Sinking USS America

Personally, I would love to see them use the Mk62 500lb Quickstrike mines – have a nice bit of target practice – allow B-52Hs (with 51), B-1Bs (with 84), B-2s (with 80), F-15Es (with 12-24), and others to try – a few hundred Mk-62s should probably be able to sink a carrier. You just need to set them all to go off immediately after impact for safety reasons. Okay, Greenpeace et al would probably be upset, but if they really wanted to protest, then let them – they can tie themselves to the carrier! :diablo:

On another note I’d be VERY interested to know what they used to sink her. Any 5000lb GBU-28s? Mk48s? A warhead equipped Vandel (Talos) would be very interesting too. Did they get their hands on Sunburns, Shirpwrecks, or Brahmos? (Yeah I know, unlikely in those instances). Where it’s such a unique opportunity I wouldn’t be surprised if they cobbled together some one-offs. How much damage would a conventional D-5 warhead do? Or a Storm II or a Hera? I’d be surprised if they didn’t do at least one high velocity ballistic missile impact.

That’s most likely true, what i’m trying to say is the relative “performances” against predictions….although why wouldn’t the USN take due diligence and waste a sinking on the Oriskany without trying to learn something?

My guess is becuase Oriskany has very little in common with today’s ships. That or it had something to do with the fact they were making it into a reef (off course it’s not like wildlife is going to avoid the America).

If I had to guess I’m guessing America was “buttoned up” as in battle conditions for a more realistic result. Oriskany was probably all the doors open and blow few holes to let the water in.

That’s most likely true, what i’m trying to say is the relative “performances” against predictions….although why wouldn’t the USN take due diligence and waste a sinking on the Oriskany without trying to learn something?

If I had to guess I’m guessing America was “buttoned up” as in battle conditions for a more realistic result. Oriskany was probably all the doors open and blow few holes to let the water in.

It’s interesting to note that America didn’t want to go down (relative to prediction), but Oriskany went down pretty fast (against prediction) …something like within 45 minutes. Of course even if one knows the weaknesses of the America hull, IIRC the Nimitz class shares a similar hull with Enterprise while Forrestals/Kitty Hawk/JFK shares a similar hull. Due to the nuclear propulsion, i would believe Nimitz/Enterprise’s hull is even tougher. What does this all say? Absolutely nothing. If you want to sink a Nimitz class, you better give it all you got….I would think the reason for sinking the America is more about how to create a lighter hull by knowing which parts are overbuilt than to create a even more heavily armoured one. It has always been clearly stated that these carriers are considered as sovereign US territory, more than any other US DoD assets outside of US.

Well, that will make everyone aboard the other carriers a little happier, since they all share basically the same basic hull design. It would be interesting to see the new ‘commercial’ spec ships exposed to the same test – I have not even seen a photo of them undergoing the classic shock testing.

That’s the only photo I have seen as well mate, no pics of the holes or what it took to get her down, aparently she was a tough one and didn’t want to go down.

Sorry mate no, all pics of the event are classified by the US DOD as they were the basis of the next generation of Carrier. I am hanging out for the pics but if anything they slapped a 100 years secrecy ban on it.