Poll: Super carrier vs. Battleship

[evilneko]

At the range we're dealing with here though, it's probably a safe bet most or all will hit.

 

[22steve5150]

This is one of the easiest battles to call ever....EVER. If the battle starts at 1 mile range the carrier has no chance go get any aircraft up (let alone time to have them properly outfitted with anti-ship weaponry) before being nailed by at least half a dozen salvos of 16" rounds, let alone the numerous 5" DP guns fitted on the battleship...which will render the carrier unable to launch and recover aircraft in probably less than 2 minutes. Now a carrier by itself is a fairly useless ship in combat as virtually all of it's offensive and defensive capability is in it's aircraft, not in any shipborne systems. Phalanx/RAM/sea sparrow will be of NO use against a battleship's guns nor will they hurt the battleship.
In reality no battleship would ever get that close to a modern carrier as the aircraft would begin attacking it hundreds of miles away but at a 1 mile range as the start even a world war 1 era battleship would make quick work of the Nimitz!

 

[22steve5150]

To point out that the carrier would always have aircraft in the air I think is a bit trivial as if it DID have aircraft up the whole time how on earth did a 900 foot long battleship close to a mile distance from the carrier before being attacked? Even if it was the case and multiple aircraft are in the air and armed with anti-ship weapons, it is extremely unlikely that they would sink or disable the battleship (remember besides it's 50,000 tons and thick armor it also has Phalanx CIWS for it's own air defense and should hit the carrier with around 18x 16" shells every minute, not to mention around 50x 5" shell hits per minute (at 1 mile range you would have to assume nearly all shells can hit the thousand foot long, 250 foot tall ship) and the battleship's own 16 harpoon anti-ship missiles and 32 tomahawk missiles, which would all be launched at the carrier in just a few minutes!
In this scenario the best result the carrier should expect is for it's aircraft to sink or disable the battleship in 15-20 minutes, unfortunately the battleship would have reduced the carrier to a floating inferno in less than 5 minutes....so those aircraft will be looking for a new place to land!

 

[direkiller]

Nimitz class carrier-
25 seconds to launch an aircraft
15 seconds for aircraft to aquire target lock
5 seconds missle travel.

Iowa class Battleship
1 minute 30 seconds Load for 16 inch gun. (guns are stored empty so have to be loaded for first shot)

in the time it takes the Battleship to shoot a Single round the Aircraft has 4 birds in the sky and 2-8 Harpoon anti-ship missles on target.

Before some one says the 5 inch guns, the Nimitz' armor is designed to shrug off rounds from Destroyers... which have 5 inch deck guns. the only weapons aboard a modernized battleship that can sink a super carrier is its 16 inch guns and its cruise missles... and considering that carriers have superior ECM, jammers, decoys, and anti-missle systems designed to counter cruise missles... the only thing it has going for it is the 16 inch guns.

you can launch planes 25 seconds apart once there good to go but the prep time on the first bird takes a bit longer(you dont keep the bombs attached to the planes in the hanger or keep the engines running,pilots sitting in the planes)

you do keep gunner at the guns though so there is going to be shells landing before the planes take off

5 in guns on the Iowa have up to a 85*ark(basically high angle shots) they can just pound the flight deck and superstructure(DD in WW2 did it a few times to heavy cruisers and Battleships)

you have a wing of Planes on the deck loaded and ready to go at a moments notice...
They are fueled, fitted, and ready to go. and Yes, munitions ARE fitted to these aircraft, and replacement munitions only take all of 5 seconds to be mounted. be fore launch the 'safty tags' are removed which complete the warhead circuit and make the weapon live ordinence.

these planes are towed into launch position, manned, then catapulted off the deck. so all these planes really need are pilots. and at a red alert it doesn't take all that long for these planes to be manned.

so regardless of the situation, in 25-30 seconds of a call, the First bird will be in the air with a second one 25 seconds after.

a Battleship from 'safe' does not store munitions in the turrets. not since a munitions explosion in no. 2 turret of the Iowa in 1989 nearly took the thing off the ship. All munitions are transported from the magazine a 2-5 minute journey. Then loaded into the gun breech (1 minute 30 seconds) before fired (between 1 and 15 minutes)


so if you want to go from green to red alert..
in 5 Minutes (generiously) you'll have 1 volley off of the Iowa.

in 5 Minutes you will have 2 wings of planes in the air (12 birds) each mounted with 2 Harpoon missles and several hundred 20mm bullets each.


and again...
the Nimitz is Designed to Shurg off 5 inch shells. All of the Nimitz, not just the sides. basing your claim off of World War 2 tactics is just flawed. the flight deck is fitted with over 2 inches of kevlar, over a layer of classified armor which is touted, again, to shrug off everything up to 5 inch ordinence.

its less about hitting vital parts and more about makeing the flight deck useless

a plane can't take a 5in shell let alone any of flighdeck crew