3 ms·

Carriers can move very aggressively for ships of their size: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7BjeRad2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7BjeRad2I At the mom

Carriers can move very aggressively for ships of their size: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7BjeRad2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7BjeRad2I At the moment I can't find how long it takes them to step on the gas, maybe that's classified or something, but it's pretty clear they can at least turn around quickly once they're going fast. Of course, deck operations,etc might delay such maneuvers. My guess? If modern warships can't maneuver effectively against traditional torpedoes, Russia would not have spent the money developing supercavitating torpedoes.

Retric 7y ago
That looks impressive, but costs a lot of speed. It’s mostly useful for an aircraft carrier to hide behind another ship rather than directly avoiding torpedoes in open water. As to acceleration they are something like 2.5 HP to the long ton. So picture a 5 HP car on ice.
- liability 7y ago
  There are scenarios where simply being able to stop quickly is evasive. If the torpedo has a 50 km range and the submarine captain assumes it takes you a 1 km to stop, the submarine could attack from 51 km away. When your target is slow to decelerate or change course, you have a greater effective range when attacking from from the front. All forms of acceleration (be it speeding up, slowing down, or turning) will modify the effective range of enemy torpedoes as a function of launch position relative to the ship. Consider even a ship moving at a constant speed and heading. If you draw a line around the ship to represent the maximum range of a constant speed torpedo aimed at the ship, that line won't be circular. If you abstract away water drag and assume submarines can move as fast as carriers, then the line would be circular. But in reality drag on the torpedo means that sub can't simply match speeds with the carrier and expect the speeds of the torpedo and the sub to add up. The torpedoe's top speed is relative to the stationary water, not to its launching submarine.
mrep 7y ago
Step on the gas? They never stop moving! By constantly moving, the airplanes have 30 knots less to accelerate to reach flight speed and 30 knots less to deaccelerate when landing. They're also nuclear powered so it's not like that extra energy actually costs you much.

Retric 7y ago

That looks impressive, but costs a lot of speed. It’s mostly useful for an aircraft carrier to hide behind another ship rather than directly avoiding torpedoes in open water. As to acceleration they are something like 2.5 HP to the long ton. So picture a 5 HP car on ice.

liability 7y ago
There are scenarios where simply being able to stop quickly is evasive. If the torpedo has a 50 km range and the submarine captain assumes it takes you a 1 km to stop, the submarine could attack from 51 km away. When your target is slow to decelerate or change course, you have a greater effective range when attacking from from the front. All forms of acceleration (be it speeding up, slowing down, or turning) will modify the effective range of enemy torpedoes as a function of launch position relative to the ship. Consider even a ship moving at a constant speed and heading. If you draw a line around the ship to represent the maximum range of a constant speed torpedo aimed at the ship, that line won't be circular. If you abstract away water drag and assume submarines can move as fast as carriers, then the line would be circular. But in reality drag on the torpedo means that sub can't simply match speeds with the carrier and expect the speeds of the torpedo and the sub to add up. The torpedoe's top speed is relative to the stationary water, not to its launching submarine.

mrep 7y ago

Step on the gas? They never stop moving! By constantly moving, the airplanes have 30 knots less to accelerate to reach flight speed and 30 knots less to deaccelerate when landing. They're also nuclear powered so it's not like that extra energy actually costs you much.