Quote:
Originally Posted by White Out 403
I don't have a lot of naval knowledge compared to the buffs, but, WW2 was the end of capital ships was it not? Aircraft carriers demonstrated their dominance and became the new "capital" ship replacing battleships at this point.
Battleships like the Bismark became too big and it was like all your eggs were in one basket in the water... too easy to concentrate on the one large ship?
|
Not really capital ships. But battleships sure, even though America used their battleships to great success in terms of in shore troop fire support.
Let me put it this way.
If I put a Battleship on the ocean and draw a circle around it based around 20 miles in all direction, anything in the bubble lives and dies by the commander of that ship.
Now if I put a WW2 carrier on that same map and draw a circle around it of lets say 250 miles, that carrier commander has absolute authority of what lives or dies within that circle considering the air wing that he has access to.
With a Battleship you are talking about a line of sight platform, with a carrier you are talking about over the horizon. It would be extremely difficult for a Battleship to fight through to gun range.
As well, the WW2 Battleship really didn't have terrific top side protection, a dive bomber would effectively trump a Battleship who's main protection were its think armor belts.
Now it wasn't the death of the capital ship as frigates, destroyers and even cruisers were really effective in terms of adding belts of protection as escorts.
Now, the American's continued to effectively use Battleship up to and including the Gulf War as troop support and bombardment vessels and one benefit is that their thick armor would make them almost impervious to underwater threats.
Now this whole theory could change again with missile development and rail guns could shift things away from carriers.
The Russians have heavily invested in upgrading their Kirov class nuclear battlecruisers which are in effect monstrous battleships with extreme missile capabilities