Further investigation reveals that there was a "Phase II" of the Iowa class battleship reactivation that added STOVL aircraft that never took place. By 1979, the Soviet UnionĀ”~s surface-to-surface capability had risen dramatically to alarming proportions. To counter this, the Navy led by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman and Chuck Myers, the DoD director of Air Warfare, proposed reactivating the Iowa Class. Phase I of the reactivation process involved getting the battleships back into service quickly with a minimum of new additions and modifications. This did occur and all four came back to join the fleet. The plan however, envisioned a Phase II. In Phase II, the aft 1/3rd of their main armament was to be removed and a hanger and flight deck added. The hybrids were to carry 12 AV-8B Harrier STOVL "jumpjets". Although less effective than standard carrier aircraft they were chosen because they could be recovered by the ships via vertical landing and thus be reused for multiple sorties. There were a number of different designs for this Phase II conversion, one of which was by Martin Marietta. The Martin Marietta version had an "A" shaped flight deck with two ski jumps on the forward edge. The flight decks would measure 330 feet by 150 feet. A large-scale model of this design was produced and exhibited in the Pentagon. However, by 1984 the conversion momentum for these "Battle Carriers" had evaporated and the Iowas remained gun and missile platforms. The new stealth, supersonic speeds and greater STOVL safety of the F-35 JSF opens up new possibilities for the "Aircraft Battleship".