Posted on 02/09/2015 5:53:55 PM PST by artichokegrower
This video sequence filmed on 27 January 2015 offshore California near San Nicolas Island shows a Tomahawk Block IV missile launched from USS Kidd (DDG 100) and then followed by an F/A-18 until it eventually plows through a stack of containers stacked atop a moving ship.
This is the first time a Tomahawk missile has been used to hit a moving maritime target, according to the U.S. Navy.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
If they had not survived, animal rights activists would have been all over them.
The obama administration has been very bad for California birds.
No, not really.
Did a paper a few years ago: For 48 destroyer and cruiser-sized ship actually “hit” by ANY weapon of ANY type (armed, unarmed, dud, air blast, torpedo, missile, or simple cannon fire) ONE TIME, not ONE of those ships in ANY NAVY was able to continue combat.
Now remember: “Continue combat” simply means you still have command, control, combat, and mobility, right?
So, your engine room must work.
Your rudder must work.
You must have 60 cycle power. (50 Hz in the EU). Cooling water to the radars. 400 Hz power.
Your CIC and radar must work and be able to issue control signals to the weapons.
Your radar or local telescope sights must work.
Your weapons must be able to load, aim, and fire.
Your bridge (or alternative) must be in control of the ship.
Well ....
Not ONE of 48 ships hit after WWII was able to do that.
We’ve got tin ships and wooden men.
Hit on the bridge, you probably put it out of action, but the hull is still intact (not always).
Can’t imagine the orders to the pilot. Fly over the ship that is going to fire a missile at you.
There isn’t enough armour you can put on a warship that will withstand the ability of modern munitions to punch right through it. That’s why they started developing systems to target the munitions before they hit the ship in the first place.
Those looked like muslim pigeons to me. Their butts where in the air and they were facing east. It’s all good.
Ten feet higher and they would have missed.
“I was on the barge and ‘shooed’ the pigeons away. It was nothing really.”
Brian Williams, honorary Admiral U.S. Navy
Flying straight and level to do guidance is asking for a missile up the butt.
Selective data set?
The USS Liberty was roughly destroyer sized. It took bombs, strafing and napalm, and still managed to engage the surface units that were attacking it. The defense was called off because while Israelis could attack the US, the US was not supposed to defend itself. In any event, the 'unable to continue combat' theory is refuted.
(Carefully?) Excluded from your sample would be smaller ships which also survived hits and continued in combat. See, for example, the frigate HMS Brilliant - hit by Argentine aircraft cannon fire, but able two days later to fire on an Argentine ship with her main gun.
Another British frigate, HMS Argunaut, didn't fare quite so well after taking a hit to the missile magazine. (Ship was hit by 2 1000 pound bombs; both were duds, but duds are covered by your assertions.) But she continued in combat by providing robust anti-aircraft fire against attacking planes.
I expect that if I did real research instead of just Googling from memory, I could come up with more examples.
So if we were to accept your narrowly drawn position as accurate, perhaps the lesson learned is that all destroyers and cruisers should be replaced with frigates and converted freighters.
USS Gurke (destroyer) two hits from shore batteries didn't prevent the ship from continuing combat.
USS Collett (destroyer) FIVE hits from shore batteries didn't impair combat effectiveness.
On the contrary...Obama is terminating the pigeons as a warning to all pigeon fanciers.
ISIS Executes Pigeon and Bird Breeders in Diyala, Iraq ...
www.nbcnews.com/.../isis-executes-pigeon-bird-breeders-... NBCNews.com Jan 17, 2015 - Raising doves and pigeons is a deadly pursuit in ISIS-controlled Iraq.
The popular hobby is in the sights of extremist Islamist fighters
Squab Swab
Video says the missile was guided by the F-18.
Doubt it. F-18’s a chase plane, to watch missile, and shoot it down if it goes rogue.
This Tomahawk variant would be worthless if it needed an F-18 to guide it to a ship target. F-18 would get shot down.
PS. They called it Unclassified. I wouldn’t have. But they are hard up for successful bragging events. There is still valuable information in these video clips.
Very similar airframes, far different missions, unless this was a demonstration of what you can do when you run out of Harpoons?
Just be careful which warheads you are sending over to those ships, could get dicey with the crowd-pleasers.
What war?
What date?
(That is one I do not recognize.)
yes. IF the systems always work.
First hit that gets through? Ship can’t fight back.
Or has lost propulsion.
Or has lost missile battery.
or has lost power.
Or is on fire.
or has lost radar.
or has lost the (one) gun that it has.
or has lost the (one) helicopter it can carry.
or has a dud bomb inside the magazine on top of the the missiles down there.
Rigth.
now look at your answers.
Liberty ship. Able to survive. Kept sailing. Not much of a fighter (it was a very, very simple merchant vessel really) but that proves my point. it was NOT a destroyer.
Brit Brilliant?
Out of action for one day, then could fight back 2 days later. Didn’t get a second attack the next 30 minutes, did it?
Argonaut?
No missile battery. Cannononly available - but only after 4-6 hours of recovery after the dud hit.
The duds were inside their rocket magazine as you pointed out. Further, they DIDN’T even explode, and they put her out of action for several hours. What if the Argentine’s knew how to arm their fuzes?
Remember. The Victory, Monitor, and Merrimack could only shoot iron cannonballs too.
Which we conveniently didn’t tell them were going to dud-out their low-level bombs?
7 MORE Brit destroyers would be blown in half.
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