OK. So 1/50 of these missiles gets a hit. They have thousands. That's enough to screw us up big time. Are we sure that the super-carrier isn't the Dreadnought of 1912 ... way cool ... but useless in two years? F-35 vertical take-off? Sure. But then you need to refuel right away to go on the mission.
Let's talk pre-emptive strike on the CHICOMs, OK? Maybe that way we can wipe out that money we owe them.
Don’t be silly. We’re not going to war with China. If a world war occurs, it’s likely that the West will fight the Islamic Caliphate.
“Let’s talk pre-emptive strike on the CHICOMs, OK?”
That already happened. On the recent 24 episode that I watched last night, the USS Massachusetts sank their carrier.
Battleships were really one trick ponies. They could throw artillery shells out to the limitations of their targeting systems. That could be against anothe battleship, or a land based target (shore bombardment). Dreadnaught was obsolete within two years because bigger and better guns, better armor and better optics (targeting systems) were being developed. But the fundamentals remained, you could see the other guy (meaning he could see you) and you could shell him (meaning he could shell you).
Carriers are a lot more flexible in both what they’re used for and how they’re used. Even with current tech they’re damned hard to detect, unless they want to be.
The truth is, in a shooting war with either ChiComs or Russia, we’re not going to charge in with carriers until we seriously attrit the other guy’s ability to locate, target and attack them through other means. A Bear bomber can’t even get into the air if it, and it’s airfield have been destroyed by B-2s or sub launched cruise missiles. As John Lehman said back the the early days of the Reagan Administration, we’re not going to send the carriers up the Volga River (or into the Taiwan Strait, for that matter) on the first day of the war.