WWII made clear that battleships were obsolete. They only provided distant bombardment platforms( often ineffective ) to landing zones... and they were a big fat target for air power.
Russia / Ukraine war has shown that almost ALL surface vessels are now obsolete... Ukraine, a nation with no ships, has effectively bottled up the Russian Navy in the Sea of Azov... not only that but have done so with much much cheaper smart surface and underwater drones ( effectively smart very long range torpedoes ). as well as unmanned missiles.
If you are building some sort of large surface vessel today, you will spend way more money than the ship costs trying to protect it from cheap attacks... much like main battle tanks now need something to protect them from $1500 usd smart drones. so far nothing is working all that well.
And that is before either side in that war starts unleashing AI drones. Right now the drone defense is centered around breaking the linkage between the drones and the drone operators. Signal jamming, cutting the long attached tether cables, etc. But with the advent of AI drones able to select targets and operate on their own...
The people in the DOD better rethink war tactics and equipment equipment requirements. BTW, those shiny new multi-hundred million dollar war planes... a AI drone fighter jet can do soooo much more with no people at risk. High Gee maneuvers... no problem. so much for Top Gun pilots.
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