When Did Aircraft Surpass Ships in Naval Combat Capabilities?

Aircraft had surpassed the ability of ships to defend against them in waves , even today what happens is that the shipboard defences exceed the attacking ability then the attacking ability goes up . To answer your question adequately the first reliable torpedo bombers could sink any battleship that was not defended by torpedo nets etc . By the early 1930's both the Royal Navy and the US Navy could sink a ship at sea fairly easily , by the late 1930's it was no longer academic , by 1942 it was well known .

The RN had the Blackburn Dart in 1928 with 18 inch torps , the Blackburn Ripon in the early 30's . both of these aircraft could sink any battleship in the world if they hit it often enough .
 
Remember that as powerful as a battleship is in terms of firepower and protection, it can only fire for a comparatively short distance. The Yamato class battleship 46 cm/45 Type 94 naval artillery guns had an effective range of 16 miles and a maximum range of 26 miles. Aircraft meanwhile can hit from hundreds of miles away, repeatedly with torpedoes, bombs or missiles today. The biggest concern is finding the enemy in the first place. It doesn't matter how big a gun you have if your target is out of range.
 

nastle

Banned
When did aircraft, either land or ship based, begin to surpass warships in naval combat capabilities?
depends on which ships and which aircraft

e.g in a KIEV class ship
aircraft far inferior to the capabilities of the ship ( SSN_12 sandbox cruise missles)

Same navy the land based bombers of the AVMF the backfires and Bear H can carry cruise missiles which far outrange the missiles of a ship ( e.g Krivak, Kara class)
 

CalBear

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One Ohio or Typhoon can effectively destroy every city with a population over 500,000 in North America or Europe.

Pretty sure there are no single aircraft that can manage that.

One well handled SSN could wipe out the entire Royal Navy (not that it would be easy, or even likely, just possible). Again, no aircraft would manage that with conventional weapons.

One Burke DDG could destroy 40+ land targets a couple hundred miles distant, dropping every weapon into a 2 meter square box, while reatining enough SAM to destroy every Tu-95 the Russian Air Force operates. Seems relatively potent to me.
 

Delta Force

Banned
One Ohio or Typhoon can effectively destroy every city with a population over 500,000 in North America or Europe.

Pretty sure there are no single aircraft that can manage that.

One well handled SSN could wipe out the entire Royal Navy (not that it would be easy, or even likely, just possible). Again, no aircraft would manage that with conventional weapons.

One Burke DDG could destroy 40+ land targets a couple hundred miles distant, dropping every weapon into a 2 meter square box, while reatining enough SAM to destroy every Tu-95 the Russian Air Force operates. Seems relatively potent to me.

This is focusing more on naval combat capabilities, not general combat capabilities. Floating missile bases certainly should have more firepower than bombers.
 
One Ohio or Typhoon can effectively destroy every city with a population over 500,000 in North America or Europe.

Pretty sure there are no single aircraft that can manage that.

One well handled SSN could wipe out the entire Royal Navy (not that it would be easy, or even likely, just possible). Again, no aircraft would manage that with conventional weapons.

One Burke DDG could destroy 40+ land targets a couple hundred miles distant, dropping every weapon into a 2 meter square box, while reatining enough SAM to destroy every Tu-95 the Russian Air Force operates. Seems relatively potent to me.
However, individual aircraft weigh in the range of a few tonnes, ships in the range of several hundred, several thousands or several tens of thousands of tonnes. Ships also carry hundreds of crew each, aircraft only one-two.
 
Aircraft have not surpassed warships in combat power. While an aircraft can sink a ship, that's all it can do in a single mission, a warship can defend against such an attack while prosecuting other air, surface and subsurface engagements simultaneously.

An air force has surpassed a warship in combat capability but not a single aircraft or even aircraft squadron.
 
When did aircraft, either land or ship based, begin to surpass warships in naval combat capabilities?

The Battle of Taranto, 11-12 November 1940. That raid proved that ships in harbor were very vulnerable to torpedo attack from airplanes operating from aircraft carriers hundreds of miles away from the target.
 

bugwar

Banned
Close enough in Horseshoes...

When did aircraft, either land or ship based, begin to surpass warships in naval combat capabilities?

Um, as near as I can tell, subs with nuclear tipped torpedeos can tag their floating targets anywhere on the ponds of the world.

A few aircraft might be able to match that, but I haven't read of any birds with capabilities to exceed.
 

CalBear

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This is focusing more on naval combat capabilities, not general combat capabilities. Floating missile bases certainly should have more firepower than bombers.

In that case, they never have. Probably never will.

By far, the most lethal bit of kit in naval warfare remains the submarine. A well handled, first level tech, SSN is close to unstoppable and it can kill anything afloat. With the most recent breakthroughs in torpedo tech a boat can kill you before you realize it is even there.

Aircraft are terrific, deadly as all hell, but you can generally see them coming and have a chance to either shoot them down or shoot down their stand-off weapons. SSN, and really well handled SSK within their more limited performance envelope, are holes in the water until they decide to kill you.
 
I would not argue against the SSN as the principal latent power projector.
The carrier strike force probably the most effective active power projector.

Guess the discussion is pointless, except regarding the point of when air craft surpassed the battleship as the principal power projector.
Aircraft never have surpassed the navies as such.
 
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