Aircraft Carriers - SO Twentieth Century...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

First batch Atlanta class. That's cheating.

Did you expect less?

Anyway, that's a stretched DD hull, IIRC. So technically...

That's why they sank so easily at Guadalcanal.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that you can't wish something in or out of fashion. Reality has a habit of getting in the way.

The Long Lance torpedo could have killed a better ship as easily. The concept of AAW cruisers is still current in the USN. I've served on two.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just thought I'd post something cool...

"They're pretty, but can they fight?" ("Dirty Dozen.")

[klr]

Pretty as in pretty expensive. At least they can move fast, but think how much better at power projection they'd be if they could carry something with a longer reach than helicopters.

Skyhook, anyone?

http://www.harpoondatabases.com/encyclo ... y2979.aspx

[Ian]

Pretty as in pretty expensive. At least they can move fast, but think how much better at power projection they'd be if they could carry something with a longer reach than helicopters.

Yes, but then they might as well be destroyers. And destroyers are still going to be built. LCS's augment the more traditional combatant ships rather than replace them.

[klr]

Destroyers - the new cruisers

Frigates - the new destroyers

LCS - the new monitors

I'd like to see one of those things carrying a 15-inch gun - or even a pair of them:

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Go BOOM!

[Audley Strange]

and for countless porn books and films where the way to maintain the kids more or less functional is to bang them, or to savagely abuse them to give them fighting spirit.

Okay, so the French army sucks. I was never abused, nor did I allow abuse, in twenty years in the United States Navy. My brother did 28 years in the USAF, same story. Being a 4F has made you a bit grumpy I think.

Nothing to do with my views of how we handled conscription... I successfully summarized a fulle 75% of the hentai stuff derived from NGE and similar series.

Sad but true.

[Tyrannical]

I'm not sure if your average air to ship missile could penetrate the armor on a real aircraft carrier, and I'm fairly certain they could not penetrate our mothballed battleships. Small, fast warships lacking a foot plus of armor can get holes blown in them. The bigger the warhead times longer the range missile equals a bigger target for anti-missile guns.
A carrier strike group is a small fleet designed around anti-air / anti-submarine ships protecting the carrier, and it can operate 300+ miles away from it's target. So it would take a serious military to threaten a carrier.

But the future is submarine carriers that launch mostly unmanned drones and missiles.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Aircraft carriers don't have a substantial amount of armor, but they do have enough hull strength to hold up 4.3 acres of flight deck, which is plenty for most applications these days. The problem an inbound missile would face is finding the right area to expend itself on. If it's not a pop-up missile, one that flies low and then goes upward to come straight down on the deck, it may expend itself on a non-vital area rather easily.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm not sure if your average air to ship missile could penetrate the armor on a real aircraft carrier, and I'm fairly certain they could not penetrate our mothballed battleships. Small, fast warships lacking a foot plus of armor can get holes blown in them. The bigger the warhead times longer the range missile equals a bigger target for anti-missile guns.
A carrier strike group is a small fleet designed around anti-air / anti-submarine ships protecting the carrier, and it can operate 300+ miles away from it's target. So it would take a serious military to threaten a carrier.

But the future is submarine carriers that launch mostly unmanned drones and missiles.

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[Coito ergo sum]

Did someone just take that picture from Bushehr? Or, is that from a hotel window on Kish Island?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Did someone just take that picture from Bushehr? Or, is that from a hotel window on Kish Island?

Name: US Navy - Lincoln Battlegroup 10966
Date: 07.07.2006 11:46

I don't think the CBG would be steaming toward an island like that.

[Clinton Huxley]

I'm wondering if Blighty is buying at the top of the market.

[Ian]

That picture is the backdrop to my Facebook profile.

[mistermack]

It seems that the advantages of a carrier are still pretty enormous, but the disadvantage is that it makes a big target.
Obviously, you would think that an attack by planes should be possible to counter, but long-range missiles are the problem.

Can missiles be taken out these days? Can radar pick them up? And are there reliable counter measures so that you can be confident enough to actually send the carrier into action in the first place?

During the Falklands war, the British had no answer to the exocet. Surely they've come up with something now?