What You Need to Know: In the 1980s, the U.S. considered converting four Iowa-class battleships into "battlecarriers," blending battleship firepower with aircraft carrier capabilities. The plan included adding a V-shaped flight deck and hangars to support up to twelve STOVL Harrier jets.

-These WWII-era ships, renowned for their 16-inch guns and service in conflicts from WWII to the Gulf War, were also updated in 1982 with Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles.

-However, the plan to make them “battlecarriers” was abandoned as Cold War tensions eased, and all four Iowa-class battleships were eventually retired and repurposed as museum ships.

When the arms race between the U.S. and USSR during the Cold War was peaking, American engineers considered reactivating four World War II-era battleships to serve a new mission.

In the late 1970s, the Reagan Administration pushed to convert four Iowa-class battleships into “battlecarriers”- one-ship power projection force fitted with landing decks for short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft........

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