Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!cwjcc!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnews!grabhorn@marlin.nosc.mil From: grabhorn@marlin.nosc.mil (Steven W. Grabhorn) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Are Aircraft Carriers Obsolete? Message-ID: <3234@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 18 Jan 89 22:32:09 GMT References: <3200@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Reply-To: grabhorn@marlin.nosc.mil (Steven W. Grabhorn) Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego Lines: 51 Approved: military@att.att.com In <3200@cbnews.ATT.COM> mmm@cup.portal.com writes: >What is the reason for having aircraft carriers? Aren't they a total >waste of money? I won't get into that. >In a global conflict, the aircraft carriers would all be destroyed >immediately by missiles. A missile costs a lot less than an aircraft >carrier. I don't think I would believe that, but... (stuff deleted) >Aren't capital ships and carrier battle groups as obsolete as horse >cavalry? No they're not. It's a dynamic situation when any type of battle occurs. Luckily this doesn't happen very often. However, when it does, intelligence people try to evaluate the weapons and tactics used in the battle since this really gives them the only real opportunity to try to see how well these things work in a real world situation. Hey, that's their job. I would think that carriers and battle groups are much more concerned with submarine threats than land, ship, or aircraft missile attacks (assuming you're in a deep ocean environment and the missiles aren't nuclear). The problem with subs is that if the group doesn't detect them they can sneak in or lie in wait and launch something literally right on top of the carri- er, which is the main target (of course that severely limits the subma- rine's chances of getting away undetected). When other platforms that are much farther away launch a missile at a battle group there is a better chance of detecting it and knocking it down before it gets close enough to be a threat. Quite a few people wonder if aircraft carriers would be destroyed right off the bat in a major conflict, or if the strength of the battle group sur- rounding it would be effective in protecting a carrier against submarines and other threats. I don't believe anybody really knows, no matter what you hear from the surface and submarine people. Of course, there have been stories in the newspapers about carriers collid- ing with subs, sometimes of a different nation. Probably navigational errors, rules of the road, you know, that sort of thing. Standard disclaimers certainly do apply. Steve Grabhorn Naval Ocean Systems Center grabhorn@nosc.mil San Diego, CA. 92152-5000 sdcsvax!nosc!marlin!grabhorn 619-553-3454