Re: Cult spacecraft Part One: The Little Spaceplane That Couldn't



Fred J. McCall wrote:

Think about it. Why would they precisely reverse course? What would
most likely happen is they'd scatter in all directions and not stay
together at all (nor would they precisely reverse course, which is a
fairly stupid tactic, come to that).
Assuming the concept is to get as far away from the blast point as possible then the way to do it is to reverse course; any course other than that is going to leave you closer to the detonation point.
:For airbursts, the carrier is probably pretty survivable; the aircraft :on deck will probably be rendered unflyable if not swept clean off of :the deck by the blast effects and radar gear and such on the island will :probable be rendered at least temporarily inoperable. But the water :spray system is designed to wash fallout off of the ship, so it at least :will be able to stay afloat and probably operate any aircraft that were :in the hanger deck when the detonation occurred.
:

Which would probably be most of them. There probably wouldn't be more
than a handful of aircraft on deck, if that.

Are you sure about that? If this happens in that timeframe then you might well be a target for Badger, Blinder, or Backfire attacks via AS-4 "Kitchen" or AS-6 "Kingfish" cruise missiles, so you are going to want your Hawkeyes and Tomcats up to intercept any bombers that are in the vicinity while they are still out of missile attack range.

Do you have a cite for that? SUBROC flew supersonic in air, but I
find nothing to indicate that it remained supersonic until it hit the
water. In point of fact, it blew the engine off and flew ballistic,
so I would expect it to slow back down before it hit the water.

"Rockets and Missiles" by Bill Gunston, 1979, page 259:
"Clear of the water, the SUBROC quickly accelerates to supersonic speed, whilst continuously guided by the SD-510 inertial system and jetevator nozzles. At the required cutoff speed to give the correct range the propulsion is arrested; in 60 milliseconds explosive bolts separate the warhead, forward-facing ports reverse the thrust of the rocket motor, and the inertial system begins to control the trajectory of the warhead by means of small aerodynamic fins. Unlike ballistic missiles, the guidance continues on the downward trajectory, which again posed new problems. Yet another new hurdle to be overcome was reentry to the water at supersonic speed, still under guidance and without affecting the complex safe/arm system for the nuclear warhead. The device sinks to optimum depth and is there triggered, with lethal radius of 3-5 miles (5-8 km)."




:
:Even a airburst close to the sea's surface of a large yield nuclear :weapon is going to transmit a lot of its shockwave into the water and :blow radioactive water all over the place in the form of a giant cloud :of radioactive steam.
:

In general this is a "don't care" for USN ships. It's what the water
washdown system is for.

:> Given the preceding, calculate how many weapons you have to lay down
:> in a grid within that circle the carrier MIGHT be in. Keep in mind
:> the (in)accuracy of the weapons you're firing, as that will
:> necessitate putting them closer together than your original
:> calculation says you need.
:>
:> Once you've done all that, calculate the total cost of all the
:> warheads and delivery systems required in order to try to kill a
:> carrier with ICBMs. See if it meets the threshold to be a worthwhile
:> way to try to kill carriers.
:> :
: This of course relies on the fact that the warhead can't self-home :after reentry. From around fifty miles up it will be able to see a lot :of the sea's surface under it easily including any carrier force trying :to escape it, and like our Pershing II, it might be able to use a :nose-mounted radar to home on its target.
:

Pershing II attacked STATIONARY targets with lots of well-mapped radar
features to navigate by. You're not talking about the same thing at
all here.

No, you are talking about a multi-acre plate of steel facing straight up in a sea that has a different radar return from the carrier flight deck, and also has waves changing the radar return from the sea's surface from second to second.
Just like the way that Doppler radar allows a aircraft's AAM to differentiate a moving aircraft from non-moving background clutter caused by the Earth's terrain under it, this radar would look for the reverse...a solid radar return surrounded by a variable radar return from the sea's surface. Also, radar frequency selection could easily differentiate between water and the metal making up the carrier's structure.

Pat
.

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