They did their job wonderfully. Supporting the fast carrier groups. Just because it had the same AAA as the Baltimores doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Both ships were on par or better, than the SD and NC Battleships. Only the Iowas were significantly better AAA platforms. Given the need for AAA, especially during the late…

Poor Sverdlov. There’s still one of them afloat though.

Yeah, the Great White Fleet was no doubt an impressive sight:

Unless I’ve messed up, those are the reactor sections of every scrapped US nuclear sub. They’re cut out at Bremerton, WA (and the sub is welded back together to be towed for scrapping), and shipped to Hanford, WA for long-term storage.

Just to avoid the dreaded cruiser gap, here’s America’s last remaining protected cruiser, USS Olympia:

I always get a warm feeling in my loins when I see a carrier lean like that

This is completely illogical. The only reason an international sanctions regime was able to stick to Iran in the first place was because the US was negotiating in good faith to limit the Iranian nuclear program. Once that was achieved, Iran only got back, at best, money it would have had anyway, and arguably, actually…

It’s not surprising they want military hardware since these warmongering Iranians have the nerve to surround themselves with several dozen peace loving American military bases while the neocon mental giants who brought you Iraq, Afghanistan and ISIS have not spared any effort lobbying for a new war with Iran as…

This. They are decades behind in all sectors of their economy, which was heavily reliant on high oil prices even before sanctions.

This was a completely foreseeable and foreseen outcome. A conventional arms race in the Persian Gulf is better than a nuclear one.

So, you’re saying an uncooperative, nuclear armed Iran is a better option than an Iran that’s willing to compromise with us and has some updated conventional weapons?

There are still 10 at the boneyard (two of those are pretty chopped up), so any major museum that doesn’t have one can probably get a US sourced one.

Russia wouldn’t sell them the S-400.

I have a friend who fled Iran during the fall of the Shah. He and his parents literally crossed the border to freedom with Iranian jihadists shooting at them.

Yeah, the alternative was them building nukes. What were we going to do? Sanction them again?

The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room.

Just more factories for Israel to bomb when they get tired of the Nuke deal.

Actually, I would consider them more trustworthy than the Gulf Arabs. And rapprochement with Iran is actually a good thing. They may be buying Russian military kit, but they have also ordered 100-odd Airbuses and are negotiating with Boeing for a similar number of brand new planes.

They had autoloaders for decades now.

Now that Iran is sitting on a pile of cash