Re: Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs



Andre Lieven wrote:


Indeed. You stated that " *if* you never tell the crew ", and thats where you were wrong. On what basis do you suggest that they " never
tell the crew " ? I would bet that weapons officers learn about what
the Other Side has, and I would further bet that said weps speak with
much of the rest of the crew.


I meant, (and I probably should have phrased it better, I admit) that during training you probably don't go gleefully jumping up and down while pointing out to the crews that the ships they will be serving on will be about as survivable as a beer can if they ever get clipped by a large cruise missile. In the case of the destroyer crewman I mentioned, everyone on the ship knew that was the case and they didn't have to have the fact pointed out to them in detail, any more than a Navy pilot would have to have it pointed out to him in detail that if he ejects at low altitude with his aircraft inverted, he will probably end up in a self-dug grave.



The guy I talked to served on a destroyer in the Gulf, and he said that was the major concern anytime they got near the Iranian Silkworm sites- that they were going to get one inbound that would get through their defenses the way the two Exocets got through the Stark's defenses, and use its infrared homer to zero in on the ship's funnel, after which the ship would be fatally damaged. I'm sure the crew knew that a Silkworm is an upgraded Styx, and that Styx missiles sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat in 1967. The first two Styx hits nearly ripped that ship in half, the crew somehow managed to keep it afloat for two hours, only to get hit by another Styx that finished it off...followed by yet another Styx that blew up amid the survivors in the water. Stuff like that would tend to keep one on edge.



Well, theres a bit of a difference between a WW2 2,000 ton DD, and a
modern DD(G) of a greater size, greater damage control ( Note that
Stark ate two Exocets, and stayed afloat; a fact that most USN personnel were well aware of, I'd bet ), and modern anti missile systems, from ECM to CIWS.



Yes... also remember Stark never even came close to engaging the Exocets, one of which didn't detonate BTW; that the first sign that Sheffield had that she was under attack was when a helicopter saw the Exocet fly by it inbound towards the ship; and that there are antiship missiles out there like Silkworms and Shaddocks that have far larger warheads than Exocets.
If a Shaddock were to hit you, you would be getting a 1 ton warhead slammed into you at a speed near Mach 1 riding on a missile that weighs in at around 5 tons. That is a lot of destructive force. God help you if a 7 ton Shipwreck were to arrive at Mach 2.5.
Here's a question- has any ship in the missile age ever stopped an incoming enemy missile in combat (Kamikazes don't count- they are manned)? I can't think of one offhand, unless somebody shot down an HS-293 glide bomb during the war.
I do think they learned how to jam those though.

Pat
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