How do you destroy an aircraft carrier?
The most significant threats to carriers are cruise missiles, wake-homing torpedoes, ballistic missiles and mines. But cruise missiles are unlikely to penetrate the battle group’s integrated air defenses, and few potential adversaries are capable of employing submarines or torpedoes effectively.
How is an aircraft carrier protected?
In addition to the “passive” defenses mentioned in the previous paragraph, each carrier is equipped with active defenses that include multiple air defense radars, surface-to-air missiles, automated guns for dealing with sea-skimming threats, electronic warfare systems for deceiving the sensors and disrupting the …
How does an aircraft carrier not sink?
Carriers are nearly impossible to sink. Because of their vast size, U.S. aircraft carriers have hundreds of water-tight compartments. They also have thousands of tons of armoring, and redundancy built into major on-board systems such as the electrical wiring.
How far can a US aircraft carrier shoot down a plane?
The Navy believes that by the end of the current decade, a typical carrier air wing will be able to precisely target over a thou- sand separate aimpoints many hundreds of miles from the carrier in a single day. No other country in the world possesses such a capability.
Are aircraft-carrier vulnerabilities fixable?
Concerns about aircraft-carrier vulnerability are not new, nor are some of the solutions proposed to remedy it. The Navy learned a devastating lesson about both the strengths and weaknesses of carriers during the first year of World War Two.
What threats do the Navy’s aircraft carriers face?
The Navy has traditionally viewed airborne threats — manned aircraft and cruise missiles — as the principal danger to its carriers. During the early years, carriers could outrun most surface combatants and submarines. They could not outrun aircraft originating from land bases or other carriers though, leading to an emphasis on air defense.
Can aircraft carriers be made invisible?
Aircraft carriers are inherently unstealthy; they cannot be made invisible to sensors in the same way that a plane, submarine, or even surface ship can be rendered effectively invisible. However, aircraft carriers have always derived a certain degree of their usefulness from their mobility.