Big ol radar cross section but still awesome to look at. I never did tire of looking at ships and planes while in and still enjoy seeing them.
I hope Obama knows what he is doing. It can’t be like his Drone moment. Can I have my Drone back. Pretty Please.
I don’t think that’s very smart at all.
Back in my day—you know, wooden ships and iron men—they wouldn’t send a carrier in there because those waters are far too restricted. Of course, that was when Ronaldus Magnus was president.
I have an uneasy sense of impending disaster. Hope I’m just being silly.
My nephew’s on the Stennis. Stay safe Kenny.
Interesting that Iran doesn’t mention the Nuclear Subs that accompany all Carriers.
SOH = rather limited maneuvering room for a US aircraft carrier and all the supporting defense forces to protect it... which used to include a second carrier group nearby
I remember the days when adults were in charge of strategic decisonmaking and the US the Navy would not take this risk for a FON show of force with an unstable dictator backed by the Russians and the Chinese
Let’s hope the Iranians play nice
If El Presidente will just let the navy do what the navy does best, there will be a very short stare down in the Strait of Hormuz. Then maybe a little flyover of the presidential palace in Tehran by an F18 squadran.
Then things will get back to what is considered normal. But my guess is El Presidente will try to negotiate with Tehran and once again, we will come out on the short end.
FWIW I don’t think Zero gets on the phone and tells the Navy to send a carrier into this body of water or that body of water.
I’m sure that the way it works is that the services and the Joint Chiefs prepare certain options and certain recommendations and the president may or may not sign off of them depending on their importance.
Point being that if the ship is in the SOH it’s because the Navy itself worked out a plan to do this - not because Zero thought it up on the golf course.
Gee when the Shiite hits the fan in the Gulf I hope it doesn’t interrupt Obama’s vacation...I suppose he could finish his hole of golf before delivering his capitulation speech.
I’m just wondering if this is exactly what the Iranians want us to do. And whether it gives cover to Bammy to do it.
Van Riper had at his disposal a computer-generated flotilla of small boats and planes, many of them civilian, which he kept buzzing around the virtual Persian Gulf in circles as the game was about to get under way. As the US fleet entered the Gulf, Van Riper gave a signal - not in a radio transmission that might have been intercepted, but in a coded message broadcast from the minarets of mosques at the call to prayer. The seemingly harmless pleasure craft and propeller planes suddenly turned deadly, ramming into Blue boats and airfields along the Gulf in scores of al-Qaida-style suicide attacks. Meanwhile, Chinese Silkworm-type cruise missiles fired from some of the small boats sank the US fleet's only aircraft carrier and two marine helicopter carriers. The tactics were reminiscent of the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen two years ago, but the Blue fleet did not seem prepared. Sixteen ships were sunk altogether, along with thousands of marines. If it had really happened, it would have been the worst naval disaster since Pearl Harbor.
So after he routed his opponents, the Pentagon brass got together and decided the middle eastern dictator would never do that and declared a do-over. And this time, they rigged it so he had to do things their way. And of course, they routed him this time.
Will Ahmadinejad play by those rules or will he think outside the box?
It’s funny how the wheel of history often turns on naval paradigm shifts. Think of the Monitor and the Merrimack.
Or more to the point, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, sent out to disrupt the Japanese attack on Singapore.
I hope we are not about to learn a painful new lesson about the limits of sea power in 2011.
Forgive me from copying this from another thread, but I’m in a hurry to get off the computer. I think it’s worth mentioning again.
The mullahs running Iran’s Rev’y Guards could structure their standing orders to their thousands of mobile missile batteries so that they could not be recalled or overturned.
The Iranian leaders understand full well we would attack, disrupt or spoof their C&C, so they might have built a plan based upon sealed standing orders. “No matter what you hear on the radio after the war starts, you will open your sealed orders on day five, and obey them to your last breath, on pain of eternal damnation if you disobey them.”
Remember, the missile batteries are not under the control of prof. military, but fanatical rev. guards, spread over thousand of square miles of mountains, cliffs and ravines surrounding the straits.
If they are given sealed orders to remain in their hidden caves until day 95, eating Iranian MREs, they will do so with all the fervor of the Japs hiding on Pacific Islands into the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Then on day 95 (or any other day in their orders) they will come out and fire at any ships in range. Each battery can be given a different launch day. No orders from above will be needed, and no orders not to launch will be believed or obeyed. No recall possible.
Don’t discount this “doomsday” option. The mullahs are on record as trying to instigate a doomsday “return of the Mahdi” scenario.
Don’t assume rational Western thought processes on them, and don’t assume an Iranian war plan that can be recalled by the Iranian leadership due to Western pressure. Once begun, each missile crew might have to be dug out by troops on the ground.
Considering we were not even able to stop a single SCUD launch in Desert Storm, up to the last day of the war, I’d assume a large % of the Iranian mobile anti-ship missile batteries will be operational for months after the hostilities open.
IOW, a floating bomb.
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Iran is beating its chest? What, did they turn vegetarian and give up meat?
Iran has numerous very quiet DE subs. Having a carrier in that little space is asking for disaster.
That and shore missile batteries would zero in on a carrier.
Station a carrier 100+ miles out in the Indian Ocean, land based assets in Kuwait, Southern Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan to cover the Northern Gulf.
Also, I believe the Persian Gulf is too shallow for Nuke subs.
While they can submerge, they can’t deep dive for evasive action..
“Iran has announced it located a U.S. aircraft carrier moving into the Strait of Hormuz during Iranian wargame exercises.
The AFP reports Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, spokesman for the exercises, says the carrier was spotted by an Iranian reconnaissance plane that took photos and video.”
Dont pat yourself on the back too hard.
We weren’t trying to hide it from you. We just want you to get a glimpse of a ship that can turn your entire navy into toothpicks.