Battleship!!!

Foxtrot Alpha asked me for some thoughts about a future Large Surface Combatant, or “battleship:”

The U.S. stopped building battleships in the 1940s. Aircraft, submarines, and missiles, able to strike more securely and at greater distance than the guns of a battleship, rendered the type obsolete. Nevertheless, over the years various analysts have proposed a new, large surface combatant that would play some of the same roles as a classic battleship.

Let’s imagine what such a ship might look like; what it needs to do, how it would fight, and how much it might cost.