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From: ugthomps@cs.buffalo.edu
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Are Aircraft Carriers Obsolete?
Message-ID: <3446@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Jan 89 03:52:08 GMT
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>	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.
>[...]

Warren,
What Clancy may have made a mistake on is this:
I read the book and read about the missiles coming up the tail end of
the carrier.  I also read the part that said the CIWS couldn't discriminate
between the two targets and assign priority.  I asked some people on the
ship I am attached to and they said that the two missiles would have to
be very close to each other to cause such a reaction from the CIWS.  
Furthermore, if they were very close CIWS would treat it as one target, so
the chances of the missiles being at the proper position relative to
each other is slim.

Additionally, keep in mind that the task force is considered an expandable
force *if* they save the carrier.  Of course, the idea is to lose as little
as possible, but if an aegis equipped ship goes down before the carrier
does and it saved the carrier, no one will be dissatisfied.  The goal is 
to save the carrier.  

                          - G