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00:00Субтитры делал DimaTorzok
00:30He talked about various things. Suddenly, the word, battleships, was mentioned.
00:40Uh, I understand that many of the admirals who were in the room at that moment, quietly dozing during Trump's speech, suddenly woke up and didn't understand what he was talking about.
00:51He was indeed referring to those same battleships from World War II.
00:54I'll even quote him, saying that we were actually considering the concept of a battleship made of durable steel, not aluminum, which melts as soon as it sees a missile flying at it.
01:06Uh, they don't make ships like that anymore. I see they were escorting the SMMs, and nothing could stop them.
01:13Some will say, no, that's old technology.
01:16I don't know, I don't think it's old technology when you look at these guns.
01:19And then he said that a projectile is much cheaper than a missile.
01:23He's absolutely right about that.
01:24A projectile is cheaper than a missile.
01:26Although, uh, if you continue with that logic, a cannonball is cheaper than a projectile.
01:31And, accordingly, well, no one is going to return to the technology of the Napoleonic Wars.
01:37But I was extremely interested in this statement of his.
01:40After all, no matter what anyone calls Trump, he's certainly not an idiot or a clown.
01:46Yes, if he were one, he wouldn't have become President of the United States twice.
01:50Twice, well, I almost said back to back, but no, in succession.
01:54So there's something to it.
01:56And somehow he just has a very specific vision of the world.
01:59But I was once again curious about whether it's really possible for the American Navy to acquire
02:05battleships, whether they're needed, and what their tactical role might be.
02:09Let's review the history of the issue a bit, as we like to do, and then talk about it.
02:14How realistic is this?
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03:02So, Trump mentioned these battleships, saying they're not such old technology,
03:07and that we're looking at the battleship concept and that we might even build them.
03:12That's how he put it.
03:15Here, it probably makes sense to first look at the history of the issue.
03:19Generally speaking, if we leave aside the age of sale, yes, when there were battleships,
03:27like, I don't know, Nelson's Victoria, yes, with 50 guns on each side firing cannonballs
03:32and so on, and the era of paramedals and so on, the ancestors of battleships were ironclads.
03:40The classic and pinnacle of ironclad development are things like the Potemkin-class tauride or
03:44the Russian ironclads of the Russo-Japanese War, something like that.
03:49They also took part in World War I, yes.
03:52Then came the dreadnought class.
03:55It was in Britain that the idea, the concept of all big guns, was born.
04:01The thing is, battleships carried a huge number of guns of varying calibers,
04:06sometimes up to seven, which complicated supplies, logistics, gunnery,
04:10and the various calculations that needed to be prepared, and so on.
04:14The British Admiral Fisher then came up with this concept of all big guns, meaning only big guns.
04:21And the development of this concept led to the emergence of dreadnoughts,
04:25which were later called battleships out of habit, or battleships, which is what they're called in English.
04:32Dread-UE was the name of one of the first ships of this class, which gave the entire class its name.
04:36They gradually evolved, and their
04:40pinnacle development was probably the American Iowa-class battleships,
04:45which we'll talk about a bit later, or the Japanese Amato,
04:49yes, a colossal ship with absolutely colossal guns.
04:53The idea was that a ship carried several turrets of colossal caliber.
04:57The Americans had 406mm, the Japanese 457mm.
05:03Three or four turrets with two or three guns each.
05:06Let's say the Americans adopted three gun turrets, the British mainly used two gun turrets and,
05:13uh, secondary artillery, all sorts of anti-aircraft weapons, which gradually develop.
05:21You could say the swan song of battleships was the first world war.
05:26That's the Battle of Dauberbanki or the Battle of Jutland,
05:29when dozens of ships, lined up there, blazed each other with these guns.
05:32Some sank, some managed to reach port, both the British and the Germans suffered losses, and so on.
05:41In short, all these were powerful artillery battles between ships.
05:45And their complete and utter decline was the Second World War.
