… they don’t make them any more.
The story is told. There’s a big “The End” defining the saga. Which means that battleship designs at various times can be compared implicitly (usually) or explicitly to the final crop, usually termed “fast battleships,” that appeared around the time of World War 2.
Recent examples of still-evolving technologies are inherently difficult to evaluate. Evaluation becomes easier the farther back in time one goes. That’s because there can be later examples that provide richer evolutionary context than the case of current examples that have only antecedents.
In the case of military technology, many details regarding development and usage are held secret, often for decades. Now that World War 2 is more than 70 years in the rearview mirror, essentially everything regarding even final-generation battleships that got committed to paper is available. (The exception is the U.S. Iowa class that was restored to active service more than once, serving most recently as late as 1992. It’s possible that some information about them remains classified.)
What makes battleships interesting to me and others are the compromises made during initial design and in the planning of later modifications. Some of this had to do with technology (armor, propulsion systems, etc.), but there were other considerations including drydock capacities, arms limitations treaties (in the 1920s and 30s), the planned geographical usage (Far East service vs. North Sea & Mediterranean), battleship designs of potential enemies, seakeeping qualities, and perhaps above all, cost.
Equally interesting is how well those battleships functioned once they entered service. That is, how good a job did the planners and designers actually do.
As for me, I now have a stack of books dealing with all this.
