[ko_kyi]

Fascinating post - it kind of lends credence to the value of a stealth ship - one that will always get the first shot off. hat is the conventional weight of a destroyer v. a frigate or cruiser?

Since you seem very knowledgable about these things let me ask you this: I saw a show on the Washington Monument - they said it weighs about 85,000 tons. Has there ever been a warship that big? A WWII battleship was around 35,000 if I remember correctly.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Yuppers: The big carriers are 85,000 tons plus.

Midway (WWII vintage, plus extensive modifications) is a lightweight at 67,000 tons.

America/Forrestal/America/Kennedy (conventional) carriers are 78,000 tons.

The nukes (Vinson, etc.) are 93,000 tons.

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Forget cruisers/destroyers as a size difference All of our new Ticonderoga "cruisers" are built on the destroyer-sized Spruance hull: 8000 tons. A cruiser blows in half, as in the picture above, with after one bang.

Destroyers (latest is DDG-51) are even smaller. Frigates, like the FFG-47 class burn out after a dud missile hit. Or a single bomb in a passing fishing boat. Get blown in half by a single mine.

Or an iron cannonball.

Come a shooting war, few will survive. And those that do, will survive because they have not been hit.

Or were hit only once.

Of the British ship in 1983, every one of them hit by even dud Argentine bombs was knocked out of action, or sunk. Luckily, the Argentines could only attack one time per day.

If the Argentine bombs had exploded (we withheld info on how to set their fuses!) the Brit's would have lost HALF their fleet.