05:49It's generally accepted that the beginning of the decline of battleships is the attack on Peel Harbor.
05:57That was, of course, December 1941,
06:01when Japanese aircraft from aircraft carriers struck and sank four battleships of the American Pacific Fleet and damaged four more.
06:07In other words, they completely disabled the Pacific Fleet's battleship forces.
06:13We'll do a separate article about that Peel Harbor incident sometime around the anniversary.
06:17Was it a victory or a defeat for the Japanese?
06:20Well, that's beside the point.
06:21The point is that the ships were stationary, the attack was sudden,
06:24the ships were stationary, and they didn't engage any anti-aircraft fire.
06:28In short, the Japanese took action, at least the first wave, in absolutely realistic conditions.
06:33But I believe the first wake-up call, the real wake-up call,
06:38was the attack by Japanese, pardon me, British, aircraft on the Italian port of Taranto.
06:45That happened in November of 1940.
06:48Then the Germans and Italians invaded Greece,
06:51the Greeks defeated the Italians, and then the Germans went to Greece.
06:57In short, the British fleet needed to secure communications between the Greek islands,
07:01where many British troops were based,
07:03and Egypt, where a major supply base was located.
07:09This was problematic because the Italian fleet dominated the Mediterranean.
07:14The Italians had excellent battleships, brand new, brand new.
07:18So, British aircraft from aircraft carriers carried out an operation,
07:22a raid on Taranto Harbor.
07:24They sank and damaged all the Italian battleships that were there.
07:27And in general, for the rest of the war,
07:31the Italian fleet hardly carried out such serious operations in the Mediterranean
07:34and was unable to significantly hinder the Italians,
07:37or, excuse me, the British.
07:42Accordingly, so, uh, this attack on the Tarantula,
07:45which was subsequently studied very closely by the Japanese,
07:48by the way, and they borrowed a lot from the British,
07:51the attack on Pearl Harbor, for example,
07:53the sinking of the Prince of Wales,
07:55and the Japanese Air Force.
07:56They all clearly demonstrated that the aircraft,
08:02not the battleship,
08:03was becoming the dominant weapon on the world's oceans.
08:07Because, for all its colossal power,
08:09a battleship can throw a projectile there.
08:12Well, the record was 24 kilometers,
08:15as far as I remember,
08:16when a British battleship hit an Italian
08:18during the fighting in the Mediterranean
08:19in a rare battle where battleships fought battleships.
08:22An aircraft can deliver their payloads of torpedoes or bombs
08:26over distances of hundreds of kilometers,
08:29which was later very clearly demonstrated in the Pacific War.
08:33Actually, you can count literally a handful of ship-to-ship artillery battles,
08:37meaning battleships against battleships,
08:39during World War II,
08:40well, probably on the fingers of two hands,
08:42as I understand it.
08:43We all remember the most memorable ones.
08:46There's, of course,
08:47the battle in the Denmark Strait,
08:48when the German battleship Bismarck sank the battlecruiser hood,
08:51yes, also hitting her from a long distance.
08:54We can also recall the Battle of the Canal.
08:57That was in 1942,
08:59the Battle of Savo Island,
09:01when two American battleships,
09:02South Dakota and Washington,
09:04sank the Japanese battleship Kirishima.
09:06That was a classic naval artillery battle.
09:11Washington snuck up on Kirishima from the other side
09:14while Kirishima was exchanging fire with South Dakota
09:16and basically shot at point blank.
09:21Incidentally, after that battle,
09:23South Dakota spent over a year in repairs,
09:25having been damaged by fire from a Japanese ship.
09:29In 1943,
09:31that was the Battle of the Cup,
09:33when the British battleship D of York sank a German.
09:35Well, you could say she was a battleship,
09:38but she was a pocket battleship.
09:39In short,
09:40the Germans had a class of ship like that,
09:42somewhere between a battleship and a battlecruiser,
09:45the Scharnhorst.
