Q&A ยท 4:22:36-4:24:57

Could Ise and Hyuga become useful anti-aircraft battleships?

A heavier anti-aircraft battery would leave the problem of finding useful work for two slow battleships.

Question

Would Ise and Hyuga have been more useful as heavily armed anti-aircraft battleships than as aviation battleships?

Short answer

Little advantage is identified; their low speed remains a problem, with an extreme beachhead-support role suggested as the only possible justification.

Notes

More anti-aircraft guns would still leave Ise and Hyuga as slow ships in a period when a slow AA asset was difficult to employ usefully. The proposed weapon count does not answer the question of what task they would perform. A deliberately beached ship providing anti-aircraft cover and bombardment for its own landing force is suggested as a narrow, extreme justification. A later clarification that the main and secondary guns remain as before does not change the rejection.