https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/ship/arsenal_ship.htm
The Kirovs were for fighting US carrier escorts. While those did have an antiship component (in the form of Harpoons) they were mostly either specialized for ASW or AAW defense, and if they could be engaged singly, or in small groups, away from the protection of carrier air power, they were vulnerable to a ship like the Kirov, which had longer ranged missiles. It was optimized for surface combat, while our escorts "could do" it. The appearance of the Kirovs was one of the prime motivations for us to reactivate the Iowas. For about the cost of a frigate, we fielded a ship which could engage a Kirov more evenly.
Another term for an arsenal ship would be a magazine ship. The concept is a vessel which exclusively carries weapons. Their firing is done from other platforms. Think first of a Landing Ship Medium, Rocket (or the old Lindberg Inshore Fire Support ship) which can bombard the shore with rockets. Then think missiles instead of rockets, VLS tubes instead of rocket launchers, think much, much larger, and imagine it can not target nor fire its own weapons. That must be done via a network linking it with the other platforms it is operating with. All an arsenal ship does is provide a magazine full of available weapons.
The one referred to here by Francine was a product of 1980s and 90s thinking. Wikipedia gives about as good a simple summary of it as there is:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_ship
It was to be built on a modified tanker hull, have minimal bridge and upper works, and a small crew. As mentioned, it would carry 500 VLS tubes. At the time, they were envisioned to be loaded primarily with Tomahawk land attack missiles, and be used for support of operations ashore. There was also a 155 mm verticle gun launch system proposed for development, and in areas where a high air threat was anticipated, some of the VLS would be dedicated to AAW missiles.
As Wikipedia notes, the Navy's SSGNs ended up providing a very similar (but not completely identical) capability.
South Korea is building an arsenal ship, and the US Navy plans that function for their LUSV unmanned ships:
"The LUSV will deliver adjunct missile magazine capacity to the Fleet as part of the Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations concept."
From this article:
https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/Article-View/Article/3622544/us-navy-successfully-completes-large-unmanned-surface-vessel-testing-milestone/
South Korea's arsenal ship:
https://www.imdexasia.com/newsbyte/south-korea-begins-designing-arsenal-ships-bristling-with-missiles
Back in the 90s, it was called the Arsenal Ship. It was loaded with about 500 VLS missiles, no guns and a small crew. Never got further than the drawing boards and numerous articles.
Recently read that adminstratedly the Iowa and Wisconsin have had their status changed
from museum ships to decommissioned warships.
They havent been moved from where are on display.
Aren't they too old to be reused?
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