09:46She was also sunk by fire,
09:48heavily damaged by fire from a British battleship,
09:51and then finished off by torpedoes from British cruisers.
09:54In short,
09:55such incidents were really very rare.
10:00So, basically,
10:01battleships served either as artillery support,
10:03that is,
10:04as floating batteries that supported the actions of ground troops,
10:08as was the case,
10:09say,
10:09in the Pacific Ocean during the numerous battles for the islands of the American Marines,
10:13or as floating air defense batteries,
10:15covering the squadron from Japanese raids,
10:17for example,
10:18Japanese kamikazu,
10:20or during the Allied landings in Normandy,
10:22they fired from the English Channel at coastal targets.
10:24After the war,
10:29the last battleship was built,
10:32or rather,
10:33commissioned.
10:35This was the British vanguard in 1946.
10:38The previous one was the battleship Wisconsin.
10:40She was commissioned,
10:47accordingly,
10:47launched in 1943,
10:49and she entered service,
10:51I think,
10:51after World War II,
10:52when it was already over,
10:54respectively.
10:56So these two battleships,
10:58the American Wisconsin and the British vanguard,
11:01became the last battleships.
11:03They were laid down during World War II.
11:05Accordingly,
11:07battleships continued to serve for some time.
11:10The British finally decommissioned theirs in the 1960s.
11:13They took part in the Korean War.
11:15They fought on the American side,
11:17for example,
11:17in the Vietnam War.
11:20The last combat use of battleships was in 1991.
11:24The battleship Missouri,
11:25in particular,
11:26took part in the war against Iraq in the Persian Gulf,
11:29firing her main battery at coastal targets,
11:31in Iraqi territory.
11:33Since then,
11:36they have not fought again.
11:37They were placed in reserve,
11:39after which they were decommissioned.
11:40And here's the important point.
11:42Trump talks about the need to build new battleships.
11:45I think that's somehow not entirely realistic.
11:48Not entirely realistic.
11:50Here's why.
11:52Because these technologies,
11:54considering that the last in-guard battleship
11:55was commissioned in 1946,
11:58and the Americans,
11:59accordingly,
11:59in 1945,
12:00it's been 80 years since the last battleship was built in America.
12:06American shipbuilding hasn't done this at all for 80 years.
12:09Now,
12:10everything will have to be literally started from scratch.
12:14Everything will have to be built anew,
12:16including the infrastructure,
12:17because the infrastructure of shipyards
12:19is designed for building a specific type of ship.
12:22Here we build aircraft carriers,
12:23here we build as class cruisers,
12:25here we build missile cruisers,
12:26and so on,
12:27and here we have a battleship.
12:28We'll have to create the infrastructure for it there.
12:33If Trump is shown,
12:34I think,
12:35the estimate for the construction of a battleship,
12:37he'll be the first to say,
12:38no,
12:39that's not what I meant,
12:40because now the battleship is being built with 6-inch armor,
12:43that's 150 millimeters of armor,
12:45that's the armor.
12:47Only the side armor,
12:49for example,
12:50the turrets,
12:50etc.,
12:51were thicker.
12:52The armor of the Pogribs,
12:53uh,
12:54main caliber,
12:55was thicker.
12:56This is a colossal expense
12:58and a huge amount of technology
12:59already lost over 80 years.
13:01It will cost as much as building a spaceship.
13:04And I think even more.
13:07The question arises,
13:08like,
13:09why and what is their tactical role?
13:12That's the most important thing.
13:13What is the main caliber of our battleships,
13:16for example,
13:16the American ones,
13:18it's 406 millimeters.
13:19You can throw this shell,
13:22well,
13:22probably 30 kilometers maximum.
13:25You still need to hit it from 30 kilometers away.
13:28They have radar guidance.
13:29The accuracy,
13:30of course,
13:30is not like in the first world war,
13:32when they fired in the white light for a pretty penny,
13:34and optics,
13:34and radar,
13:35and everything else.
