Posted on 07/01/2004 10:31:01 AM PDT by Lokibob
Not counting . . . Deathstar.
Damned good question sir. When Reason Magazine can personalize my copy with a three meter resolution picture of my house on the cover, along with an ad demonstrating civilian capability to render one meter resolution photos, I think it can be taken for granted one cannot hide a carrier battle group (or strike group, whatever they call them now), and sure as Hell not seven.
Put five boomers, 24 Mirvs each, somwhere between the Phillipines and China, NOBODY will have a clue where they are, they are that quiet, and just in case the nut-case jumps froggy, we could turn North Korea into a parking lot. China is a lot of territory, but come to shove, those five (and we have plenty more) could put China back to third world status.
Granted, I hope to God this never comes up, the only reason we would do something like this is if they have already taken out, say, LA or Frisco, maybe Seattle, but ain't it nice to know we have the capacity to do this, and no son, we are not bluffing. China doesn't really scare me, they have sense, and we will, however contentiously, hammer out something. What keeps me awake nights is that fruitcake in N Korea. He is, in my opinion, perfectly capable of viewing himself as some sort of martyr, and cheerfully taking oh, maybe a hundred million people to Hell with him.
Why does Pearl Harbor spring to mind? =^/
What, if anything, does a carrier task force carry in the way of tactical nukes?
Define 'cope with'.
If we get what we want, and I do not mean a Clintonite treaty, I mean unlimited access to the whole damned country, a big check just might save a lot of lives, and many, many of those lives would not be military.
Something big is obviously in the wind, we have a good policy group, for the moment, I am willing to assume someone up there knows what the heck they are doing. Not as if I could do much about it except run and hide anyway
read later
"When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it's no accident that the first question that comes to everyone's lips is: 'Where's the nearest carrier?'"
President Bill Clinton
March 12, 1993
aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt
Plenty.
When will China make it's move? No one can tell, I don't think they are ready yet, but now would be a good time, US is engaged in Iraq, forces stretched to the braking point, the war is not popular and another war would be hugely unpopular, US is very dependent on Chinese labor and products, so a war would hurt the economy badly, the financial loses to the USA would be staggering, we might not ever recover even if we won the war. So now might just be the time to settle which nation will rule the Pacific, China or the USA.
What is your take?
One carrier has been retired to accomodate the USS Bush.
The problem with carriers and their support groups is operations, and it is expensive to keep the crews, port facilities, air groups, etc. for the whole circus.
So a 12-carrier Navy its going to be for quite a while.
"Don't forget the B2 bombers stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean."
And the B52's at Guam.
A "surge" exercise to prove out the new Navy operations tempo.
The idea is to regularly cruise less, but have more carriers available to sortie on short notice.
Whatever it is, I bet we find out sooner rather than later.
Well this is a big "surge" but you might be right, could just be a exercise. I would have thought that if it was just an execise of a new approach there would have been alot of prior PR.
That would be the really interesting part of this exercise. How many? Where are they positioned? What's their part in the excercise? Of course, we'll never know. To me, the sub part of our nuclear triad has always been biggest deterrent. A first strike from Russia or a future China could take out much of our aerial deterent, but the "silent service" will still be there.
Knock knock on the yellow peril's front door.
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