How to Sink an Aircraft Carrier: Sneak up in a submarine, that's how

Real Clear Defense ^ | September 2, 2014 | David Axe

[C19fan]

A photo depicting an American nuclear-powered submarine poking its periscope above the waves—within shooting distance of a British aircraft carrier during a war game—is a useful reminder of one of the most important truths of naval warfare.

For every sailor who’s not in a submarine, submarines are real scary.

Stealthy and heavily-armed, subs are by far the most powerful naval vessels in the world for full-scale warfare—and arguably the best way to sink those more obvious icons of naval power, aircraft carriers.

[tanknetter]

Lesson not learned, eh?

Hard to say, actually. Pearl Harbor wasn't a simplistic caught-unawares sneak attack as people think it was. There were a lot of factors, and ARE a lot of factors, pointing to the battleships being in the safest place they could have been, at that time.

Now, I'm no believer in all the "FDR knew. He KNEW!" conspiracy stuff. But I am well-versed enough to know that many of the battleships that bombarded places like Saipan, Leyte, Iwo Jima and the Philippines during amphibious assaults, and held the line at Surigao Strait for that matter, existed because they were raised from the mud at Pearl rather than sunk underway in open ocean when Kido Butai showed up wanting to play.

[null and void]

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” — Grace Murray Hopper

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

This is way beyond that. Its overview was that the satellite could see most underwater terrain and any object in the water, be it a whale or a submarine. Basically a 3D imaging underwater view. Way beyond ripples on the surface.

[Delta 21]

Great thread.

The way they talk about it in the story and just from looking at it, that pic looks photoshopped by a third grader.

[tanknetter]

Ships still need to be in port at times, for a variety of reasons. And given the complexities of deployment schedules and other considerations, more ships will be in port at times than others.

I crossed Hampton Roads using the tunnel several times from 2003 to 2011 when there were no carriers in port. Other times there were, generally, two. And a time or two there were three.