Where would Battleship designs have gone if planes didn't dominate?

How small can you make a nuclear engine? Somebody might’ve come up with a torpedo with a 200-mile range and one nasty-ass kablammo at the end.

With ships so big as are being proposed and no airplanes, I can actually see orbital bombardment going past the Alien SDMB joke. And submarines left and right. All the way down to very small “fighter” subs.

The MK14 torpedo had a range of 9000 yards at the lower speed settings, 4500 at the highest.

However, range does not equal accuracy.

Most of the torpedo hits scored by US submariners in WW2 occured under 1000 yards. (Thats under 2/3’s of a mile.)

The longer then range, the more time the target has to do something unexpected. If your shooting at a sitting target (speed = 0), not as much of a worry. But this doesnt happen much except near harbors and anchorages. And coincidentally enough, the enemy tends to take that into account, and rigs defences, like nets, minefields, and patrol boats to ward off party crashers.

Also, the longer the range, the more of a chance that some mechanical failure can creep in and ruin your shot. (Missed by that much.) Torpedos were surprisingly tempermental beasts.

So, the submariners of the day learned that they had to get close to get hits.

We have wire guided torps now, for mid-run course adjustments, but they only have a max range of greater than 5 miles, according to Wiki. (I would be guessing at max range.)

Although, there are nuclear warheads for torps. (yikes)

Nuclear propulsion and nuclear bombs are two completely separate technologies.

Actually, IIRC, there hasn’t been a serious foreign naval threat to the battleship from since after WWII. The reason battleships were used in conflicts through Vietnam and Desert Storm has more to do with their ability to provide massive supporting artillery fire from their main batteries.
I’m curious with the development of anti-missle/aircraft lasers and electromagnetic guns that can shoot hundreds of miles, would we see a resurgence of the battleship. Compare the cost of a billion dollar Joint Strike Fighter vs an Inanimate Carbon Rod hitting your ship at mach 7

I’m not sure your analysis is correct. I seem to remember reading that one of the main reasons for increased displacement is that weapon systems and crews are now so expensive that the hull can represent as little as 10% of the total cost of the vessel. In which case it makes sense to invest in a nice roomy ship that can be easily upgraded and maintained.

Another point to bear in mind about battleships is that they were armoured to keep fighting, not to be invincible - all that could realistically be achieved was to armour the magazines, turrets, fire directors etc. to resist a moderate number of hits. Large parts of the vessels were quite thin-skinned. So a large number of quite small hits might be enough to leave one unseaworthy.