LGB vs Aircraft Carrier

If you have managed to locate, classify and hold contact with a target naval group, without counter-detection, why would you tip off the opposition as to how you did it?.

Like dj says use the asset to cue in shooters. If you dont let the opposition see how you did it then you can use it again tomorrow – against a now confused and worried enemy!

Re: LGB vs Aircraft Carrier

First, while a UCAV could get close, it is not so stealthy it could fly over an aegis destroyer/cruiser without detection.
Two, if a Preditor or some other UCAV carried any weapons, they would be external and greatly increase its RCS. Plus its weapons load would be less than 1,000-lbs (450-kg.).
Three, if a UCAV was being tasked to drop a bomb on a carrier, or LHDs (or some other type of amphibious aviation ships), etc. these are warships and have a lot more significant damage control features than the civilian ships being sunk.
Four, USS Nimitz class carriers are the ‘only’ US ships being built with steel side armor, armored flight deck and, hangar deck floor. Two to three rows of compartments between the outside of the hull and the important inner portions of the ship. A one sometimes two decks between the flight deck and the hangar deck and, three decks between the hangar deck and the important portions of the carrier. It was also designed with a double bottom to stay afloat after being hit with a Type 65 (650-cm) torpedo. Also, the Nimitz class carriers were designed to withstand hits from Soviet weapons such at the SS-N-19 Shipwreck or SS-N-16 Stallion anti-ship missiles with a 1,650-lb (750-kg) warhead hitting a carrier at speeds above Mach 1.0+.

If you have enough resources at your disposal, pretty much anything is possible. For every countermeasure there is usually a countermeasure.

True but, to attack a carrier strike group, you need a large force of bombers, jamming aircraft and, tankers. Somewhat like in the Tom Clancy book “Red Storm Rising” -Dance of The Vampires (chapter).

Couldn’t you just use a mixture/swarm or harpy and some other UAV to knock out radars and phalanx guns etc?

If you have enough resources at your disposal, pretty much anything is possible. For every countermeasure there is usually a countermeasure.

Couldn’t you just use a mixture/swarm or harpy and some other UAV to knock out radars and phalanx guns etc?

A decent naval cannon like the Otobreda 76mm can knock it off course.

Because the warhead would be carried each day. Easier to have a loitering recce UAV and a striking cruise missile.

But then again stealth and LO are always relative. Most major warships have a huge amount of radar power. It is quationable that a LGB could be fired from outside engagement range of a warship.

Why drop anything? A large LO UAV could be sent out on Kamikaze missions. If nothing is found it comes back to fly again next day.

A stealthy UAV with maritime surveillance as its mission would place far, far greater emphasis on endurance/range (and sensors) over weapons payload. In other words, a maritime ISR UAV would carry a temendous amount of fuel but not enough bombs to trouble a carrier or its escort.

But a stealthy maritime UAV could get close enough to the carrier strike group (without being detected) to detect, identify and target the carrier using ESM, SAR and EO. That information would be datalinked to legacy forces who would employ legacy anti-shipping weapons. The stealthy maritime UAV would also assist legacy anti-shipping weapons during terminal phase by datalinking carrier position and using electronic attack to negate CWIS and short-range missile defenses.

Hmmm, in terms of countermeasures then would it not be possible to use a highly accurate free fall ‘dumb’ bomb? I’m surprised LGBs aren’t used against naval targets if they are effective

If you can use Phalanx on land to catch mortar bombs and such, then catching an LGB from a ship shouldn’t be to hard.

Naval vessels like Udaloy for example has strong point defences, a slow glide bomb has no chance to get through.

Hmmm, in terms of countermeasures then would it not be possible to use a highly accurate free fall ‘dumb’ bomb? I’m surprised LGBs aren’t used against naval targets if they are effective

Its probably fair to say that a couple of 2000lb LGB’s would put any major vessel at risk. You will see from that video how they penetrated the side of the vessel and not at an angle from above that would needed them to go through the deck had it been a carrier.

As to if they could get through the Carriers and support vessels countermeasures, thats another matter.

Cargo ship vs. 2 x 2000lb: LGB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQeWD6hm6Ak

Compared the usual anti-ship missiles, a 2000lb Paveway has higher kinetic energy and a bigger bang.