Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!xanth!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnews!military
From: military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Are Aircraft Carriers Obsolete?
Message-ID: <3404@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 24 Jan 89 02:49:56 GMT
References: <3364@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 25
Approved: military@att.att.com



	With all this discussion of carrier survivability, I'm surprised
nobody has mentioned the chapter in Tom Clancy's book "Red Storm Rising"
that chronicles a Soviet ASM attack on a carrier task force.  (I believe
the title of the chapter was "Day of the Vampires," as 'vampire' is
apparently the Navy term for an anti-ship missile.)  The end result of the
attack was a fairly damaged task force, due to a combination of Russian
ECM, the size of the incoming missile raid, and ammunition limitations of
the Aegis cruisers.

	Before anybody starts complaining that this was all in Clancy's
imagination, let me point out that the co-author of the book was Larry
Bond, developer of the game "Harpoon," and that many of the battles
described in "Red Storm Rising" were gamed using the "Harpoon" rules.

	So, just to keep this discussion interesting, does anybody want to
comment on the validity (or the lack thereof) of the scenario described in
Clancy's book?  What, if anything, did he not account for that would result
in the task force not getting hurt as badly as it did?


Warren J. Madden
...!eddie!rabbit
rabbit@eddie.mit.edu