Abstract:

'A few years ago, a US submarine commander said, 'There are two kinds of ship in the US Navy: subs and targets.' The fact that big surface ships are dinosaurs is something that's gotten clearer every decade since 1921.

What the battleship was in 1941, the aircraft carrier is now: a big, proud, expensive...sitting duck.Aircraft carriers came out of WW II looking powerful, but that was before microchips. Now, when an enemy tanker can fire 60 self-guiding cruise missiles from hundreds of miles away, no carrier will survive its first real battle.'

Maybe we need submersible carriers?

Interesting, yes. Oversimplified, yes. Somewhat accurate, yes. Half way through this read, I was getting ready to mail this guy some Ritilan.

The Navy is powerless against BBP poopmissile.

First of all, this idiot has no fucking clue as to the fartmouth he is spouting.

His thesis rests on the idea that a carrier is an independent entity which is not the case. Ever.

Aircraft Carriers are just that, they carry fucking aircraft and do very little else. The only offensive weapons on a carrier are the aircraft themselves. And a carrier has very limited defensive weapons.

This is why every single carrier at sea has with it the following, no less than 4 guided missile destroyer/cruisers. These nasty little fuckers are multi-role platforms but really love the shit out of blowing other airplanes up to keep them from getting to the carrier. They carry a shit load of SM-2 standard missiles which come off the rail at mach 3 and have proximity fuses that when detonated cause a series of hardened steel rods and chain to fly out, enveloping whatever airframe it encounters. These missiles are targeted using the AEGIS weapons system.

The 'small boys' or 'tin cans' as they are called are also outfitted for engaging surface craft using harpoon, tomahawk, 5' cannon, and 25mm chain guns. One particularly nasty item is essentially a 5' shotgun shell specifically designed for use against the small poor man's patrol boat which is basically a Boston Whaler with a bunch of RPGs.

Ultimately, the tin can's job is one that is often left unspoken. That job is to sacrifice itself to save the carrier.

Aircraft Carriers are not the end all of the command structure either. While it is true that most cocksure Admirals insist on their staff being on the carrier, the naval command structure is split up among the battle group with mutliple backups for all major warfare commanders. So if a ship gets taken out, the next guy in line picks up the slack.

Now on to the 'war game' aspect. Having served at the United States Naval War College - Wargaming Staff I might have a little more of a fucking clue about how wargames are done and utilized than this flunky. I don't know, it's just a guess.

It's easy for him to criticize the execution of the wargame and zero in on the term refloating. What he fails to explain is that in a wargame such as this, they are executed in phases. A strategy is layed out and implemented. Then statisticians then run that plan and return results. If the plan is fail, then the game is reset, sometimes from the beginning, sometimes from the point of fail. A new plan is implemented and the game goes on to the next fail point.

This isn't cheating, this is little more than troubleshooting if you think about it. Plans are tested, weak points are identified and fixed, and the plans are re-tested. The fail points and conditions are documented in detail which allows a real life commander to know when he is in danger of being pwned by the BBP poopmissile and possibly remove himself from that situation or change the battlefield to better suit him.

Bottom line: Fuck this guy. He's an idiot with an ax to grind with his fartmouth.

^^^Not to mention the nuclear subs under the carriers. Those also have Navy Seals.