Parihaka

What, the speedboats?

omon

no, the planes

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Wraith601

To be fair though, it'd be harder to pick up speed boats in the Gulf, lost of dhows and oil rigs to hide around, than to track kamikazes in an otherwise empty sky, even with AEGIS.

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Master Chief

Seems they have caught us with our pants around our ankles once before. Maybe they would not distroy the carrier, but they sure could do some damage. Anything is possible. Hell what is they had a dirty bomb or a nuke.

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gunnut

Yes they would be more effective. However by the end of WW2 Japan didn't have the luxury of using experienced pilots to conduct Kamikaze attacks. Kamikaze pilots were given 1 week of training and sent on their merry ways. They were only capable of flying straight at the target craft or at most in a shallow dive.

Note, most of the ships sunk by Kamikaze were screens and pickets. That means they were mostly far from the center of the carrier group and on their own if there were no fighter screens around. Those ships were also much smaller than capital ships and thus easily sunk. The average size of WW2 American destroyers were 2,500t. The average size of WW2 American destroyer escorts were 1,500t. The average size of American Aegis ships today is 9,000t.

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TopHatter

Omon, seriously, we're going to need to improve your spelling and punctuation. It makes it REALLY difficult to respond to you when it's difficult to understand what you are saying to begin with.

There is a simple spell-checker download that you can utilize right here on the board (that little ABC and check mark button at the top-right of the Compose Message box).

dundonrl

a massed attack like this.. with suicide bombers with say 500 lbs in 40 knot boats attacking as an american battle group goes through the straits of Hormouz.. I hate too say it, but I think that the US Ships would get hurt and hurt badly.. they just don't have enough firepower too repel that type of attack.. sure the optically guided CIWS would put a hurting on the incoming boats, but on some Arleigh Burke destroyers there's only 1 of those, a few .50 cal mounts and a couple 25mm Bushmasters and the 5"..

what would be needed for an attack like that would be one of the old WW2 Anti-Aircraft Cruisers, such as the USS San Diego CL-52 (14 5" guns at 20 rounds a minute per gun) or a new designed ship, with a large amount of 76mm OTO MELARA guns on it..

Or just an Iowa class BB, and let the small boats expend them selves with no damage besides scorched paint and schrapnel on the deck

omon

fair enough, point taken.
i actually spell checked this post.

urmomma158

I've also heard of launching EFV's out of San Antonio Classes to rape the speedboats. I can't find any link on it but I know gun grape had some sources.

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urmomma158

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-{SpoonmaN}-

Its also worth considering that the Carrier would almost certainly be maintaning a CAP if they were in The Gulf, correct? In all likelyhood there'd also be other Air Combat assets in flight in the area, this is the Persian Gulf after all. The other question is, how easily could the IIN and IRG put together such an operation without the mountains of aerial and orbital eyes that must be over Iran's coast noticing? If they could pull off such an attack with surprise, what would it achieve? They'd kill a bunch of American soldiers, damage a few ships of the USN's huge Surface Fleet, and then suffer a massive punitive campaign from the US Military's concentrated air power in the region. It just wouldn't make sense, unless Iran was planning it as some sort of prelude to an intervention in Southern Iraq, and even then I wonder what difference it would make since the USN has plenty of CVBGs that it can send in to replace any put out of action. Then of course there's the point that the IIA/IRG wouldn't likely stand any chance against the American/Iraqi forces already in country, even with the questionable loyalties of some segments of the New Iraqi Army, I doubt most of them would welcome an Iranian invasion, and the Sunni Arabs and Kurds would fight them to the edge of extinction.

It just doesn't make sense as a scenario, unless Iran and the USA were already at war, in which case I'd be surprised if the IIN and IRG could find 75-100 speedboats to put in the water.

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BudW

75-100 speed boats in a Country the size of Iran would be quite do able I think.

BadKharma

I dont know I'm sure some damage could be inflicted but if you look at all that comprises a Carrier Battle Group I doubt they could sink the Carrier short of having a nuclear capability.

Bella

If some people think that 75-100 speed boats would severely damage a U.S. Carrier Group, then maybe all countries should start to invest in speed boats loaded with explosives!
A large group of boats that big would have to attack at the same time. With that many boats, they would be seen on radar which fighters, and helicopters would be able to take out at a large range by simple machine guns! Even "IF" a few got past that, the rest would be handled by the battle groups guns!
I think this is just silly!

BudW

USN war game this scenario, with disturbing results?
2002 Wargame: Small Speedboats Attack, Sink U.S. Navy Fleet » American Pundit