US Sailor here. Iran is actually pretty scary. They have diesel submarines. They can sit silently in that sea and kill a carrier faster than any battle group could respond.
How does a diesel sub get the oxygen to function? And where does the exhaust go?
Diesel-electric. They cruise around just under the surface on diesel, with snorkels to bring in air and expel exhaust. But, then they can shut down those diesel engines, fully submerge, and maneuver on batteries for a few days and maybe a hundred miles.
While they are on diesel engines, they are loud, and stuck to the surface. While they are on batteries, they are silent. For the few days that they are submerged, they are quieter than our nuclear subs.
Yeah, they pose a potential threat to a carrier group, but the “proportional response” to attacking a carrier would be the destruction of every naval facility they have, so not exactly a serious threat.
Seeing as the proportional response to damaging a cruiser was deleting 1/2 their navy in 8 hrs… yeah
wouldn’t nuclear submarines be quieter?
Worth noting nuclear submarines have a sort of minimum-practical-size determined by the need for a functional nuclear reactor on board. Combined with the plain expense of nuclear reactors means that states can build way more ssk’s than ssn’s for a given budget. It’s often better to have three 25% chances of sinking the other guy than one 50% chance.
It’s often better to have three 25% chances of sinking the other guy than one 50% chance.
Three 25% of sinking is the same as three 75% chance of not sinking. Which is (3/4) * (3/4) * (3/4) chance of not sinking, which is approximately a 42% chance of not sinking, which is a 58% chance of sinking. 58% > 50%, the math checks out.
Aircraft carriers are sitting ducks for countries with real armies. They are an outdated technology in the age of satellites, drones, and guided missiles.
What country has a “real army”?
Satellites, drones, and guided missiles all rely on radio emissions for command and guidance. Every ship in the carrier group, plus many dedicated aircraft have SIGINT and ELINT roles specifically dedicated to countering such threats.
While drones and guided missiles do pose a threat to a carrier, the carrier poses a much greater threat to anyone operating such drones and missiles.
You’re actually totally correct… for a carrier on its own. But that’s why carrier groups exist to defendbthe carrier against things like guided misses and drones.
Yeah tell that to the Iron Meme system.
For the cost of one guided rocket you can throw enough cheap trash to empty the entire carrier defense systems.
