Posted on 02/12/2020 1:07:24 PM PST by setter
I watched the 1980's movie, The Final Countdown the other day about the USS Nimitz after going through a strange storm ended up back in Dec 6, 1941.
I have some questions.
How handicapped would a modern carrier such as the Reagan or Ford be without GPS and military satellites? Isn't everything pretty much now digital versus analog? I presume there is analog backup in case satellite feeds are lost. Without GPS how could say an F-18 plug in their coordinates? Would radar still work?
Couple of other questions: Why did they take the Senator and Laurel to the island instead of Pearl? The Nimitz was going to attack the Japanese fighters anyway why did it matter?
Instead of going to Pearl to meet the Japanese why not attack the Japanese fleet?
One of my favorite movies, I would love to see a high dollar Jerry Bruckheimer style remake done of it.
Any remake will be a woketard trainwreck.
That movie is one of the silliest premises for a movie...
But I love it! (I call it one of my ‘guilty pleasures’...:)
We have radar today that far outclasses anything in that day.
Our pilots know how to drop unguided iron bombs and can do so with far greater accuracy and at greater speed than they ever could, and can do it without GPS
The AA gunners could probably not hit them easily at their speed
I still think it would be very one sided.
-—How handicapped would a modern carrier such as the Reagan or Ford be without GPS and military satellites? Isn’t everything pretty much now digital versus analog?-—
They’d manage fine and work around it, but eventually using up ordinance and the modern equipment needing fuel, maintenance and spare parts (which they didn’t have and couldn’t get) would eventually be a problem.
—Why did they take the Senator and Laurel to the island instead of Pearl?-—
They didn’t want them spilling the beans about the future tech they’d seen. They thought it would be temporary safe keeping there.
—Instead of going to Pearl to meet the Japanese why not attack the Japanese fleet? -—
Intercepting the attack planes was first priority. I’m sure they would have gotten to the IJN fleet right after. One modern carrier group could probably destroy the entire WW2 Japanese Navy in about 2 weeks.
The Timestorm caught up with them and it never happened, so they didn’t get the chance.
In all of those fantasy movies, it is probably best not to think too much.
No! No remake. Like you inferred...a woketard trainwreck.
bttt
Hehehehe...your post made me laugh, because it is so true!
Like a bunch of Trekkies standing around arguing about the lifespan of damaged dilithium crystals or something...:)
Too funny!
It’s actually an interesting premise and thought experiment.
How outclassed would WW2 military tech be by modern tech?
A LOT, obviously.
Things would mostly work.
Realize that a modern aircraft carrier would only have enough modern jet fuel as she holds, after that unless the Navy is in the habit of putting how-to-refine-jet-fuel texts that are detailed enough to be of quick use to 1940s refiners the actual impact the ship could have is less in your face than for her tactical ability and historical knowledge. As for technical knowledge of her crew, think that one novel where a small US town ends up in Europe centuries ago for comparison ... only in spades.
Under those circumstances, the war will almost certainly start to go differently even if she never mounts an airstrike, her most valuable aircraft will not be the fighters and bombers but her surveillance and ASW craft.
The 1940s USN could absorb the ship and otherwise fly conventional 1940s attack planes from them early in the war when they were desperate for carriers. That said later on, and not THAT much later, the smart move would be to hold in reserve the valuable ship and her even more valuable crew to quickstart a technological revolution back home.
And not just for suddenly giving the US the whole basis for integrated circuits and advanced concepts of programming that otherwise took decades after the movie to earn.
I served on Nimitz for three years in the mid 80’s - and we didn’t have GPS. Every three days we’d take on 2.5 to 3 million gallons of JP-5. Back then we had A-6,
A-7, F-14 and S-3 - all gone now.
The Nimitz was the first Navy ship I ever say
Will never forget having to tilt my head way way back to look up to the underside deck of that massive protector of freedom as my ex FIL drove slowly along the dock
Would WWII fuel work in a modern jet?
Surely modern US carriers have nukes aboard at all times when on station. The Japanese WWII fleet would not be a threat to a modern US Carrier. Take the carrier to position and launch nuclear armed cruise missiles at mainland Japan until surrender. War would be over in a few weeks.
The saddest part of the movie was that Martin Sheen got stuck in the past, and Charlie was still somehow born.
There an SF story called “Hawk among the Sparrows” which is a similar premise - a modern military jet goes back in time to the First World War.
It’s interesting because there’s a lot of unforseen problems using the modern weapon in the past, one of which the airspeed is so fast the weapons are kind of pointless.
The thing that got me about the movie was that the date on the C-rations wasn’t a couple of decades ( or more ) old.
In WWII we had gasoline which was superior to what is available now.
I think jet fuel is almost like kerosene, probably no problem to make back then.
Women pilots, a gay ship Captain, etc...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.