This video, from the Military Channel, details the reasons why the Iowa Class Battleships are the top fighting ships in the world. They consider factors such as fear factor, firepower, innovation, length of service, and overall combat effectiveness.
The four Iowa-class battleships — USS Iowa (BB-61), New Jersey (BB-62), Missouri (BB-63), and Wisconsin (BB-64) — were the last and fastest battleships the United States ever built. Each displaced about 45,000 tons, ran nearly 890 feet long, and could make 33 knots on 212,000 shaft horsepower. Their main battery of nine 16-inch/50-caliber guns in three turrets could throw a 2,700-pound armor-piercing shell over 23 miles. Commissioned during World War II, they went on to serve in Korea, Vietnam, and — after a 1980s modernization that added Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Phalanx CIWS — the Gulf War, an operational span of roughly half a century unmatched by any other battleship class.