IsaacNewton
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- Jun 20, 2015
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- #61
One of the other things that some on this thread seem to keep forgetting (or else they don't know).
ICBM's are fired at FIXED targets, meaning they can't be redirected after launch.
Carriers are mobile, meaning that they can go from place to place. Top speed on a US carrier (as listed in Jane's Fighting Ships), at the last I checked while on my last sea tour was listed at 40 plus knots. The top speed is classified, but it is more than 40 knots.
Figuring that the average time in the air for the missile is going to be 20 to 30 min, that gives the carrier lead time to get out of the area when a missile launch is detected.
And, figuring the average blast of a really large missile, the shock wave would only have a range of 2 or 3 miles, much less than what a carrier could cover at flank speed.
Pure fantasy.
A ship travelling at 40 kts cannot outrun or outmaneuver a cruise missile travelling at 500 mph in anyone's imagination. And 500 mph is for Subsonic missiles. Supersonic missiles travel more than 700mph (Mach 1), Hypersonic missiles travel up to 5 times the speed of sound (Mach 5).
FANTASY.
Guess you missed out on basic physics. A missile traveling at roughly Mach 10 (which those missiles are supposed to be capable of) can't be steered by radio waves after it's launched.
Carriers can move. And ballistic missiles (of which they are) can only hit a FIXED (meaning it doesn't move) target.
Carriers can get out of range of the danger if they have to.
Sorry, but ICBM's are much different than Tomohawks.
Please keep your phoney un-education to yourself. You are clueless if you think ANY ship can outrun or out maneuver a missile. We are talking about cruise missiles not ICBMs, that is some other bizarre discussion that was started by someone else.
You really don't have much factual information on why surface ships, doesn't matter the type or speed, are so vulnerable in modern warfare. They were utterly vulnerable during WW2 as well.
The most ignorant thing I've heard here though is 'there is no amount that is too much for a ship'. So far away from reality there is no response. Any potential enemies we have are happy we would spend 13 billion dollars on a single asset that can be easily sunk. That is about 1/6 of Russia's entire defense budget. It is stupid beyond stupid.