[Radio War Nerd] In the grim darkness of the near present, there is only war nerd

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Radio War Nerd] In the grim darkness of the near present, there is only war nerd

rudatron: May 31, 2011; by Fluffdaddy

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

war nerd is bad and dumb if you actually know anything about warfare

C-SPAM should love him

I feel like this is your opportunity to explain why, instead of being a dick :colbert:

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 12:32

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rudatron: May 31, 2011; by Fluffdaddy

I feel like that's just an untested assumption. It may legitimately turn out that carriers are actually really vulnerable if ever used against a sufficiently powerful enemy. Submarines have come a long way, surface to surface missiles have come a long way, maybe if you shoot 20+ anti ship missiles at a carrier, it'll just go up in smoke no problems. But you don't really know either way for sure unless it happens.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 13:24

rudatron: May 31, 2011; by Fluffdaddy

Comrade Merf posted:

Its more that he fundamentally misunderstands the purpose and function of a naval carrier group. I'm not arguing that the carriers themselves are not vulnerable because they are, every major power since WW2 has dedicated lot's of time and money to build their own and/or develop technology to gently caress them over. I mean they are gigantic nuclear powered floating cities that can't go all that fast but their purpose is not to fight it's to sit in the water and refuel and re-arm combat aircraft. It's similar to saying well tanks are useless now because they can be destroyed at range by infantry with modern anti tank systems or that aircraft are now worthless because of modern air defenses. Everything committed to a fight is vulnerable to be knocked out but that is not a sufficient case by itself against using them.

If carriers cannot be protected efficiently, it doesn't matter what utility they provide. It's not about 'whether or not they can fight', that's a total misinterpretation, it's 'can you stop the enemy sinking them', and that's not a question with a simple answer. You could in WW2, but the situation is very different:
- post ww2 submarines are substantially different to ww2 and pre-ww2 submarines, to the point where it's wrong to treat them as the same kind of vessel.
- intelligence gathering has increased dramatically, even ww2 radars were limited by the curvature of the earth to the horizon. That's changed with over-the-horizon radar systems in the 70s, as well as high altitude reconnaissance, satellites and now drone craft.
- cruise missiles are now a thing

All that's not to say that the ~War Nerd~ is right, who knows, maybe he's wrong. Maybe all of those changes don't count for poo poo. But we don't really know for sure, so it's not a totally absurd position to take, that maybe carriers are kind of a doomed category, like battleships before them.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 15:54

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