Why Aircraft Carriers Still Rule the Oceans

If you took 2 Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters and bolted them to an old aircraft carrier......you could fire it off and send it straight into China and even if they shot it....they couldn't stop it.

What kinda speed do you think you could hit? Think it's sitting on a warplan? LOL!!!

Originally posted by NavyDoc
reply to post by earthdude

 

They could? How? How much ordiance can a drone carry compared to an F18? AA capability? Speed? Where would these amazing drones launch and recover? That's silly. Y'all have bought into the drone hype, they are not the end all be all.

The only thing that might replace our aircraft carriers is something like the Aurora project. If you can launch suborbital aircraft that can strike anyware in the world in a few hours, you no longer need floating airfields on station.

I didn't say drone aircraft. I was talking about unmanned craft. I think the word drone is wrong anyway. Remotely Operated Kill Machines. ROCM for short. Rock'em to death.

Originally posted by schuyler

If they didn't not only would you not be driving, you wouldn't be eating, or surfing the Net.

That's nutter, loony, whacko talk. I like the carriers. They're good. Nothing wrong with them at all. Better to have them than not have them. But you place far too much importance on their role and capabilities.

The US SSN fleet as well as surface ships with the BGM-109 Tomahawk ASMs and SSMs can strike targets with less risk than the current F/A-18C, F/A-18E and AV-8B carrier fighters which are outclassed in almost all areas of flight performance by the Su-27 Flanker and it's derivatives.
The US also has the most advanced and powerful air force in the world. The USAF. With air assets like the
A-10A, F-15C, F-15E, F-16C, B-52, B-1B, B-2A, E-3, KC-135, C-5, C-17 and the king of fighters the F-22A.
The USAF has superior aircraft, superior capabilities. In WWII in the Pacific the carrier and it's aircraft was the most important asset. Not so today.
The USAF can hit anything carrier airpower can hit and more with less risk and expense. The carriers are a part of the US military not the centre of it.
Getting rid of a few CVNs and LHDs isn't going to make much of a dent in the massive 16 trillion dollar debt. I thought that might save the US some dollars but it turns out they're not quite as expensive as I thought. In fact quite reasonable value for money as long as one doesn't sink which would be a total disaster.
Classified next generation stealthy hypersonic anti-ship missiles are under development and it's only a matter of time before new technology makes surface naval combat even faster and more deadly.