Old battleships caught by a hostile surface force would lack the reach of escort-carrier aviation, but they would present a much harder close-range problem. Carrier aircraft can strike far beyond naval-gun range, a decisive limitation that helps explain why battleships left service. Texas's weight of fire then provides a comparison with proposals for arsenal ships and for converting retiring Vanguard-class ballistic-missile submarines into SSGNs carrying Tomahawk missiles. Those concepts seek a critical mass of long-range precision weapons, but individual missiles remain costly and cannot equal sustained artillery volume shot for shot. Guns do not erase the range disadvantage; the comparison shows why planners must weigh reach, magazine depth, and mass in peer conflict.
Notable Point · 9:47-13:19
Range, magazine depth, and the limits of precision fire
A comparison with escort carriers, SSGNs, and arsenal ships separates the reach of precision weapons from the sustained mass that battleship guns could deliver.