Posted on 04/09/2012 10:41:46 AM PDT by FreeAtlanta
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The U.S. Navy said Monday it has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region amid rising tensions with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
The deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along with the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks one of the few times the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating in waters near the Persian Gulf, said Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
The two carriers will support the American military operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy efforts off Somalia's coast and in the Gulf of Aden, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
ping
No worries. That won't happen.
Iran does not have the necessary assets to sink a Carrier.
The French also have their carrier Charles de Gaulle there as well.
Big E’s last cruise. She’s headed for decommissioning afterwards.
Which is it? The Iran situation or Afghaiscrap and Somlia pirates? Plus, it's not the first time we've had two carrier groups deployed to the Persian Gulf region. Typical of the Associated Press to convolute things.
Oops, my mind saw the word first for the word few.
It's likely both ships will operate in the Arabian Sea...near the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
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.
As they usually do.
1) Its surprisingly hard to sink ships, even harder to sink aircraft carriers (because they are mostly air), and harder to sink big ships.
But the Willie Dee tried......http://www.ussiowa.org/general/html/willie_d.htm
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.
if God forbid a couple of IIAF F-4’s were to powerdive into
Big E’s flightdeck with AP bombs aboard and survive long enough to strike it, E could sink.
They know that USN are alert to civil air fraffic and
may have fixed some of their phantoms to squak civil aircraft idents to blend in with the Gulf air traffic.
Obama will send us to war with Iran and we WILL win and the victory parade will be in late October 2012.
After the november elections he will have all the wiggle room too give the country to the Moslem Brotherhood. They will be allowed to have nukes.
I was just thinking - if the Iranians attack with “speed boats” the Big E could just turn on the horse power and swamp them all with it’s wake - while they were still in harbor!
There are some great stories of the Big E doing speed trials off of San Diego and swamping boats in harbor....
I agree. What was that one war game scenario that was done where the US lost, because the guy playing the part of the enemy attacked with numerous small vessels? When the Navy saw that they lost, they changed the rules of the game. I also would not put it past any of the players in this global chess game to do whatever it would take to get the US to attack Iran.
This scares me to death. Our nephew is on the Enterprise.
I wonder if he’ll do it?/s
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