4 ms·
> While it's unlikely that this will allow the aircraft carrier to regain the place it once held... Care to elaborate on this? I was under the impression aircr
by jug6ernaut 13y ago
> While it's unlikely that this will allow the aircraft carrier to regain the place it once held...
Care to elaborate on this? I was under the impression aircraft carriers were still our best general purpose military tool? (wartime/peacetime/force projection/ect)
- div 13y agoWikipedia has a good writeup of the Millenium Challenge 2002 wargames, where a large fleet was basically destroyed by assymetrical guerilla tactics (small boats, low tech communication): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002
- maxerickson 13y agoDon't forget the cruise missiles. (both for the Millennium Challenge wargames and as a general equalizer of sea power)
- macavity23 13y agoThey're great against a low-tech adversary, but against serious ballistic or (some) cruise missiles, they're just slowly-moving seaborne apartment blocks. Good writeup here: http://exiledonline.com/the-war-nerd-this-is-how-the-carriers-will-die/ http://exiledonline.com/the-war-nerd-this-is-how-the-carrier...
- csense 13y agoThis is really informative. You should submit it.
- macavity23 13y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=547596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=547596 - should probably have searched before posting original link :)
- JackFr 13y agoAdmittedly, I have no special expertise. My understanding is that while for certain kinds of force projection, they are the only game in town, they are such a rich, fat target, a larger and larger portion of their operation (in terms of manpower, arms and electronics) gets devoted to defending the carrier, and this squeezes out the force projection capability. I believe the cost of production of an aircraft carrier is around $12 billion, and I'm not sure if that includes the ~$1 billion worth of aircraft on board.