Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?
It depends where and when a bomb will hit. If it hits when there are planes on deck, then the catastrophic effects of secondary explosions from onboard ordinance and jet fuel will caused severe damage. That is what happened in the Battle of Midway to the 3 Japanese carriers and why there was massive damage on the Forrestal in Vietnam due to a zuni rocket misfire accident.
When under attack, the carrier always lauches all its airwing either to defend it or orbit in a safe distance. This is done to minimized secondary explosions. Another step is to drain all the aviation fuel lines and flood it with an inert gas like carbon dioxide to minimized a dangerous gas build up, like what happened to a Japanese carrier Taiho in the Battle of Philippine sea. Jet fuel tanks and ordinance are located in armored spaces way below decks, perhaps under the water line.
The best way to damage the carrier's flight ops is to damage to flight deck. A hit on the arrester wires will surely put it out of commission the same thing with the catapults. These two areas are exposed and not sufficiently armored. The trick is to hit it.
Most anti-ship missiles tend to just slam to the side of a ship because the terminal pop-up manuever adds vulnerability to the missile. I don't know the exact facts, but a Nimitz class carriers has honey combed with thousands of water tight compartments. These compartments act as additional bouyancy for the carrier and is some cases, contain the blast and fire damage. Furthermore, the carrier is a very big ship. A hit by a sunburn on its side, will not have large impact on the ship as it would a smaller warship, like a destroyer.
It depends where and when a bomb will hit. If it hits when there are planes on deck, then the catastrophic effects of secondary explosions from onboard ordinance and jet fuel will caused severe damage. That is what happened in the Battle of Midway to the 3 Japanese carriers and why there was massive damage on the Forrestal in Vietnam due to a zuni rocket misfire accident.
When under attack, the carrier always lauches all its airwing either to defend it or orbit in a safe distance. This is done to minimized secondary explosions. Another step is to drain all the aviation fuel lines and flood it with an inert gas like carbon dioxide to minimized a dangerous gas build up, like what happened to a Japanese carrier Taiho in the Battle of Philippine sea. Jet fuel tanks and ordinance are located in armored spaces way below decks, perhaps under the water line.
The best way to damage the carrier's flight ops is to damage to flight deck. A hit on the arrester wires will surely put it out of commission the same thing with the catapults. These two areas are exposed and not sufficiently armored. The trick is to hit it.
Most anti-ship missiles tend to just slam to the side of a ship because the terminal pop-up manuever adds vulnerability to the missile. I don't know the exact facts, but a Nimitz class carriers has honey combed with thousands of water tight compartments. These compartments act as additional bouyancy for the carrier and is some cases, contain the blast and fire damage. Furthermore, the carrier is a very big ship. A hit by a sunburn on its side, will not have large impact on the ship as it would a smaller warship, like a destroyer.
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