This is because the Missouri, though it was initially decommissioned after the Korean War, was reactivated by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and then served in the first Iraq War. If fully reloaded and refueled, the ship could become quite a bit more mighty than depicted in Battleship. The production of the movie Battleship was able to capitalize on one such move, at which time Berg and his crew filmed the ship in action (without showing the tugboat). On the rare occasions when the USS Missouri does sail the high seas, such as to travel for restoration and repair, it’s usually towed by a tugboat.

In fact, the onetime sovereign of the sea now gets its electricity from the shore. The USS Missouri was built with four steam turbines and eight Babcock and Wilcox boilers on board, but, as the staff at the Missouri museum told us, these engines have not been used to power or propel the ship since 1992. Today, it stays docked in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where there is no crew at the ready, nor any ammo or fuel on board. The USS Missouri was finally retired in 1992 and turned from a warship into a museum-just like the one in the movie. Sure, but it would take about 1,500 men, a boatload of fresh fuel, and a pretty serious restocking of ammo. We decided to ask the folks from the Missouri Memorial: If faced with such a situation, could we really revive the “Mighty Mo”? Desperate for another ship to complete their one last job, our heroes turn to the World War II battleship the USS Missouri, which has been docked under their noses all along-and start it back up with the help of a few veterans of the Greatest Generation. What’s the expiration date on a World War II warship? That’s a question raised by the surprising third act in Peter Berg’s new naval actioner Battleship.

Missouri coming back world of warships