Have we reached the point today where the western warship would be unable to penetrate the defences of a similar opponent, even while firing the entire salvo?
I don’t know about today Mike Echo. The Russians for example have had CIWS guns and short-range, as well a medium-long-range missiles capable of intercepting Harpoon-type weapons for sometime now.
As a contrast Russia, has continously been developing anti-ship missiles with much higher speeds and far greater range. The result is the capability to fire outside “NATO” range and possibly overwhelm the target with high speed missiles.
That was the old Soviet fleet’s cold war doctrine, just what you described. These supersonic long range missiles like the SS-N-22 and such have been around for many years now.
Recent developments in the Indian and Chinese navies points towards a strategy of surface warships with strong anti-air capability and up to 16 supersonic anti-ship missiles. These ships are undoubtly planned to be capable of taking on enemy warships themselves, with or without aircover.
Operating close to home I would think would be more likely if they are on their own, which in wartime is unlikely. I doubt they would ever be operating alone if they were engaging an enemy fleet far from home. The Surface Action Group, or SAG, would have it’s own fleet of organic air in several helos, and the group would combine it’s own anti-air defences to defend against counter-attack. Big new Chinese and Indian DDGs just make the task force mission stronger.
Has the Western navies lost their ability to operate against these Eastern navies without aircraft or nuclear submarines?
I don’t think the two have ever been exclusive of the each other when you consider modern day high threat wartime Ops.
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