Why doesn't the U.S. Navy have large battle cruisers anymore?

Question

We use to have big battle cruiser in WW2 and the last ship that was used in the war in Gulf War was the USS. Minnesota.

Has the larg battle cruisers been replaced with heavy aircraft carriers?

Why don't we have them anymore?

Answer 1

Because those hugely expensive big lumbering battle cruisers and the even bigger battleships were nothing but very heavy gun platforms that haven't fought any sea battles since early in WWII. Today light weight missles that don't require a heavy platform have far more range, accuracy and punch than any gun. And missles from the other side, if they get through, can take the big boys out.

Answer 2

Actually, the Navy had only two battlecruisers: USS Alaska (CB 1) and USS Guam (CB 2). They were classified as "large cruisers", what other navies would call battlecruisers. Alaska and Guam were not kept in service long; they were decommisioned soon after the end of the Second World War and broken up in 1961.

Battleships were being phased out by the end of the Second World War and no battleships have been built since then. The Iowa class were the last built and ever brought back from mothballs several times. However, battleships are very expensive to maintain and all four Iowas were decommissioned in the 1990s.

Answer 3

In a word, air power. Naval battles are decided between fighter planes, missiles and bombers. The classic gun battles of World War I and II have given way to air attacks and missile barrages which can be launched from outside the range of naval guns.

Answer 4

Yes, air power has supplanted naval gunnery in battles on the open sea.

Of course, there haven't exactly been a lot of naval battle since WWII, so that 60-year-old paradigm may be due for a shake-up. You never know.

Answer 5

It was the USS Missouri (Iowa class), now a museum at Pearl Harbor.

The USS Minnesota was sold for scrap in 1924.

Answer 6

two things at lease, their guns had become very inaccurate compared to the missile, the other major one is the problem of how to hide the signature of a large boat on the water, very difficult to hide so basically the large ships are sitting ducks with today's technology

Answer 7

They have been replaced. We don't have them anymore because air force is so much more powerful. Aircraft carriers are never attacked because of their high tech defense system.

Answer 8

Mainly its because they don't need big cruisers any more. They use rocket launchers, like Aegis class ships...they'll take out a cruiser any day.

Answer 9

It's called, "Guided Missile Destroyer" and a much more advanced platform for modern weapons.

Answer 10

air power has made them outmoded

so your answer is correct - carriers have replaced battleships