On a side note, another reason for all those JASSMs is the mighty TOR was shown engaging 4 targets within 10 seconds at MAKS!

🙂

No Austin, the Vulkan is the upgrade to the P-500 Bazalt / SS-N-12 Sandbox.

That should be on some, if not all the Slava cruisers in the RuN.

Russia could do whatever they like to Georgia no matter what weapons Georgia gets, short of an decent arsenal of nuclear missiles with range to reach Moscow.

Russia can preemptively spray everything in Georgia with cruise missiles from bombers, Tochkas and Iskanders before they even send the tanks and infantry in.

Saakashvili will be gone one day, and things will be better.

…but how many long range recon aircraft?. How many A-50’s are there and how many could be spared to go orbiting 300km offshore trying to find carrier groups?. Carrier groups that will detect the A-50 on ESM long before counter-detect on any USN air unit!.

Talking about the RN here, not the USN.

And how many could be spared? In any situation, as many as necessary Jonesy. There are 20 or so A-50s in service, and about as many Tu-142M variants.

The radar satellites you are talking about are passive ones that have the same limitations as all such systems. You need several for triangulation, you only ID the set-type and not the platform carrying it and you are dependent on the signal being recognisable in the first place. I think there is also some issue on just how ‘shortly’ shortly is at the moment?!.

The radar sats are survivable targets capable of giving a high enough resolution screen shot of what an enemy naval force would look like, rather than a bunch of fishing boats.

This all boils down to the same thing. Can the carrier battlegroup RELIABLY be detected, tracked and identified at such a range as to prevent concentrated long-range land-attack fire, from the group, attriting those systems intended to counter battlegroup theatre-entry?.

Any carrier group can be found, as their radar signature would be rather unique.

The problem is that you have to find the target first, so if you launch 60 aircraft and they separate into pairs to search for a target you might find only 4-8 aircraft making radar contact. And then if they pass that contact on to the other aircraft, you may have 60 aircraft launching missiles at a single oil tanker or something.

Edit:As an example, the Argentines launched strikes of ~36 aircraft in 1982, however many aircraft did not find targets and many of the ones that did were shot down.

Does an anti-ship version of Storm Shadow Exist, i doubt it would be hard to switch out the guidance system.

The Russians have long range recon aircraft for this, from the A-50 to the Tu-142.

The new Russian radar recon satellites are going up shortly also.

Listing Countries that can launch a co-ordinated long range strike of 50+ aircraft with aircrew trained in anti-ship tactics

China – Maybe with their TU-16 clones but would have difficulty with target aquisition as they lack a true long range MR platform and training is an issue.

USA – Maybe as the USAF can fit Harpoon to its B-52 and B-1B and the Navy has Land based P-3C and its Carrier Air Wings though how often they train is unknown

UK – No as Sea Eagle has been withdrawn from service and only the Nimrod retains an anti-ship capability with Harpoon

Russia – No as it only has 45 TU-22M3 assigned to the maritime role. Remainder have been re-rolled as Strategic Forces and assigned to Engels, Ryazan and Shailkovka Air Bases. The Bear-D is no longer in service and the 2 ASW/MR Bear-F Regiments are assigned to the Pacific Fleet based together with the TU-22M3 at Kamenny Ruchei.

India – No as they only have one squadron of Jaguar maritime strike aircraft

France – Maybe if the air wing off CdG co-ordinated with land based Atlantique 2 squadrons but again training is an issue

Germany – No as equipment and tactics of the German Navy were designed around confines of Baltic

Japan – Maybe as one of the prime roles of the F2 is Anti Ship and they have tanker support.

All of their 150 Backfires can use anti-ship weapons and will do so if necessary.

None of hte other countries you listed have “long range” strike platforms if you count the airframe itself.

If you want to count smaller aircraft, then the Russians can launch anti-ship strikes with Su-24Ms, Su-34s, Su-27SMs, Tu-95MS Bears with Kh-555/101 TV-guided missiles, or Tu-160s with Kh-15 or TV guided missiles, and even the MiG-31BM when it becomes available in large numbers. . .

The source for the list I produced was Warfare.ru. The list covers all units that are not mothballed, in reserve or pending disposal. I do not hold it up as the be all and end all mind you. But with only a pool of 8 major surface unit from which to deploy a taskforce ie not all are going to be available at any one time, it really show the state of the Russian Navy. The is epecially so as they are now saying it will be 2050 until they have a balanced navy capable of regular deployments os any meaning size or duration.

They have said no such thing.

2050 was when they expected to have 6 CBGs.

[color=red]Sealordlawrence has been torpedoed again.[/color]

Type 65 by any chance?