesis research. Under performing crews ? The Wisconsin performed so well during her trials in the Caribbean that the crew was given special leave.this much I know for certain as it came from Capt. In fact, had there been a credible threat to them they would not have been. Though they got off a few final rounds in Iraq, their impact was marginal and it would not have mattered if they weren't there at all. The Soviets went bankrupt and suffered social disruptions from which they could not recover, and the 600 ship fleet was disbanded. They were a class of ship the USSR could not directly compete with by building similar ships, and a way to divert Soviet efforts to develop weapons to defeat ships they would never meet in combat. Their captains constantly complained about underperforming officers and crew being assigned to them, and they contributed very little of real value to the fleet during their tenure. ![]() The Iowas were never intended to go into battle, and their maintenance budgets were stretched to the limit. President Regan's 600 Ship Fleet forced the USSR to attempt to keep up or cede their dominance of the high seas to the USA. The Iowas were reactivated for a strategic purpose: to engage the USSR in a naval arms race they could not win. ![]()
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