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Grayling813 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2020 6:21 pm

ScottDLS wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2020 5:30 pm
Navy doctrine was somewhat similar in the 1980s with CVN's leading the battle group for power projection. DDG's and CG's with phased array radar way out as pickets (i.e. as Soviet AS-4 missile sponges and SM-2 magazines for said sponges). Then DD's a little closer in with Tomahawk and Harpoon cruise missiles for surface attack and some torpedoes as a last ditch Hail Mary for enemy subs that got past the SSN's also guarding the battle group.

Plus all manner of Oilers, Tenders, and USNS supply ships to carry the JP-5, DFM, beans, bullets, spare parts, and ordnance for said battle group.

And we would sneak right inside all of those picket ships, launch "water slugs" (a torpedo tube full of water that simulates torpedo launch) and a flare to indicate our launching position. Once was so close to the USS Midway that our flare almost fell onto the flight deck. We watched crewmen running around after the flare went up pointing at where it came up from.

Good times!

MaduroBU wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2020 1:44 am ...
Thach contributed to the BB's demise by starting the process of redefining "armor". In direct response to Midway and the Coral Sea, he proposed continuous CAP over American task forces with destroyer pickets at great range actively vectoring in those airplanes. The effectiveness of this strategy was apparent in its defense against kamikaze attacks, but most pointedly at the Philippine Sea, wherein Hellcats literally ate incoming waves of Japanese planes. What should've been the "Japanese Midway" (they had a big advantage in wind as well as a ton of land based aircraft to buttress their carrier air wings) was instead the "Marianas Turkey Shoot". Our planes killed exactly one carrier (the Cavalla also got one- cool boat to see in Galveston), but it didn't matter because by the end, nearly all of the Japanese pilots were busy fighting off sharks. Armor, like every other material, depends upon size and material properties. Steel's material properties are far superior to those of air, but hundreds of nautical miles of air can overcome that disadvantage.
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