When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, he entered office at a time of deep American malaise both at home and abroad. Rather than allow for that melancholy to consume him, the fortieth president opted to shake America from its stupor. One of the ways he restored that vigor was by increasing military spending and promising to enhance the size and capabilities of the United States Navy in the face of what was then a seemingly implacable Soviet threat.

The question on everyone’s mind at the time was how would Reagan increase the U.S. Navy’s fleet size from around 460 ships to 600. One way that Reagan was able to bolster those numbers relatively quickly was by extending the service of some ships while bringing retired warships out of retirement.

Notably, the Iowa-class battleship.

At a time when aircraft carriers and submarines were the toast of Washington, DC, the Iowa-class battleships were seen as a throwback to a bygone age. But Reagan ordered the battleships restored, modernized, and returned to active duty. For the Reagan administration, restoring the Iowa-class battleships was not just about boosting the numbers of the U.S. Navy’s fleet.

The return of the Iowa-class battleship was in response to a real provocation from the Soviet Union, America’s great enemy at that time.

Reagan responds to Russia

That provocation came in the form of the Soviet’s development and deployment of massive surface warships, such as the Kirov-class guided-missile nuclear-powered battlecruisers. The situation between the United States and the Soviet Union when Reagan took Washington in the 1980s could not have been more different from when Reagan left office in 1989.

Coming off the heels of a most turbulent decade that included the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War; the Watergate scandal, which took down a president; and the subsequent oil crises and social upheaval, America was not doing well. On the other hand, many assumed that the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev’s leadership was going to win the Cold War.

So, to beat back this perception, Reagan vowed to have renewed military spending and specifically promised to build a 600-ship navy by the time he left office. Back in those days, the Iowa-class battleships still had staying power.

Upgraded with modern electronics and armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles as well as Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the Iowa-class battleships could be used to escort aircraft carriers and, if necessary, take those fearsome Kirov-class nuclear-powered battlecruisers head-on.

These battlewagons were once the cream of the U.S. Navy’s crop. That was, of course, before the rise of the aircraft carrier. After that, battleships became an afterthought. Indeed, the decades immediately after World War II saw the navies of the world dismantle the majority of their battleships. But America maintained its iconic Iowa-class battleships even after it initially retired them. These boats fought in every war from WWII to the Vietnam War to Desert Storm, after which they finally fully retired from service.

The early 1980s, though, was yet another moment in which the U.S. Navy had tried to cut itself free from the legacy of the battleship. But the Kirov-class battlecruisers were virtually unmatched and posed a real threat to the Navy’s surface warfare fleet. What’s more, the Pentagon deemed it to be more affordable to simply restore the Iowa-class battleships rather than to try to build entirely new platforms to perform the same role from scratch.

The need for Iowa-class battleships vanished with the Soviet Union

Modifications to the Iowa-class battleships ensured that these battlewagons could go toe-to-toe with those massive, nuclear-powered Kirovs. The Iowas would first lob powerful Tomahawk cruise missiles at Kirov-class battlecruisers in combat and then finish the job off by deploying Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

If the hulking Russian behemoths were still floating, the Iowa-class battleships would then move in close and engage the Soviets with their legendary big guns at closer range.

Once the Soviet Union collapsed, to be replaced by the Russian Federation, the Russian Navy was eviscerated. Its once mighty threat to the Americans, at least for a time, was no more. The Kirov-class battlecruisers disappeared, and the Americans no longer needed the Iowa-class battleships. 

What’s more, their age and the rise of newer, more sophisticated systems that would last longer (supposedly) meant that the retirement of these battlewagons in the early 1990s would be permanent.

Still, as the threats to America’s fleet in today’s chaotic international environment proliferate once more, there are some today who speak about restoring the Iowa-class battleships once more to give those girls one last go at defending their homeland. 

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon