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RE: Will the US reactivate the Iowa-Class Battleship? We have done it, why not again?
As much as I would love to see these big dogs back in the fight. Current naval strategy is that combat is now an, over the horizon affair. Something the Iowa class was marginal at. We just don't need the big guns anymore. WW2 showed that airpower is supreme with the sinking of the Bismark and Yamato
I love the Mighty MO and it is a source of pride for my state. But Logistically they are outdated slow and undergunned. unfortunately the days of the superdreadnought and the Battleship are behind us much like the age of sail. :(
She was capable of 33kn due to her designed requirement to keep up with the Essex Class Carriers. I think it's important to point to the 1980's modernization that removed a great deal of her secondary armament to make way for Harpoon and Tomahawk still the United States Navy primary land-strike and anti-warship missiles today. We don't need her big guns anymore but her thick armor is something modern missiles are simply not designed for. Foreign navies are hoping for thinly skinned ships.
We do struggle with any steam-driven ships, over navy has nearly phased out the technology opting for safer and more economical drive systems such as Gas Turbines and Diesel Engines.
The ships are old, I had hoped someone would suggest to keep one in the service as a goodwill vessel rather than fighting ship. The Constitution is simply not able to do another "world" cruise as she did in the early 1900's. It would be nice for a big-gun ship to show off the Navy.
Now what would be cool would be to replace the 16 inch guns with missle tubes. That would bring them up into the 21st centruy. Unless railguns become workable.
I don't think they would use the platforms without the Big Guns.
A proposed design for the Iowa class before modernization was a VSTOL platform. A fairly current white paper discusses the idea in a modern sense with F-35's.
http://www.combatreform.org/battleships.htm
A more modest design retaining the rear 16inch turret:
