05-27-2010, 07:31 PM
raz wrote:
[quote=freeradical]
It's funny that we still have carrier battle groups.
Well, not funny in a humorous sense.
An attack with mach 6+ cruise missiles would ruin the battle group commanders day.
Possibly. However, I'd expect the Phalanx to have a pretty good shot at terminating the missile.
I don't if the missile has any kind of guidance flexibility. CIWS response time against a 2,000 m/sec maneuvering target means that the weapons system has perhaps 0.5 seconds to identify and take down the target. While the 'wall of lead' solution is a known high velocity target solution, and the Aegis radar system should be capable of guiding intercept solutions, the probability of success when multiple hypersonic weapons are fired at the same target increases rapidly.
The tactical goal is to saturate the defenses and then overcome them. Keep in mind that at Mach 6, the resultant impact is referred to as a 'kinetic kill', and thus the missile really becomes a control system on an airframe with no need for a warhead. So it's a cheaper kaboom, and you can fire a whole bunch of them when compared to the cost of a naval vessel. Mate them with a UCAV carrier vehicle, or even a standoff BUFF, and you have a coastline denial weapon that makes surface navies obsolete.