13:36But nevertheless,
13:37it's not a missile that can be placed in a circle 5 meters in diameter.
13:41Artillery has never achieved such accuracy.
13:45And most importantly,
13:47why,
13:47what,
13:48what kind of targets do battleships have that they could be fired at from a distance of 30 kilometers?
13:54The Houthis,
13:54for example.
13:55Well,
13:56that's unlikely,
13:57yes.
13:58For that,
13:58their aircraft launched from aircraft carriers,
14:01which would deliver far more explosives to the target,
14:03yes,
14:04like bombs and so on.
14:05Especially since they already exist,
14:08while battleships still need to be built.
14:11Escorting their own ships is also unlikely.
14:15Moreover,
14:16battleships,
14:16as we know,
14:17devoured fuel in absolutely insane quantities,
14:20because,
14:20well,
14:21they have fuel oil plants,
14:22of course,
14:23nuclear battleships do not exist.
14:26If they were to design a battleship with a nuclear power plant,
14:29well,
14:30I'm afraid to even imagine how much it would cost.
14:33But that's not the main point.
14:34Besides the main battery guns,
14:37with their impressively small firepower but rather short-range,
14:41American battleships,
14:42after their modernization,
14:43they were modernized in the 1980s,
14:46carried harpoon and tomahawk missiles.
14:48These are good weapons,
14:51but any Tikindoroga-class guided missile cruiser carries more harpoon and tomahawk missiles.
14:58Those MK-41 underdeck slots hold more anti-ship missiles,
15:02or any other kind,
15:03than all battleships combined,
15:05or ever carried them.
15:06So,
15:08making a big deal about tomahawk missile launchers on battleships is also strange.
15:13In short,
15:14their tactical role isn't entirely clear.
15:16What's the point?
15:17Just because they're big and pretty.
15:18But that's not really the reason,
15:20in my opinion.
15:21Their vulnerability is a different story.
15:23They're vulnerable to missiles.
15:24Yes,
15:25a missile with an armor-piercing warhead can inflict heavy damage on a battleship.
15:30Especially now,
15:31there's a huge number of different drones,
15:33both air and sea.
15:34Yes,
15:36one drone that hits its propellers and disables,
15:39say,
15:39its rudder assembly can immobilize a battleship.
15:42And then you can finish it off as much as you want.
15:44Like what happened with the Bismarck.
15:46After all,
15:47the Bismarck was sunk by artillery.
15:50But only after aircraft,
15:51torpedo bombers,
15:52and one of the British torpedo bombers,
15:54planted a torpedo under its propellers and jammed its rudder on its side.
15:59And the battleship was circling.
16:02And the British simply waited until,
16:04it ran out of ammunition and then sank it.
16:09In fact,
16:10if the Americans suddenly want to return battleships to service,
16:13well,
16:13you never know,
16:14the need might arise.
16:16I don't know,
16:18maybe some tactical role might suddenly emerge,
16:20but there's absolutely no need to build battleships for that.
16:23Why?
16:23Because the Americans have four battleships.
16:26This is the AOVA class,
16:28Iowa,
16:28New Jersey,
16:30Missouri,
16:30and Wisconsin.
16:31Two more,
16:32Illinois and Kentucky,
16:33were built there,
16:34but they were dismantled before completion.
16:36These four that I listed,
16:38they served.
16:39It was on board the battleship Missouri that the Japanese surrender was actually signed.
16:44World War II essentially ended on board her.
16:48She took part in the fighting in Iraq,
16:50in the war against Iraq in 1991.
16:53She participated,
16:55so to speak,
16:55as an actor in the film Assad with Steven Seagal,
16:58if anyone remembers.
16:59It was that very big Moe or Masu.
17:04So,
17:05when these ships were decommissioned,
17:07they weren't cut up into needles,
17:08as is usually done,
17:09not dismantled for metal,
17:11but they were turned into museum ships.
