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From: bobmcc@tcs.com (Bob McCormick)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Anti-Balistic Missiles Now
Message-ID: <1990Dec14.002807.27573@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Dec 90 00:28:07 GMT
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From: bobmcc@tcs.com (Bob McCormick)
From: swilliam@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (Williams)

|> >>If not, how does a carrier battle group defend itself from incoming
warheads?
|> 
|> Aircraft carriers have various "lines of defense" against anti-shipping
|> missiles:
|> 
       {description of defense zones deleted}

Yes, the carriers have an elaborate system for defense againt anti-shipping
missles, but these are usually air-launched or surface-launched
(or sub-launched?) "medium-sized" missiles (my term).  I think the original
post concerned ballistic missiles, which are larger and launched from
further away.  

Could a ballistic missile be accurately targetted at a ship convoy moving at
20-30 knots, even it it was travelling in a straight line?  

What is the set-up time for the missile targetting information?  
For example, if an airplane or small boat spotted a convoy, you could estimate
the location of the convoy in the next hour or so, with a certain error,
probability, which could be large.  Could a missile be quickly re-programmed
and fired in under an hour?

Obviously, the missile could not be expected to hit the deck of a moving
ship, i would think this scenario may be realistic only for
nuclear-tipped missiles.

Bob McCormick   Teknekron Communications Systems
bobmcc@tcs.com  Berkeley, CA, USA