Key Points and Summary – Russia’s refit Kirov-class battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov entering sea trials signals that big, heavily armed surface combatants still matter.
-The piece traces the lineage to Reagan’s 600-ship Navy, when the Soviet Kirovs spurred Washington to pull the Iowa-class from mothballs, bolt on Tomahawks, Harpoons, and Phalanx, and use them for visible power projection from Lebanon to Desert Storm.
Kirov-Class Russian Navy. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Russian Navy Kirov-class Battlecruiser. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-The throughline: prestige hulls deter, even as missiles and A2/AD raise risk and cost. With Nakhimov’s return, Moscow is chasing the same signaling effect.
-The lesson for today’s planners: survivability is contested, but size, reach, and symbolism still shape maritime calculus.
The Iowa-Class 1980s Comeback: Battleships Reborn
This summer’s announcement that Admiral Nakhimov – an upgraded Soviet-era Kirov-class battlecruiser – has entered sea trials with the Russian Navy suggests that, despite concerns about the future of surface vessels, the Cold War’s great-power naval competition isn’t dead yet. Battlecruisers and supercarriers still matter, are still being built, and are still valuable assets – even if they are technically more vulnerable than they once were.
This great naval competition is the product of decades of American naval might, and it was arguably President Ronald Reagan’s 1980s fleet expansion that ignited it.
When faced with the Soviet Union’s powerful Kirov-class battlecruisers, Reagan ordered the reactivation of America’s own mighty battleships – the Iowa-class.
How Reagan Breathed New Life Into American Iowa-Class Battleships
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Soviet surface navy began a major expansion. Its Kirov-class nuclear-powered battlecruisers were a central part of that effort: they displaced around 28,000 tons fully loaded, carried multiple missile systems for anti-ship and air-defense missions, and were heralded at the time as among the largest surface combat vessels built since World War II.
And the United States needed to respond.
Under Ronald Reagan’s leadership, the U.S. launched its “600-ship Navy” initiative to expand fleet size and rebuild surface power-projection capabilities.
What followed was a change in American maritime strategy: rather than controlling the seas, the United States would dominate them.
USS Iowa Harpoon Canister. Image Credit: Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.
Missile Box on USS Iowa. Image Credit: National Security Journal.
And so began the age of American maritime supremacy. And it was within this context that Reagan brought back the Iowa-class battleships, with larger guns and missile capability.
The ships were intended not only to serve as a deterrent but also to ensure the U.S. Navy could bombard enemy threats, engage surface targets, and project power farther than ever before.
The Iowa-class battleships revived by Reagan were initially designed in the late 1930s to counter fast Japanese ships and to escort U.S. carrier task forces during World War II.
The class consisted of four completed ships: USS Iowa (BB-61), USS New Jersey (BB-62), USS Missouri (BB-63), and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) – all of which were commissioned between 1943 and 1944.
Measuring 887 feet long and displacing about 58,000 tons fully loaded, they were the largest and fastest American battleships ever built, capable of speeds of 33 knots and armed with nine guns.
Following the end of the Second World War, however, the ships were decommissioned one by one – only to be reactivated for later conflicts.
Some were brought back into service in Korea in the 1950s and Vietnam in the 1960s, before all being placed back into reserve by the early 1970s.
In naval terms, “reactivation” means pulling the preserved ships out of the Navy’s “mothball fleet” – the reserve fleet held in long-term storage – and overhauling their propulsion, electronics, and weapons systems.
By the time Reagan took office in 1981, the hulls of the ships were still structurally sound and the Navy saw an opportunity in them.
It was clear that, despite their age, the ships were still proven platforms that could be quickly and cheaply upgraded.
Modernization and Deployment
Between 1982 and 1988, all four Iowa-class battleships returned to active duty. Each ship was fitted with 32 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, 16 RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and four Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems.
Reagan’s modernization effectively transformed these World War II leviathans into hybrid gun-and-missile platforms, turning them into strategic assets capable of delivering precision land-attack strikes while still offering gunfire support.
Top of USS Iowa. Image Credit: National Security Journal.
In Lebanon, for example, USS New Jersey conducted shore bombardments in 1983 and 1984, while Missouri and Wisconsin were later deployed to the Persian Gulf for escort and deterrence operations during Operation Desert Storm.
The reactivated ships carried both psychological and strategic weight.
The nuclear-powered, Kirov-class battlecruisers had been designed to threaten American carrier groups, and Reagan’s answer was to field American ships that were equivalent in size and prestige. And he succeeded.
The battleships projected visible power to the world – though, primarily to Moscow – that the United States Navy could still dominate the world’s oceans, and do so with decades-old, modernized ships.
And even as the Cold War was defined by missile submarines and stealth aircraft, these surface ships remained highly effective instruments for deterrence and alliance operations.
With the Soviet Union’s collapse, however, the rationale for operating vessels of this size began to disappear. By 1992, all four Iowas were decommissioned for the final time.
And now, as Russia relaunches its own Kirov-class flagship Admiral Nakhimov after decades in dock, it’s hard not to notice the parallels. Both of the revivals – Reagan’s in the 1980s and Moscow’s today – reflect the same logic: that visible and heavily armed battleships always serve as tools of deterrence.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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