Nation: Role for a Relic

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Nothing in the U.S. arsenal packs the concentrated firepower of the old World War II battleships. With their 20 deadly accurate five-inchers and nine 16-in. guns—twice as big as any still active in the Navy—they can rain 2,400-lb. projectiles at the rate of 27 a minute on coastal targets 25 miles away. In an age of nuclear weapons, such firepower seemed puny a decade ago when the last of the mighty battlewagons, the 45,000-ton Wisconsin, left the Navy. Last week the Defense Department allocated $800,000 for preliminary de-mothballing of the New Jersey, one of the nation's four remaining inactive battleships, in order to determine the cost and time to reoutfit her for duty in the Viet Nam war.

With her great long-range guns, the New Jersey could take over some of the heavily defended targets in North Viet Nam that have proved so costly to airmen. She could harass at will the North's main north-south highway, Route 1, which runs along the coast. And she could provide devastating ground support for Marine operations around the Demilitarized Zone. Though it may cost as much as $25 million and take about a year to modernize the New Jersey, chances are good that the thunder of the battlewagons will be heard once more.