On 10/18/2019 at 1:04 PM, Mansell said:

The days of the superiority of the aircraft carrier may be on the wane. The battleship was at the end of its life when WWII began. The much vaunted Bismarck was sunk by the old Swordfish that had a top speed of of just over 100mph. Not one was downed when they torpedoed the battleship. The huge Japanese battleships with their enormous guns were also sunk by planes. These aircraft carriers are very vulnerable to hyper speed cruise missiles to which there supposedly isn’t any defense. Once again history repeats itself. Navies building white elephants at great expense. Chinese Communists appear to be no brighter than their American or British counterparts. 

 

The Bismarck had its steering damaged by torpedoes launched from aeroplanes.

 

It was actually sunk by battleships ("King George V" and "Rodney") and cruisers.

 

It was blasted into a burning hulk, which still refused to sink, by the battleships, then finally sent down by torpedoes from the "Dorsetshire" together with scuttling charges that the germans had set.

 

The ship to ship action took about 2hrs.

 

However the "Repulse" and the "Prince of Wales" were quite definitely sunk by Japanese aeroplanes alone, in about 2hrs.

 

PS:

China leads U.S. on potent super-fast missiles - Reuters

"After years of stop-start development of hypersonics, the U.S. is now trying to accelerate testing and deployment to match China and Russia, according to senior Pentagon officials."

 

 

Edited October 20, 20196 yr by Enoon

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Doesn't matter how it's dressed up, most of us in the west don't want to be ruled by China.

Most of us don't want to be "ruled" by anyone... US, China, Russia... all the same hegemonic power-hungry <deleted> dressed in different clothes.

On 10/18/2019 at 7:04 PM, Mansell said:

The days of the superiority of the aircraft carrier may be on the wane. The battleship was at the end of its life when WWII began. The much vaunted Bismarck was sunk by the old Swordfish that had a top speed of of just over 100mph. Not one was downed when they torpedoed the battleship. The huge Japanese battleships with their enormous guns were also sunk by planes. These aircraft carriers are very vulnerable to hyper speed cruise missiles to which there supposedly isn’t any defense. Once again history repeats itself. Navies building white elephants at great expense. Chinese Communists appear to be no brighter than their American or British counterparts. 

The beginning of the end for any navy was when they invented targetable missiles. All are now just floating targets.

IMO China is building aircraft carriers to project power in SEA and the Pacific, as even China must be reluctant to enter a shooting conflict with the US. Ship killing missiles are extremely expensive, so small countries don't have many, if any.

It's all about choosing the battles that can be won.

Edited October 20, 20196 yr by thaibeachlovers