[Robert A Cook PE]

The advantage of the carrier task force(s) is that they Can move from an aimpoint to a miss point very very quickly.

Assume a max speed of 40 knots - and they can go quicker in an emergency. It takes about a half hour for a missile from NK to land in the southern/mid pacific Pacific area, so you'd get a half-hour warning, 2 minute message and transmit time, and be (more than) 20 nautical miles from the (previously assumed) aiming point - which would be about 10 miles in front of the photo-op position anyway - since the KN's would have to aim for a moving target.

Biggest problem would be finding out that the damned KN fire control and missile flight ops and missile recovery and ballistic re-entry calculations stunk and they accidentally missed the real target and landed on you as you tried to evade the original intended target position!

[hc87]

Assume a max speed of 40 knots - and they can go quicker in an emergency.

More like 30.5 or 31 knots for the carriers.