(The Zumwalt-class destroyer displaces ~15,000 tons, which is too large to be considered a cruiser under the terms of the inter-war naval treaties, and is roughly the displacement of a 1910s-era South Carolina-class battleship).
Thats still less than a half of the displacement of Warspite, third of the Iowas, let alone monsters like the Yamato class. And unlike Zumwalt, all of those had working guns. ;-)
On a more serious note a modern destroyer could sink any of those with long range missiles long before the batlleship could ever get into a range for a proper gun duel.
Not counting modern aircraft with yet more standoof missiles or even the anti/ship ICBMs that are being talked about.
Oh well, battleships were an elegant weapon for a more civilized age...
And there were times countries had lines of battle of these missile targets spanning the horizon - imagine that! :)
Somehow these just look so much more elegant than just spamming more bombers and nukes. Maybe because they usually only caused death of the sailors crewing them and other warships in battle rather than city populations like bombers and nukes often do ? (Well, unless you live in Yarmouth or on the River Plate.)
(The Zumwalt-class destroyer displaces ~15,000 tons, which is too large to be considered a cruiser under the terms of the inter-war naval treaties, and is roughly the displacement of a 1910s-era South Carolina-class battleship).