Looks Like Another Naval Commander Will Soon Be Fired

[Rightguide]

The most badass are not seldom gay.

Only in Hollywood do they reach heroic numbers.

 

[RobDownSouth]

The biggest ships are the first to sink when the shooting starts. Flattop captains are peacetime administrators.

Aircraft carriers around the world became instantly obsolete on February 25, 2023.

That was the day the Chinese military successfully tested the Dongfen-27 ("DF-27") IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) hypersonic missile. It has a single purpose: destroying large ships from up to 5,000 away. (China claims 11K range, but leaked American intelligence indicates a nominal 5000km range.

The new Chinese missile is essentially impervious to anti-missile systems that currently exist.

Existing US naval ship anti-missile doctrine calls for firing counter-missiles with a much larger "kinetic punch" to blow incoming missiles up (or severely off course). The US uses latest generation PAC-3 Patriot missiles with the MSE enhancement (larger tailfins, some "steerability", secondary rocket motor to get there faster). The Chinese DF-27 is faster than the existing PAC-3 MSE. Once the Chinese missile reaches re-entry phase, a separate HGV "Glide vehicle" is deployed that carries the payload (High explosive or nuclear). It is nimble enough to easily avoid a Patriot missile.

As an interim measure, the Navy now counts on launching TWO missiles within seconds of each other to attack inbound hypersonic missiles: the intermediate range PAC-3 to attack he main missile, AND the THAAD missle, a much shorter but more maneuverable short-to-intermediate range missile that hopefully can destroy the Chinese payload if the Patriot missile fails to hit the target.

The THAAD was shown to be very effective against missiles fired against Ukraine by Russia, and even claimed one "hypersonic kill", but that was shown to be a Russian missile that was apparantly bootstrapped an additional missile to barely get it up to quote hypersonic unquote speed. The Russian missile appears to have been a one-off test.

We don't know yet if the THAAD has the maneuvering capability to match the Chinese payload vehicle.

As it stands right now, today, if fighting breaks out between the Chinese and the American forces, US aircraft carriers will be the first casualties. Just like the aircraft carriers rendered battleships to secondary importance in World War 2, hypersonic missiles have done the same to aircraft carriers.