Modern Carrier Battle Group..Strategies and Tactics

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

You do not need to sink a Carrier to Mission Kill it (which is the real object of the exercise) Further, just like with Cars, it can often be cheaper to buy new than try and repair a badly damaged wreck.

I have been reading with some interest about these X Ray bombs - which are small EMP weapons with a effect of a couple of hundred yards. So heres my latest plan - send timed multiple waves of these weapons, each wave to knock out a layer of intercepting defence missiles and so therefore force the attack line ever foraward untill you EMP the Aegis ships and the carrier itself and allow normal ASM's to finish the job.

(If someone has already put this forward in the preceding 20 pages, I apologise, but I do not have time to read everything)

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

SampanViking said:

You do not need to sink a Carrier to Mission Kill it (which is the real object of the exercise) Further, just like with Cars, it can often be cheaper to buy new than try and repair a badly damaged wreck.

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There's something else that can put a carrier out of action for a lengthy period of time. In Red Storm Rising, one of the Russian missiles that hits the Nimitz destroys the air raid shelters where the carrier's flight deck crew were taking refuge, killing most of them. As I'm sure Popeye can confirm, carrier flight deck crew are highly trained and specialised people and without sufficient numbers of them, the carrier cannot function to it's full capability. In such a situation, the USN would re-assign experienced deck crew from other CV's to augment new recruits who would be rushed through training, but if you're a one carrier navy such as India, France, and almost certainly in a few years China, such a disaster would have more serious consequences, as nearly all of the navy's experienced deck crew would have been killed or incapacitated, it would be harder to provide a core of experienced crew for the replacements to follow. Also, their naval training system may not have the capacity for putting a large number of people through in a short space of time. Obviously this would be an ideal scenario for the attacker, as it's difficult enough to get missile through on a carrier, let alone hitting a critical area, but it's what you must hope for!

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

In Red Storm Rising, one of the Russian missiles that hits the Nimitz destroys the air raid shelters where the carrier's flight deck crew were taking refuge, killing most of them. As I'm sure Popeye can confirm, carrier flight deck crew are highly trained and specialised people and without sufficient numbers of them, the carrier cannot function to it's full capability.

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There are no designated air raid shelters on a CVN. There are compartments designated as shelters. Berthing comparments , work centers etc. And a flight deck crew is a great asset. You just can't send anyone on that flight deck to work. They have to be trained. Mostly on the job. But they are trained. In a case such as this the USN would immediatley transfer trained flight deck crew to the ship and airwing affected by such a strike.

Wipe out enough flight deck crewmen and that ship is probally missioned killed.

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

SampanViking said:

You do not need to sink a Carrier to Mission Kill it (which is the real object of the exercise) Further, just like with Cars, it can often be cheaper to buy new than try and repair a badly damaged wreck.

I have been reading with some interest about these X Ray bombs - which are small EMP weapons with a effect of a couple of hundred yards. So heres my latest plan - send timed multiple waves of these weapons, each wave to knock out a layer of intercepting defence missiles and so therefore force the attack line ever foraward untill you EMP the Aegis ships and the carrier itself and allow normal ASM's to finish the job.

(If someone has already put this forward in the preceding 20 pages, I apologise, but I do not have time to read everything)

Click to expand...

You still have to deal with the lack of targeting information. Which spot of ocean are you going to aim your emp weapons? Taking out your recon assets are far easier than taking out your actual weapons.

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

It's real easy to sink a carrier, the problem here is how you sink its battle group or get past the battle group. The most obvious solution is stealth. I think glide bombs could be a highly effective possibility.

They can't be intercepted, can be guided with precision and fired from out of range of air defenses.

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

Vlad Plasmius said:

It's real easy to sink a carrier, the problem here is how you sink its battle group or get past the battle group. The most obvious solution is stealth. I think glide bombs could be a highly effective possibility.

They can't be intercepted, can be guided with precision and fired from out of range of air defenses.

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Missiles and five inch shells can be intercepted, but not glide bombs?
Glide bombs are easy to intercept

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

Vlad Plasmius said:

It's real easy to sink a carrier, the problem here is how you sink its battle group or get past the battle group. The most obvious solution is stealth. I think glide bombs could be a highly effective possibility.

They can't be intercepted, can be guided with precision and fired from out of range of air defenses.

Click to expand...

Prove to me that glide bombs can be reliably fired from out of a CBGs Air Defence range and reliably targeted onto a carrier that is moving very fast.

Use ballistic missile to destroy a carrier?

"Chinese can destroy a carrier with ballistic missile."

Of course, no one knows whether its true or not. But it had been discussed in Chinese forum for a long time in 2005 and 2006. This topic lost favour after the declassification of J-10 and a number of other PLA deployments.

The subject has been resurrected recently after the launch of Beidou2(Compass) satellite navigation system.

I saw many Chinese mili fans believe that PLA is able to use the satellite to identify the position of a carrier group, then launch the missile, the satellite guides the missile towards the carrier group. Once the missile fly over the carrier group, it returns back to the atomsphere, release the missiles packed in the war head then let the missiles seek and destroy.

It sounds fantastic, I don't see any illogic in above description. But, if above comment is true, does it means that the carrier group is useless during a war between US and other heavy weight players(China and Russia)?

As far as I know, the carrier group is very large can be easily spotted and generally moves very slow.

Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?

SampanViking said:

You do not need to sink a Carrier to Mission Kill it (which is the real object of the exercise) Further, just like with Cars, it can often be cheaper to buy new than try and repair a badly damaged wreck.

Click to expand...

Heavy damage to the flight deck or bridge area could certainly mission kill a carrier but in many cases (if not most) I think it is likely that they could be repaired and returned to operational service much faster than a new build. The kamikazes of WW2 acted a bit like cruise missiles and there were many examples of carriers receiving devastating hits but being able to return to action after repairs. This was especially the case with the British carriers with their armoured flight decks. The Essex class had good levels of protection, even though their flight decks were not armoured, and they proved tough enough to be able to be repaired even after devastating damage had 'mission killed' some of them. During the Vietnam War several large carriers suffered major damage as a result of accidents (e.g. the fire on Forrestal which destroyed much of the flight deck) but these ships were strong enough to survive and were able to be repaired.

Cheers

Re: Use ballistic missile to destroy a carrier?

aikea said:

I saw many Chinese mili fans believe that PLA is able to use the satellite to identify the position of a carrier group, then launch the missile, the satellite guides the missile towards the carrier group. Once the missile fly over the carrier group, it returns back to the atomsphere, release the missiles packed in the war head then let the missiles seek and destroy.

It sounds fantastic, I don't see any illogic in above description. But, if above comment is true, does it means that the carrier group is useless during a war between US and other heavy weight players(China and Russia)?

As far as I know, the carrier group is very large can be easily spotted and generally moves very slow.

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First, during actual combat, my bet is that the satellite capability enjoyed by both countries will fairly rapidly be destroyed.

Second, though a carrier battle group is large, they are not easy to find on the high seas. The Ocean is a huge place and in war conditions the carrier will be operating under a buttoned up electroinic emission status that will make it hard to find.

Finally, carrier battle groups are not slow. The carrier itself is capable of very fast speed and is limited by its destroyer escorts, which themselves will be moving at speeds in excess of thiry knots when necessary.