page_title: United States battleship retirement debate
section_title: Missiles
hierarchical_section_title: United States battleship retirement debate / Alternatives to battleship gunfire / Missiles
caption_attribution_description: English: At sea aboard USS Hue City (CG 66) Dec. 2003 &#8211; Left to right, the guided missile cruiser USS Vicksburg (CG 69), and the guided missile destroyers USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), USS Carney (DDG 64) and USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) launch a coordinated volley of missiles during a Vandel Exercise (VANDALEX). The exercise is designed to intercept hostile missiles with the ship&#8217;s missiles. Remote-controlled drones are used to simulate the hostile missiles. U.S. Navy photo. (RELEASED)
context_page_description: The United States battleship retirement debate was a debate among the United States Navy, Marine Corps, Congress, and independent groups over the effectiveness of naval gunfire support provided by Iowa-class battleships, and whether or not an alternative should be implemented. The debate centered on the best way to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops near a shoreline.
  The debate at large traced its roots back to the end of World War II, but this round of the debate began in 1992 with the decommissioning of the last active battleship, USS Missouri, and ended when the last of these ships was finally completely retired in 2011.
  The Navy decommissioned Missouri after determining that her fire support function could be replaced by ship and submarine-launched missiles and aircraft-launched precision guided munitions. Many still viewed the battleships as essential for gunfire support, and questioned the Navy's decision. Congress required the Navy to retain at least two of the four remaining battleships on the Naval Vessel Registry instead of disposing of them.
context_section_description: The rise of precision strike munitions in the 1970s and 1980s reduced the need for a massive naval bombardment against an enemy force, as missiles could now be used against such targets to support ground forces and to destroy targets in advance of the arrival of troops. Guided missiles could also fire much further than any naval gun, allowing for strikes deep into the heart of enemy territory without risking the lives of pilots or airplanes. This led to a major shift in naval thinking, and as a result ships became more dependent on missile magazines than on their guns for offensive and defensive capabilities. This was demonstrated in the 1980s, when all four recommissioned battleships were outfitted with missile magazines, and again in the 1991 Gulf War, when both Missouri and Wisconsin launched missile volleys against targets in Iraq before using their guns against Iraqi targets on the coast. The same conflict saw the first use of submarine-launched cruise missiles when the Los Angeles-class attack submarine Louisville fired Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles into Iraq from the Red Sea.
  Between 2002 and 2008, four of the Ohio-class submarines were converted to SSGNs carrying cruise missiles instead of SSBNs carrying ballistic missiles.  Each SSGN carries 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.
caption: Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers use their Vertical Launch Systems to fire Standard missiles[disambiguation needed] during a live fire exercise.
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