Navy says it can do little to stop future pirate attacks

Yahoo via McClatchy News ^ | Mon Apr 13, 8:17 pm ET | Nancy A. Youssef and Shashank Bengali, McClatchy Newspapers Nancy A. Youssef And Shashank Bengali,

[Little Ray]

Dunno.
Short of a nuke, I don’t think we have anything in the modern inventory that can hurt a battleship. Maybe a torpedo?
But since all their real combat power is on aircraft carriers and CVs are pretty thin skinned, well, I suppose the Nimitz could cripple the Japanese fleet in short order. Just load up the Intruders with Harpoons and have a party...

[DannyTN]

"I can’t see 0bama going to war against his own."

I can't either, but the mixed signals coming out of Obamaland is disconcerting:

• Pro: He threatened to bomb Pakistan during the campaign.
• Pro: He has continued to launch strikes inside of Pakistan.
• Con: His support of Israel has been almost non-existent.
• Con: He bows to the Saudi King.
• Con: He searches for Muslims to put into the administration.
• Pro: He's increasing troops in Afghanistan.

It's not clear at all what's in his head.

[AFreeBird]

You're thinking torps only, or perhaps guns, but 5" shells would just bounce off a battleship's hull. I suppose a Harpoon could take out the bridge superstructure.

But when you consider the Navy also does attack, and close air support, well, a precision guided bomb through the deck into a powder magazine would do the job.

[Little Ray]

The armor around the magazines is foot of steel and more. Really.
Most of the the current weapons of the Navy could tear up the superstructure, but wouldn’t hurt the citadel or the armor belt.

Now there are some “bunker busting” guided bombs that might do some interesting things to a battleship, provided they could hit a moving target (GPS isn’t designed for a moving target...).