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Old 03-18-2010, 02:12 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
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Some of the ideas we've come up with:

At the outbreak of war, Soviet Naval Aviation masses bombers against US carriers before they can form the entire strike fleet up. In the Far East, Vinson is struck by over 200 bombers launching ASMs, as the Far Eastern TVD commander lets slip the massed bombers that had been participating in Operation Tchaikovsky. The next week the feat is repeated to the detriment of Washington.
Ranger is afloat through most of 1997 but ineffective as her air wing took heavy losses (as did Lincoln's) in December 96; the remnants of the air wings were merged and Ranger sent back to the West Coast to form a new air wing. It's nearly combat-ready when SF Bay gets nuked and she burns next to the pier.

Keep in mind that just because the hull is still intact, if the air wing is ineffective (as it might be after tangling with the PVO near the Kola peninsula in the dead of winter before trying to land on a carrier in 24-hour darkness) or the 6000 sailors aboard can't be supplied with food the carrier isn't much use.

One note on use of ballistic missiles against ships at sea - its a tough targeting problem... to locate and identify the target, transmit it to a HQ and then on to a launcher, program the missile and launch it and have it land within a lethal radius (20 PSI) of the target before that target moves away at 20-30+ knots. Mid-course guidance requires the observing sensor to remain intact and have working comms. It's doable, but tough.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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