Even the experts only have a vague idea of how things will go once shooting starts. There has not been a force on force conflict where both sides were competent since the 1973 Arab Israeli War, and that was almost FIFTY years ago. And obviously the rate of technology change and capability have been on an increasingly upward curve since the start of the 1900s. The point is that we don't really know for sure what is going to work and what isn't, and what the lethality or vulnerability or survivability of many weapons systems will be.John wrote: ↑Thu Oct 21, 2021 11:16 am** 21-Oct-2021 World View: Hypersonic nuclear missiles and aircraft carriers
Xeraphim1 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:26 am> The myth is that it's easy to kill carriers and yet most major
> countries have them or are building. US; UK; France; China;
> Russia; Japan; South Korea; India; Italy. With that many countries
> building, perhaps the myth is just that.Navigator wrote: ↑Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:00 pm> I am still very curious as to what the great increases to US fleet
> defenses are.
> Carriers are still the "prestige weapon", like Battleships still
> were pre WW2. Of course many thought that newer BB designs would
> make them "unsinkable" and that increased AA armament would
> protect them from newer threats. Even Japan had such advocates.
> Well, we will shortly see.
> Personally, I think that missile barrages will overwhelm the CV
> group. And of course there can be long range guided nuclear tipped
> torpedoes. Also, vast improvements in mine warfare have also
> happened, but are commonly overlooked.It's claimed that China's development of hypersonic missiles has comeXeraphim1 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:23 pm> While some of the battleship admirals refused to face the facts,
> the writing was on the wall in 1921 when Mitchell sunk
> Ostfriesland with air delivered bombs. Battleships really had no
> chance since aircraft were faster and much longer ranged. Today,
> various countries aren't spending billions on carriers out of
> vanity, but out of a realization of the unique benefits they
> offer.
> Missile barrages need to first find the target which is constantly
> moving and then get though all the dedicated firepower designed
> expressly to stop such barrages. While not impossible, it's not as
> easy as you might think. Torpedoes have a relatively short range
> and require a sub to get pretty close to actually fire them. Plus,
> using a nuclear weapon opens the door to having them be used
> against you. I think China would think very hard about
> that.
as a complete shock to the Biden administration.
-- China tested hypersonic weapons twice, ‘stunned’ US: Report
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/ ... pons-tests
(Al-Jazeera, 21-Oct-2021)
Military analysts are claiming that US assets, including aircraft
carriers, have no defense to hyperbolic missiles with a nuclear
warheadd.
With the missile systems and countermeasures, everything has to work perfectly. Reaction times are milliseconds (or less). Any malfunction can lead to the loss of a firing opportunity, which can lead to a missile getting through (or, conversely, failing in its attack mission).
I hope that the USN, which will take the first punches, is fully on top of things. I am the last person that wants to see our ships sunk. But the other side will have a massive advantage in being the first to shoot, and will be able to get targeting data up until the moment the first blow lands. Plus, as we have seen with the hypersonic stuff, they may have developed other things that we are not aware of. (I also think that they have done a thorough job of infiltrating our military and our government, let alone infrastructure and support entities/businesses).
There is also the matter that during the first few hours many (if not most) of the defenders are in a state of shock and bewilderment, not quite believing that war is actually happening, and that they need to act as such. You could call this the "Pearl Harbor" reaction, which bled over to the Philippines on the first day of the WW2 for USA.