Trump floats the idea of bringing back battleships. They've been gone for decades.

"Large, heavily armored battleships, brimming with powerful deck guns, were the apex of naval power for much of the 20th century when gun battles dominated naval fights. Each 16-inch gun could fire a round that weighed around 2,000 pounds. They continued to prove useful for decades after, with some later classes even carrying missiles. They brought tremendous firepower to a fight, but their time came to an end in the early 1990s, when the last of the Navy's battleships was decommissioned."

"Speaking at a high-profile summit with top US military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Tuesday morning, Trump said battleships are on the table. "It's something we're actually considering," he said, "the concept of battleship, nice six-inch side, solid steel, not aluminum, aluminum that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. Starts melting as the missile's about two miles away. No, those ships, they don't make them that way anymore.""

Consideration of returning battleships was raised at a summit at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Battleships were large, heavily armored ships fitted with powerful deck guns and served as apex naval assets for much of the 20th century. Each 16-inch gun could fire rounds weighing around 2,000 pounds, and some later classes carried missiles. Advances in aircraft carriers, naval aviation, and missile technology reduced the battleship's relevance, leading to the decommissioning of the last US battleship in the early 1990s. The USS Iowa exists today as a museum, and concerns about aluminum hulls' vulnerability to missile-induced heat were contrasted with solid steel construction.

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