17:15That is,
17:16for example,
17:17the Wisconsin is in Norfolk,
17:18in Virginia.
17:20One is in Hawaii,
17:22I saw one recently,
17:23but I forgot about it.
17:25This was New Jersey,
17:26and it doesn't even have a terminal
17:27because it's not visible on satellite maps.
17:30So,
17:30they apparently took it away for repairs,
17:32uh,
17:32some kind of maintenance,
17:34and then they'll return it.
17:35What am I getting at?
17:37When these ships were decommissioned,
17:39Congress specifically allocated money
17:41to keep them in such a condition
17:42that they could be returned to service if needed.
17:46That is,
17:47after some modifications,
17:48their main mechanisms,
17:50main battery guns,
17:51secondary guns,
17:52and most importantly,
17:53ammunition,
17:54charges,
17:55and shells are stored somewhere in the arsenals.
17:57This is a very sensible thing,
17:59by the way.
17:59They don't ask for food,
18:01they just sit there in storage
18:02and wait until they're needed.
18:03So,
18:04after some specific modifications,
18:06they can be returned to service.
18:08The mechanisms are in working order,
18:11uh,
18:11the main battery gun is in working order,
18:13they loaded the ammunition,
18:15started it up,
18:15like what happened in the movie Battleship.
18:17Yeah,
18:18remember,
18:19when they fight the aliens.
18:22That's literally how they could be brought
18:23into combat readiness,
18:25loaded with those same tomahawks and harpoons.
18:28A separate issue is trained crews.
18:31The Lencores required quite impressive crews for that.
18:36More than a thousand people were needed to service such a ship.
18:39But I think this issue can be resolved, too.
18:42So,
18:43if the Americans suddenly really want to return a battleship to service,
18:46they have four combat-ready,
18:48almost combat-ready battleships that need some modifications,
18:51yes,
18:52and ammunition.
18:53There you have it,
18:54they have them,
18:54and they definitely don't need to build anything from scratch.
18:57Or there will be some other concept.
19:00The word,
19:01battleship,
19:02is used,
19:02but the concept itself will be different.
19:05Some kind of floating arsenal ship.
19:07Well,
19:08they had projects like the Zanvold destroyers,
19:10which were floating cruise missile batteries.
19:13But I know that project didn't really take off for them because of its monstrous cost.
19:18Incidentally,
19:18Trump himself called these new stealthy ships ugly.
19:22Well,
19:22really,
19:23yes,
19:23that's the point.
19:25They look like some kind of upside-down irons,
19:27unlike those beautiful battleships with their big,
19:30beautiful guns,
19:31as Trump said.
19:33In short,
19:34the story with battleships is this.
19:36These ships once served gloriously,
19:38that was true.
19:39Then they simply completely exhausted their role.
19:42And now that role is slowly being taken over by unmanned systems.
19:45Well,
19:46it's hard to imagine an unmanned battleship,
19:48of course.
19:49It's unlikely,
19:50but it's entirely conceivable,
19:51considering,
19:52for example,
19:53that the Ukrainian war,
19:54among other things,
19:55has generated a very strong technological regression,
19:58and yes,
19:59there's some simultaneous progress and regression.
20:01So,
20:02on one side,
20:03there are unmanned systems,
20:04and on the other,
20:05there's infantry on horses and some primitive vehicles,
20:08trying to break through or,
20:09in general,
20:10running mostly on foot.
20:11So,
20:13it's entirely possible,
20:14that someday American analysts and strategists,
20:17will find such a special tactical role for battleships,
20:19and they'll appear at sea again.
20:22Why not?
20:23Anything is possible.
20:24We'll keep an eye on these things too.
20:27And we'll make a separate video about Peel Harbor sometime.
20:30Thanks for watching.
20:32Please don't forget to support us,
20:33and we'll see you soon.
20:34Bye,
20:35everyone.
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