Greenberg has angrily labeled the plan the 'nautical version of antique restoration.' The reactivation plan has come under fire from those who contend it is sheer folly to recommission antiquated capital ships in an age when naval warfare demands smaller, faster craft with less onerous manning requirements. Lehman Jr., who is bent on creating a 600-ship fleet to challenge the Soviet Union's burgeoning naval might. naval muscle to sea in the mid-1980s,' according to Navy Secretary John F.

Taking old battleships out of mothballs and pressing them back into service is 'the quickest and most cost-effective way to get more.

Late last month the Senate Armed Services Committee approved reactivation of two of the battlewagons - the New Jersey and the Iowa. It is equally hard to picture crewmen scurrying through its labyrinthine interior, or a creamy wake fanning out behind it across the trackless wastes of ocean.īut the World War II battleship may once again put to sea if Congress approves a Navy plan to reactivate it, along with three sister ships, the USS New Jersey, USS Wisconsin, and the USS Missouri.

It is difficult to imagine the nine 16-inch guns belching black smoke and incandescent gas as they hurl a broadside at enemy shore targets. With its gun muzzles shrouded and its bridge windows masked with gray paint, the USS Iowa - for all its massiveness - looks like a lifeless wooden toy in the gentle May sunshine.

Missouri removal from world of warships