|
It strikes me that most modern american warships are designed on the basis that their weapons will keep them from being hit. The pictures posted above show a series of ships that are vulnerable to large explosive charges. In most cases, as an escort that is a valid position. The big BUT is what happens when you have either a large volume of missles and /or torpedos in bound? What happens when the defenses run out of ammunition?
I don't know the details of the hulls and how the protection is designed, but I have seen little evidence that any of our standard ships can take hits and continue to operate. The enemy does not have to sink a ship to render it useless. Simply disabling it so it can not be repaired in the combat theater is as good as siking a ship.
The destroyers and cruisers of today are marvelous examples of technology, but the undelying question is do they have the ability to take a hit and keep fighting. Our small fleet has no reserves to replace ships on the line.
For example, if Iran wanted our fleet out of the gulf, tosing away several hundred of the small patrol boat is a smal price to pay.
The whole point of building a new BB is to have a ship you could take there without these hits wrecking it. The only US ships that can take a punch are teh carriers due to their bulk. If the weak sided ships are forced to it
|