Posted on 09/14/2017 6:34:49 PM PDT by BBell
the power of a carrier is the ability to launch attacks but not BE attacked.
That was true for a LONG time because the range of most aircraft was longer than the best anti-ship missiles of the time.
That’s no longer true:
Even POOR countries have the tech to reach out and threaten our carriers with missiles.
To be close enough to launch airstrikes the carrier must come within the range of some missiles.
We could easily correct the equation with robotic strike aircraft; Northrop-Grumman spent about a billion bucks and had one almost ready.
Suddenly cancelled, now that program exists only as an UNstealthy, flying robotic gas station, and even that role will not be ready for at least 1 or 2 years.
It’s original role as a stealthy attack plane is GONE.
Actually, Yamato was probably hit by TWO torpedoes fired by the USS Skate in 1943.
She didn’t “almost sink”, but did ship about 5000 tons of water as I recall, which was certainly unexpected given where the torpedoes struck (smack in the center where the torpedo “blisters” were located, along with the heaviest armor).
The problem turned out to lie in the quality of steel as well as in the system of cross-beams that connected the upper to the lower parts of the armor belts. The trusses were not up to the task, and were a compromise design due to resource limitations and time contraints. A patch work solution was effected, but only applied to the area struck by the torpedo(s). There was no ability, by 1943, to even think of a “retrofit” due to the strain the war was placing on Japan’s already meager war reserves of steel.
However, all this was really irrelevant once Japan lost the ability to protect its capital ships from the air.
As you’ll see if you read on towards the end of the website I linked above, Yamato was hit by over 20 (!!) torpedos off Okinawa, and no technology could have saved her from sinking.
She got hit by more torpedos than hit the ENTIRE “battleship row” at Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941 ...
She also was on the receiving end of probably 30 bombs, whcih made a real mess on her decks, but the torpedos of course were what sent her to the bottom...the torpedo remains - to this day - the capital ship’s deadliest enemy ...
Nah..! They're going to hang all sorts of noisy, stupid re-fueling stuff allll over it.
It will refuel planes, sure, but it will also light up the skies.
It will not look like this.
Everyone will see it flying around.
A drogue or boom will be trailing it, like a big, noisy poo-poo.
Nice site. The Yamato and the Bismarck have always intrigued me and both fell victims to aircraft.
The Bismarck was extraordinarily unlucky. A torpedo jammed it’s rudder when it was only hours from air and submarine cover.
Extraordinary efforts were made by divers to fix it but to no avail. Sometimes I wonder if it was divine providence then again maybe just luck.
You have to
1. Find it.
2. Target it. (Not the same thing)
3. Maintain target track long enough to get a sufficient number of weapons through the Carrier Battle Group AAW screen. How many is that? It depends.
All three of these are non-trivial problems.
"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
True. That is why I get nervous every time we send a carrier into the Persian/Arabian gulf.
Oh come on. In a hot war you don’t send a CVN into a straight unless that area is safe to do so. This is a ridiculous thread.
Your empty argument presumes that we do not already have many multiple other units with varying capabilities. Hint: we do. Next?
“what distinguishes the Ford are its technological improvements. “
A maternity ward, a catapult that is very problematic, fewer hands for damage control, highly automated and dependent on tech. And designed around the least capable navy attack plane built in the jet era...the F-35.
The Yamato’s guns had a range of 26 miles.
An F18 has a combat radius of 450 miles.
They are both large ships, but that is about the only thing they have in common.
Aegis would be tracking that missile for 20 minutes before it even got close. 20 minutes.
Actually, its a piece of Shinano’s armor that was recovered with part of Shinano’s main battery turntables that were never installed due to Shinano’s conversion, late in the war, to an aircraft carrier.
The sample was subjected to a point-blank 16” Iowa-type shell test. The nature of the test, given point-blank distance and lack of proper “falling angle” foir the shell made the armor likely fail easier than it would have in real action.
But there is no doubt that it was not immune to the USN’s highly effective and deadly 16” armor-piercing shells. That piece - along with an 18.1” barrel intended for SHinano’s main bateries, which recovered at the same site as the armor pictured above, are on the grounds of a Naval facility near Washington DC as memory serves me ....
brought about the demise of the Bismark.
A CVN is surrounded by Aegis equipped destroyers and has constant satellite down link information. Plus one or two SSNs to the screen for hostile attack subs.
When I saw the movie in the early 60s, I was a little surprised to see those bi-planes. I even wondered if they were using WWI stock footage.
It turned out they were using the correct planes. Fairly Fireflies or something like that.
A “hot war” will start and end quickly. There probably won’t be time to send a CVN in. I guess what I worry about is that we may have some carriers unwittingly drawn into an area that suddenly erupts. That is a good probability considering our current leadership that’s left over from the last 8 years.
Fairey Swordfish. It did it’s job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.