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This isn't the scale I'm talking about. You don't need a fleet of $500 million USD submarines. 11 US aircraft carriers? 11 missiles. $100+Billion vs $15 Millio
by latch 15y ago
This isn't the scale I'm talking about. You don't need a fleet of $500 million USD submarines.
11 US aircraft carriers? 11 missiles. $100+Billion vs $15 Million. 30000 soldiers vs 0.
During the cold war this is the strategy that Russia took - let the US build expensive ships, they build [relatively] cheap missiles. The Chinese are doing the same with the Dong Feng missiles.
- stcredzero 15y agoYes, but if China also built the fleet, then it would be in a position to project power farther from its shores. If all you wanted to do is keep the carrier group away from your own shore, then capable missiles would suffice.
- yxhuvud 15y agoChina is doing it's best at ramping up their fleet. It is just that they focus on making better ships instead of making many ships, at the moment.
- philwelch 15y agoOne missile won't get through. You don't encounter a carrier by itself--it has a combat air patrol, one or two Aegis cruisers, and two or three Aegis destroyers. Each Aegis system can track 100 targets at a time and launch countermeasures. However, missiles do scale well. Even 1000 missiles will cost much less than the carrier and will almost certainly take it down.
- latch 15y agoA single supersonic or soon-to-exist (india is mass-producing) hypersonic missile might get through. But yes, even if 1 doesn't, 100 easily will.