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  1. Plausibility of modern Surface Action Group?

    The USSR planned to do almost exactly what you describe, except with air assets in addition to cruise missiles. The problems with the approach are fairly substantial. Just a few are: Satellites are limited by orbital mechanics. A mobile opponent can literally outmaneuver them. They are also...
  2. Plausibility of modern Surface Action Group?

    UAV are vulnerable to SAM and AAM, not to mention 20mm fire. A full deck CV/CVN will always have at least one, generally two AWACS (currently E-2C Hawkeyes) that is more than capable of detecting any UAV currently in service. Once detected the UAV is dead, probably 100 miles or further out from...
  3. Pearl Harbor WI: Pea Soup Raid

    The Japanese force would have had to have traveled all the way home (or to the Mandates) to refuel. By the time they make it back there are double the number of P-40s on the Island, at least two squadrons of B-17s, twice the number of subs, and most importantly, a seriously suspicious U.S...
  4. Pearl Harbor WI: Pea Soup Raid

    The weather WAS bad on December 7th. The Japanese had to deal with heavy seas and clouds at the launch point. A couple of hundred miles difference and the weather over Pearl would have purely sucked.
  5. Plausibility of modern Surface Action Group?

    If the SAG is truly out on it's own, it is finished. The carrier group can stand out of range, an CVN is faster than just about anything that ever sailed, and her escorts aren't much slower, so there is no way for the SAG to close in far enough to make a missile strike really possible. The...
  6. Plausibility of modern Surface Action Group?

    There are a lot of ways to get a SAG into action. The best way, however, isn't in a Russian (Soviet) vs. USN scenario. TH-he chances of the Kirov and her consorts getting into close enough to make a solid attack, even with MACH 3 missiles, is remote. The American CBG is much more than just a...
  7. Challlenge: Curtis LeMay Coup

    When did LeMay EVER display utter disregard for his oath and personal honor? For that matter, when did any other American General officer demonstrate that they were traitors? We are talking treason here after all.
  8. Pearl Harbor WI: Pea Soup Raid

    The Kido Butai was Northeast of Oahu, about 100-120 miles off the North Shore. Enterprise was on her way back from Wake, about 200 miles to the Southwest of Pearl. The two groups were close to 400 miles apart. There is almost ZERO chance of the two forces coming into contact. There is a slightly...
  9. Pearl Harbor WI: Pea Soup Raid

    The Japanese launched two float planes for a last minute weather check. A pair of E13A1 "Jakes" from the cruisers Tone & Chikuma were launched at 05:00 HRS (local) one hour ahead of the 1st wave strike package. If the scouts had reported bad weather the strike would have never been launched at...
  10. Challenge: Pre-Dreadnoughts Galore!

    There are a few ways to make it work, with I listed. They are not logical, nor the most cost effective, but they would keep at least a dozen or so of the pre-dreds in service, which was the OP question. The 12"/45 on the Connecticuts had a range of 30K in an installation that allowed for...
  11. Challenge: Pre-Dreadnoughts Galore!

    The Washington Treaty is clearly the biggest stumbling block. Without it, as agreed to, the pre-dreds actually would have been valuable at lest into the early days of WW II, and perhaps well into the war as convoy escorts where their 17-18 knot speed would have been less of an issue, shore...
  12. Need help on a Alt Pacific War timeline

    The same way that Nagumo is going to destroy the entire Pearl Harbor infrastructue when he lacks the fuel, time and orders to do it. It is all part of the same odd version of 1941-42 that our friend seems to believe existed.
  13. Pacific War 10 years earlier

    The really critical question here is WHEN we are talking about. If we are going back exactly 10 years (12/7/31), it makes a significant difference than if we are talking 10 year before 9/1/39 (generally recognized start of WW II), 4/6/37 (1st China Incident) or 9/18/31 (the Manchuria Incident)...
  14. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    I don't see how two BB are spared. The outside moored ships may take a few fewer torpedoes, but they all probably still take enough damage to require a trip to Bremerton.
  15. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    Are you even passingly familiar with the Solomons Campaign? How about the naval Battle of Guadalcanal? Surface ships were still vitally important. The U.S. continued to build the larger ships because they were still needed.
  16. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    The slipways used were the same ones ued for the South Dakota class BB, so an Essex would fit easily. The advantage of the CVL hulls is that the yard was already experienced in the construction of the type, which would cut 3-4 months off the build time compared to a first of type.
  17. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    I doubt it. Not that I would mind (for my money the CB was the biggest waste of steel in the USN). Alaska wasn't even laid down until December 17th, 1941 (Hawaii was laid down the same day at a nearby slip). She was built at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, as were her sisters where the...
  18. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    The Japanese were the result of a training program that was designed to force people out or fail them. (It made BUDS look like a trip to a day spa.) As Lundstrom noted in his work The First Team many USN pilots had well over 1,000 flying hours, with some exceeding 1,500. What many of the IJN...
  19. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    Bollocks. With this post you have succeeded in moving past the much missed, but never to be forgotten, Bard32 on the road to Wonderland. I won't even bother to respond to this in any detail.
  20. Carriers in port at Pearl Harbor

    On December 7 the Hornet was not war ready but that was more of a work-up for the crew than anything else. Bombing and Scouting 8 were the last two squadrons to transition to the SBD and had not done so on 12/7/41. They shortly finished transitioning after Pearl Harbor and the ship was fully...
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