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Aeredor t1_j6pcra4 wrote

You asked about warships on the surface In among some other comments. Good question. Frankly, I’m surprised they’re still relevant, but I give them maybe 2-5 more years. The reason is because, according to the news, hypersonic weapons have passed early testing. The modern navies have enjoyed stand-off and over-the-horizon distances, which is why the carrier is the heart of the fleet. With a hypersonic missile, there’s no point defense gun that can protect these astronomically expensive boats. Navies won’t be able to deploy them into range of the aircraft on the carriers without putting them at risk.

The other reason is submarines continue to get stealthier. If there were any naval conflict going on right now, I think it would be the end of surface ships as we know them.

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Surur t1_j6pfynv wrote

I think it's notable that Russia is having difficulty with their naval fleet due to the very few long-range missiles Ukraine has.

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BluntBastard OP t1_j6pegq5 wrote

I forgot about submarines, and yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to operate after surface combat ships are retired. If that ever occurs. In regards to hypersonic missiles though, I'd like to point out that a faster missile has a harder time correcting it's course if it's aiming at a moving target. This is a major consideration if a ship is fast enough. If hypersonic missiles become prevalent enough I can see navies turning to faster, smaller platforms. This is especially the case if navies fully utilize small unmanned ariel platforms and severely limit their manned counterparts. A Ford class carrier will be unnecessary at that point in terms of scale.

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Plurgasm0285 t1_j6pgs53 wrote

Large enough payload and a surface burst and navigation is irrelevant

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dumpitdog t1_j6ph4c4 wrote

As the Gerald Ford rolled off late last year I came to a conclusion that a single hypersonic missile that costs maybe $300MM could wipe it out in hours. Even with all the limitations and physical restrictions of hypersonic weapons there are workarounds. Navy is pretty 2 dimensional and slow: I imagine the navel defense idea might be gone by 2075 but hey we all might be gone by then.

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