The traditional wartime profile includes destroying an enemy's principal fighting asset, disputing or gaining control of the sea, and serving as a flagship. Heavy artillery often performed those missions, but guns alone do not define the ship. HMS Dreadnought's only confirmed submarine kill came by ramming, an extreme example of a battleship fulfilling a combat role with something other than its main battery. The proposed twenty-first-century ship should therefore be judged by the effects it can produce for a fleet rather than by whether its weapons resemble those of 1920.
Chapter · 30:50-34:22
A battleship mission is broader than its main battery
Destroying principal enemy assets, contesting sea control, and carrying fleet command matter more to the category than the particular weapon used.