@judgedread I think at this point we have lost the ability to launch a battleship in any reasonable period of time. We currently have zero in service, which is why I mentioned that particular platform.

The battleships we launched in WWII required 3 years and 71000 men each.

We no longer have the industrial base etc to provide for that many fully competent people who can do things like weld armor plate or run a pipe straight for 100'.

Likewise many of our former dry docks that could handle such things no longer exist. For example the Fore River Shipyard was torn down and when I last checked was being used to park cars before someone comes along and turns it into condos.

Our most recent destroyer (DDG 1002) took 6 years to build. And we are building far fewer.

We have naval superiority due to accumulation -- that is to say that things like naval vessels can be kept afloat and working for a long time once built. And since we haven't had wars where we have lost them, we haven't had to rebuild them.

But if we were ever in a position where we had to start building five at a time and crank them out in 3 years or less -- we couldn't do it.