No worries. That won't happen.
Iran does not have the necessary assets to sink a Carrier.
Two things:
1) It’s surprisingly hard to sink ships, even harder to sink aircraft carriers (because they are mostly air), and harder to sink big ships.
Despite some taking enormous damage, the US did not lose a fleet carrier in World War II after 1942.
Thus a US CVN would be INCREDIBLY hard to actually sink; would likely take either many, many large-diameter torpedo hits (such as Russian 650mm) or a fire that gets out of control. Even a fire that gets out of control would likely leave a floating, burned out hulk. And US damage control has really become a science.
Thus people need to get the “sink” idea out of their heads.
On the other hand, it’s VERY easy to put a CVN out of operation. You need a largely undamaged flight deck, a ship that’s not on fire, and enough forward speed for launches. Even single missiles, torpedoes, mines, or suicide boats are capable of doing enough damage to damage the flight deck, start a fire, or take out a propeller. A CVN that can’t conduct flight ops is a worthless piece of metal.
2) The Iranians almost certainly can’t sink a CVN, but they have hundred to thousands of weapons that could damage a CVN long enough to disrupt flight operations, IF they made it through the Strike Group defenses. Ignore the “AEGIS/CIWS ROOOLZ!” people because nobody has actually EVER launched a many-missile attack against any naval warship in combat. Predicting the outcome of things that have never happened before is perilous.
Agreed. Most people either don't know or tend to forget that big decks travel with quite an array of support ships and even a sub or two. Iran aircraft would be deaded before they could ever get close to locking on. An aircraft carrier is much like a ground forward operating base that is surrounded by defense measures.
Yeah but a silly little rubber boat almost took out the USS Cole
I wouldn’t be so sure. Those are confined waters, and ever since the invasion of Iraq, Iran has been preparing for a potential showdown against the US. The large number of anti-ship missiles that Iran posses, both launched from shore or light-attack craft could pose a threat to a carrier group and that’s without adding in other threats like diesel-electric submarines or mines. There haven’t exactly been very many examples of naval warfare in the last couple of decades, and what few exist have often been fragmentary at best. A carrier’s escorts being capable of successfully intercepting a mass attack by modern anti-ship missiles is not something that can be taken for granted.
“Iran does not have the necessary assets to sink a Carrier.”
Russia does, and Iran shares a border with her.
What’s ‘Golden Opportunity’ in Russian? Two carriers sunk in the gulf would be that opportunity.
After such a thing, Israel would well and truly be alone. Pax Americana would be at an end.