Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
The U.S. is lagging behind in ASM capability. Go ahead and laugh at Russia's supersonic ASMs and China's ballistic ASMs, but American Harpoons and SM-6s are arguably much worse ship-killing weapons. This is what putting most of your eggs in carrier air-power gets you.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/mili...in-the-future/ |
No one is laughing at other countries ASM capabilities Raellus but the primary threat to US Navy aircraft carriers remains Russian air-launched supersonic anti-ship missiles launched from the Tu-22M bomber.
For any warship fitted with anti-ship missiles to get within range of a US Navy aircraft carrier they would have to be able to launch beyond the range of the carrier escorts air defence screen and the range of carrier aircraft. The US Navy positions most of its carrier escorts about 20 km from the carrier. But an air defence tactic the US Navy also use is to place escorts in emissions silence between 100 and 250 km out along an expected axis of threat. Also carrier aircraft are usually positioned about 300 km from the aircraft carrier on CAP, and that range can be extended.
US Navy escort warships are very well defended against the threat of hostile anti-ship missiles and aircraft. AN/SPY-1D 3D radars, AN-SPS-67 and AN-SPS-73 surface search radars, AN/SLQ-32 (V)2 EW system, RIM-66M, RIM-162 ESSM and RIM-174 ERAM SAM's, RIM-161 ABM system, Phalanx and Mark 36 SRBOC decoys.
In addition to the Harpoon the US Navy also uses AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER air launched cruise missiles which is carried by US Navy F/A-18, P-3C, P-8 and USAF F-15E. It has a range of 250 km and is extremely accurate, with the best Circular Area of Probable (CEP) among any munitions in the US Navy.
The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) will replace the current Harpoon anti-ship missile from 2018 or 2019, and pioneers autonomous targeting capabilities for anti-ship missiles. Some were actually put into limited production and deployed on US Navy ships in 2014. It can be launched from US Navy ships fitted with the Mk 41 VLS launcher and US Navy and USAF aircraft. The Norwegian company Konigsberg is also developing the Naval Strike Weapon as a competitor to the LRASM for the US contract. The Next Generation Strike Capability (NGSC) missile which combines land attack and anti-surface warfare capabilities and which will replace the Tomahawk is also in the works.
The Chinese DF-21D anti-carrier ballistic missile needs an OTH radar and RORSAT to track a US carrier, and they would hope that the US carrier was standing still. Even if they have a powerful and effective OTH radar (which I doubt) the accuracy wouldn't be good enough and they would need recon aircraft and warships/submarines to help track the carrier. And that would be in a sea of clutter and US counter-measures, yet alone US anti-ballistic missiles and anti-aircraft defences. If China has an operational OTH radar capable of tracking a US carrier offshore it will be the first thing the US will eliminate in hostilities, and quicker than China will believe possible. Russian kh-22 missiles launched from Tu-22M bombers are a lot more effective and devastating.