The difference is this...

The US has the most ACC, and they are the biggest and baddest... by orders of magnitude.
And they can do... doughnuts!

100,000 tons




This post was edited by Ghot on Feb 28 2022 02:09pm

This changes nothing though. Unless one side possesses the ability to completely negate a first strike, and successfully decapitate the opposing side, game theory suggests the peace will continue. Both sides have the ability to launch a devastating strike. If it isn't hypersonic missiles, it would be a submarines with MIRV able to obliterate the entire US Coastline in 20 minutes.

Hypersonic missiles are strictly a deterrent, the same as MIRV, or the three tiers of the current US Defense. I don't believe they change the triad, but its more concerning that China and Russia were able to develop them so rapidly.

This post was edited by Cascadian on Feb 28 2022 02:12pm

So far, they don't seem ready to lob volleys of them. Defenses may arise by the time they are.

They are extremely impressive, but they are also fat targets that are not ideal for taking on forces that can shoot back. If America sent every ship they had into the China controlled sea on a mission of conquest, they would all get destroyed or crippled. Small maneuverable and fast ships have been the focus since WW2. Noone builds battleships anymore for a reason. They may be able to take a beating and dish one out, but economically they are extremely inefficient. A single ACC can be destroyed for a fraction of the cost and time involved in deploying an ACC.



They haven't exactly had reason to use them yet. Only war with a major power would give cause to deploy them. You don't send your most expensive weapons against a target when cheaper alternatives do the same job.

I'm pretty sure MAD is all that is preventing them from using nuclear weapons offensively. Cost is not a factor.

Hypersonic missiles are, to my understanding, not effective for long range deployment. And they don't have to carry nuclear payloads to be effective. There are conventional explosives available today that equal or exceed the power of the only nuclear weapons ever delivered on a military target.

1. They are hard to sink.
2. They are internally redundant. One hole will not kill them.
3. They are surrounded by tons of defense ships, of all kinds.
4. Then we have crushing air power.
5. We have ungodly satellite capabilities.
6. We can sit in the US, push a button, and blow a hypersonic missile "SITE" to smithereens.

The US is not JUST ACC.


https://www.globalfirepower.com/aircraft-total.php

India and S. Korea are on our side, so... 69.5% of global air power.





This post was edited by Ghot on Feb 28 2022 02:53pm

1-4 is true. But an incomplete assessment. Just because they are difficult to sink doesn't change the fact that sinking one is orders of magnitude cheaper than building one.
5 is going to be the first thing wiped out if WW3 actually happens, so is irrelevant. 6 is MAD, and also irrelevant.

5. We have more and incredibly better.
6. I'm not talking about nukes.

Just an FYI.
But if want to talk about ships and not sound like a layman.

An Air Craft Carrier is not an ACC, it's a cv.
Battleship=bb
Cruiser=ca
destroyer=dd

There are other designations for more specialized operations,
but this is enough for most to not sound like a noob.



This post was edited by sirthom on Feb 28 2022 03:00pm