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there is no chance a US carrier could be nuked without a proportional response

by newaccount2021 5y ago

justicezyx 5y ago
The hypersonic missle won't carry nuclear war head. The impact is enough to render a CV lose combat capability. The modern weaponry are delicate machines. A 50s computer might withstand an earthquake. The modern one probably won't survive a drop less than 1 meter.
- lampington 5y ago
  A 50s computer would have been largely glass vacuum tubes and dropping it would cause quite a lot of problems. And a modern computer would be fine in an earthquake if it didn't fall off something or have something heavy fall on it.
  - jamiek88 5y ago
    Yeah was just thinking that! That analogy may have worked 20 years ago but everything, including notably storage, is solid state now and way more durable.
- post_from_work 5y ago
  The US Navy does shock tests, where it detonates large explosives underwater close to its carriers, for exactly this reason. These ships are way more durable than you give them credit for. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41181/shocking-images-americas-newest-aircraft-carrier-endured-explosive-tests-off-florida https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41181/shocking-images-...
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    Lol, no. The water stops explosions. A direct hit by a 10 ton mass going at Mach 7 will destroy any ship. the Navy won't make tests for that because it's a foregone conclusion.
    - post_from_work 5y ago
      >>>The modern one probably won't survive a drop less than 1 meter. That link was more in response to the assertion "The modern one probably won't survive a drop less than 1 meter.", suggesting that warship-grade computer and electronic systems are vulnerable to mild shock damage. And the Navy has, in fact, done a SINKEX on a carrier: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22639/this-is-the-only-photo-of-a-u-s-navy-supercarrier-being-sunk https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22639/this-is-the-only... The results are classified. Considering how the flight deck and upper works look pretty much intact, they probably hit it with multiple torpedoes rather than anti-ship missiles.
      - sudosysgen 5y ago
        Carriers are not vulnerable to a meter drop, but it's objectively true that ships are not built to the same standards nowadays as they used to be. In WW2 ships were built to remain operational after multiple direct strikes. Nowadays ships are built to not sink after a single direct strike at the most like carriers, or only mildly though against such a hit because actually dealing with it would make them orders of magnitude more expensive and so heavy they'd be useless. While a WW2 battleship could survive multiple direct hits and still fulfill its mission, a modern carrier would be lucky not to sink, and definitely won't be launching and recovering aircraft. If a carrier in a war against a major power can't launch any aircraft anymore it's as good as dead, once it's off the AA ships will be targeted and sunk as they won't have AWACS and fighters to defend them and the carrier itself will be destroyed by enemy air power. But the commenter is absolutely correct, ships are not expected to remain operable after a direct strike anymore. Weapons have gotten so good that defending credibly against them is not practical, so it's not really worth it to protect them nearly as much as it used to be.

there is no chance a US carrier could be nuked without a proportional response

The hypersonic missle won't carry nuclear war head. The impact is enough to render a CV lose combat capability. The modern weaponry are delicate machines. A 50s computer might withstand an earthquake. The modern one probably won't survive a drop less than 1 meter.

lampington 5y ago
A 50s computer would have been largely glass vacuum tubes and dropping it would cause quite a lot of problems. And a modern computer would be fine in an earthquake if it didn't fall off something or have something heavy fall on it.
- jamiek88 5y ago
  Yeah was just thinking that! That analogy may have worked 20 years ago but everything, including notably storage, is solid state now and way more durable.
post_from_work 5y ago
The US Navy does shock tests, where it detonates large explosives underwater close to its carriers, for exactly this reason. These ships are way more durable than you give them credit for. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41181/shocking-images-americas-newest-aircraft-carrier-endured-explosive-tests-off-florida https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41181/shocking-images-...
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Lol, no. The water stops explosions. A direct hit by a 10 ton mass going at Mach 7 will destroy any ship. the Navy won't make tests for that because it's a foregone conclusion.
  - post_from_work 5y ago
    >>>The modern one probably won't survive a drop less than 1 meter. That link was more in response to the assertion "The modern one probably won't survive a drop less than 1 meter.", suggesting that warship-grade computer and electronic systems are vulnerable to mild shock damage. And the Navy has, in fact, done a SINKEX on a carrier: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22639/this-is-the-only-photo-of-a-u-s-navy-supercarrier-being-sunk https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22639/this-is-the-only... The results are classified. Considering how the flight deck and upper works look pretty much intact, they probably hit it with multiple torpedoes rather than anti-ship missiles.
    - sudosysgen 5y ago
      Carriers are not vulnerable to a meter drop, but it's objectively true that ships are not built to the same standards nowadays as they used to be. In WW2 ships were built to remain operational after multiple direct strikes. Nowadays ships are built to not sink after a single direct strike at the most like carriers, or only mildly though against such a hit because actually dealing with it would make them orders of magnitude more expensive and so heavy they'd be useless. While a WW2 battleship could survive multiple direct hits and still fulfill its mission, a modern carrier would be lucky not to sink, and definitely won't be launching and recovering aircraft. If a carrier in a war against a major power can't launch any aircraft anymore it's as good as dead, once it's off the AA ships will be targeted and sunk as they won't have AWACS and fighters to defend them and the carrier itself will be destroyed by enemy air power. But the commenter is absolutely correct, ships are not expected to remain operable after a direct strike anymore. Weapons have gotten so good that defending credibly against them is not practical, so it's not really worth it to protect them nearly as much as it used to be.