3 ms·

Carriers are very big, very slow moving targets that change their velocity very slowly. With a 1200mm f/8 lens you can detect an aircraft carrier from 300km aw

Carriers are very big, very slow moving targets that change their velocity very slowly. With a 1200mm f/8 lens you can detect an aircraft carrier from 300km away.

nradov 5y ago
What platform is carrying that hypothetical lens? How does it avoid being destroyed before detecting and tracking the target? How does it data link targeting targeting data back to offensive platforms? What is the visible horizon range at its operating altitude? How well does it see at night, or through clouds?
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  The lens is given as a general example you can easily apply the Rayleigh criterion to to verify. You can use many other types of sensors. You could carry such a sensor on a satellite, a drone, or even the missile itself. You need to get within 300km of the carrier once. It doesn't matter if it's the 15th try or if you don't survive either. You really overestimate air defences if you think an airwing can do that. And of course you can make even better sensors, we have the technology and it's been practically done.
  - nradov 5y ago
    The satellites are vulnerable and will likely be the first casualties in any major conflict. Neither side can afford to build enough long range drones with powerful sensors to blanket large areas of open ocean. Sometimes adversaries will get lucky and have the right platform in the right place at the right time, but it's hardly a sure thing. In the end it will probably come down more to timing and luck than any other factors.
    - sudosysgen 5y ago
      You don't need to cover large areas of the open ocean. Only where you have tracked the carrier to be. You are insane if you think that hiding a carrier is feasible in 2021. Even with cold war tech the US had tracked down most USSR submarines let alone carriers.
dragontamer 5y ago
> Carriers are very big, very slow moving targets that change their velocity very slowly. Where did you get that idea from? Carriers are equipped with two nuclear engines to travel at outstanding speeds. Naval doctrine is to have Carriers simply outrun most of their threats while pew pew pewing them from the sky. (Ex: Submarines don't stand a chance against this tactic) Carriers might be a big ship, but its a big AND fast ship. The biggest source of Navy deaths is people falling off the sides of Carriers, they're that fast. > With a 1200mm f/8 lens you can detect an aircraft carrier from 300km away. The horizon at 30m height is only 20km away. Anything beyond 20km is literally hidden by the curvature of the Earth. To even see 300km away, you need to be 7000 meters in the air (aka: an aircraft). If you're 7000 meters high, you have the issue of surviving against the Aircraft Carrier's airwings (aka: F35 fighters) long enough to do anything useful. Air Superiority is a bitch. If the lens is in space, you have the issue of predictability. US Navy likely knows that satellite is there, and will either disable it or avoid it entirely.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Speed is counterbalanced by size. Going at 35mph is very slow when you're 300m long. You need to survive with an aircraft once to get a picture of the carrier. Then the carrier sinks. Air superiority is a numbers game. There is precisely 0% chance that you will catch it every time. With your strategy you have to win every time. The missile only has to hit once for the entire CSG to sink. You don't have to survive long enough to do anything except find the position of the carrier and send it. Once that's done, it's game over. Done. Finished.
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    > You don't have to survive long enough to do anything except find the position of the carrier and send it. Once that's done, it's game over. Done. Finished. In 10 minutes, a carrier moving at 35 mph will have moved around 6 miles. That's a 100+ sq. mile radius. How will your missile in fact, lock onto the carrier on the approach? How does the missile know where to go? If your missile is traveling at Mach 5, what communication system are you using to track and talk with that missile? Is something in that communication chain still alive to constantly tell the missile where in fact, the carrier is? Or does the missile have such an advanced radar system that it can too, magically pick out a carrier in a 100-sq. mile radius?

Carriers are very big, very slow moving targets that change their velocity very slowly. With a 1200mm f/8 lens you can detect an aircraft carrier from 300km away.

nradov 5y ago

What platform is carrying that hypothetical lens? How does it avoid being destroyed before detecting and tracking the target? How does it data link targeting targeting data back to offensive platforms? What is the visible horizon range at its operating altitude? How well does it see at night, or through clouds?

sudosysgen 5y ago
The lens is given as a general example you can easily apply the Rayleigh criterion to to verify. You can use many other types of sensors. You could carry such a sensor on a satellite, a drone, or even the missile itself. You need to get within 300km of the carrier once. It doesn't matter if it's the 15th try or if you don't survive either. You really overestimate air defences if you think an airwing can do that. And of course you can make even better sensors, we have the technology and it's been practically done.
- nradov 5y ago
  The satellites are vulnerable and will likely be the first casualties in any major conflict. Neither side can afford to build enough long range drones with powerful sensors to blanket large areas of open ocean. Sometimes adversaries will get lucky and have the right platform in the right place at the right time, but it's hardly a sure thing. In the end it will probably come down more to timing and luck than any other factors.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    You don't need to cover large areas of the open ocean. Only where you have tracked the carrier to be. You are insane if you think that hiding a carrier is feasible in 2021. Even with cold war tech the US had tracked down most USSR submarines let alone carriers.

dragontamer 5y ago

> Carriers are very big, very slow moving targets that change their velocity very slowly. Where did you get that idea from? Carriers are equipped with two nuclear engines to travel at outstanding speeds. Naval doctrine is to have Carriers simply outrun most of their threats while pew pew pewing them from the sky. (Ex: Submarines don't stand a chance against this tactic) Carriers might be a big ship, but its a big AND fast ship. The biggest source of Navy deaths is people falling off the sides of Carriers, they're that fast. > With a 1200mm f/8 lens you can detect an aircraft carrier from 300km away. The horizon at 30m height is only 20km away. Anything beyond 20km is literally hidden by the curvature of the Earth. To even see 300km away, you need to be 7000 meters in the air (aka: an aircraft). If you're 7000 meters high, you have the issue of surviving against the Aircraft Carrier's airwings (aka: F35 fighters) long enough to do anything useful. Air Superiority is a bitch. If the lens is in space, you have the issue of predictability. US Navy likely knows that satellite is there, and will either disable it or avoid it entirely.

sudosysgen 5y ago
Speed is counterbalanced by size. Going at 35mph is very slow when you're 300m long. You need to survive with an aircraft once to get a picture of the carrier. Then the carrier sinks. Air superiority is a numbers game. There is precisely 0% chance that you will catch it every time. With your strategy you have to win every time. The missile only has to hit once for the entire CSG to sink. You don't have to survive long enough to do anything except find the position of the carrier and send it. Once that's done, it's game over. Done. Finished.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  > You don't have to survive long enough to do anything except find the position of the carrier and send it. Once that's done, it's game over. Done. Finished. In 10 minutes, a carrier moving at 35 mph will have moved around 6 miles. That's a 100+ sq. mile radius. How will your missile in fact, lock onto the carrier on the approach? How does the missile know where to go? If your missile is traveling at Mach 5, what communication system are you using to track and talk with that missile? Is something in that communication chain still alive to constantly tell the missile where in fact, the carrier is? Or does the missile have such an advanced radar system that it can too, magically pick out a carrier in a 100-sq. mile radius?