you’re not going to ram the LST with a cruiser. the captain would be out of command in a minute. both ships would be heavily damaged.
I never said anything about ramming. That would play hell with the Cowpens’ bow sonar anyway. I was referring more to a traditional naval engagement. I can’t imagine that floating chinese bathtub being able to survive more than a couple of minutes in a slugging match with a missile cruiser. As noted upthread, the bow gun on the Cowpens is almost certainly capable of cutting the LST in half in short order all by itself, and that still leaves all this for the rest of the group:
2 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems with:
122 × Mix of RIM-66M-5 Standard SM-2MR Block IIIB, RIM-156A SM-2ER Block IV, RIM-161 SM-3, RIM-162A ESSM, RIM-174A Standard ERAM, BGM-109 Tomahawk, or RUM-139A VL-ASROC
8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles
The other Mk 45 Mod 2 5 in / 54 cal lightweight gun
2 × 25 mm Mk 38 gun
2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun
2 × Phalanx CIWS Block 1B
2 × Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes for lightweight torpedoes
And lest we forget, the Cowpens still carries the stain of former Capt. Holly Graf.