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To: Iris7
Aviation is not suitable as a carrier cannot fly enough missions to keep loitering aircraft up over the target area 24 hours a day and at the same time put in 25 tons of ordinance in thirty seconds, repeat as desired.

The world has changed with GPS bombs. I assure you in any sort of opposed amphibious landing there will be loitering aircraft at all times, and GPS bombs are more accurate than 16" shells.

And I've noticed that people somehow find this very hard to believe, but:

16" Bombardment Shell: 154 lbs. explosive

Standard 1,000 lb Bomb: 385 lbs. explosive

Standard 2,000 lb. Bomb: 945 lbs. explosive

20 posted on 12/05/2005 2:47:26 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: Strategerist

I know this.

A carrier with seventy aircraft on strike missions with a half hour turnaround, one hour travel, launch, and retrieval time and with a forty five minute loiter (requires mid air refueling with serious bomb loads) is two hours and fifteen minutes per mission or less than eleven missions per day per aircraft. At ten hours flight time per pilot per day you need two hundred pilots. At three hours and forty minutes over the target per day per aircraft and seventy aircraft in service you have about ten aircraft over the target 24 hours. This sounds like plenty but ten aircraft will be out of munitions very quickly during a major enemy attack. A bit of SAM fire will neutralize aircraft (so you need Wild Weasel and stealth bombers) but not 16" shells. The aircraft must not break down nor the pilots nor carrier crew either. Land based aviation is much worse without nearby full scale air bases. A CVN is very vulnerable a hundred miles offshore to the newer weapons designed by Russia and inplace by the Chinese for a Taiwan Straits war. An old BB is extremely cheap. There is a lot more.


41 posted on 12/05/2005 3:18:18 AM PST by Iris7 ("Let me go to the house of the Father.")
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To: Strategerist
Thats it! Hold the press! If there could be a nomination for a civilian to become Commandant of the Marine Corps, you would get my vote. We need YOU on the hill arguing on matters of national security and the longevity of the Marine in his battle space. Brace your self Strato-man, 18 years in the Marine Corps with all of it in AVIATION ORDNANCE, four combat tours and about to embark on a fifth...there is great wisdom and calculation in the CMC's testimony as well as what Col North is saying.
130 posted on 12/05/2005 7:28:05 AM PST by TheGunny
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