On April 10 the US Navy’s Carl Vinson strike group suddenly changed course from Australia
to the Korean Peninsula amid concerns that North Korea could soon conduct its 6th nuclear
test or more missile launches.
The move gave more ground to US President Donald Trump's threat of unilateral action
to solve the problem of North Korea's nuclear program.
North Korean state media warned of a nuclear attack on the United States if there was any
sign of American aggression.
USS Carl Vinson is one of the most powerful weapons platform in the world, being 3 football
fields long, having a displacement of 100000 tonnes, and is capable of carrying more than
60 strike aircrafts.
It must be noted that, USS Carl Vinson is not alone, but it leads the US Navy Carrier
Strike Group One.
It is accompanied by other vessels including an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer,
the USS Wayne E Meyer (DDG 108).
Arleigh Burke class is considered to be one of the most potent destroyers in the world.
It is also expected to be accompanied by 1 or 2 submarines, though details are classified.
Let us analyze if USS Carl Vinson aided by the other vessels of the strike group
is unsinkable or not.
In this video, we look at 3 weapons and tactics that can be biggest threat to the carrier,
and analyze how capable USS Carl Vinson Carrier Group is in dealing with them.
Note that, these are non-nuclear options, a successful nuclear strike is powerful enough
to sink the entire strike group.
Traditional but this method has been effective.
In case of conflict, USS Carl Vinson will certainly be coming under attack from enemy
bombers or fighters.
Here Carl Vinson can use its own aircrafts to meet the challenge.
Carl Vinson has F 18 Hornets and F 18 Super Hornets to engage enemy aircrafts.
It will also deploy F 35 in near future.
It will be aided by 1 or 2 AWACS for long distance target detection apart from its own
high performance radars.
Aegis Air Defense System will also provide cover and is capable of mounting strong defense.
It can be safely assumed, the carrier group is capable of strong and aggressive retaliation
against attack by aircrafts, and should be able to thwart it.
Modern torpedoes can achieve speeds in excess of 40 knots and operate at depths of 400 m.
These can have range of 40 to 50 km, and carry 250 to 500 lb high explosive warhead.
The warhead size may be not so large, but the important thing is that a torpedo will
hit a surface vessel below its waterline.
Though aircraft carriers and large surface vessels have system of compartments, to seal
off parts which is damaged, a single hit in delicate region like propeller area can have
a crippling effect.
USS Carl Vinson does have Kevlar protection to minimize damages, but against an enemy
submarine, its biggest defense will be its own submarine escort.
Every US Carrier Group has submarines to detect and hunt enemy submarines.
Also, USS Carl Vinson will have cover from P-8 Poseidon.
The P-8 is specially designed to conduct anti-submarine warfare and will keep scanning the waters
in the vicinity of the aircraft carrier with its specialized equipments.
So it can be concluded that, there will be no easy way to target USS Carl Vinson with
torpedo, but will required deployment of multiple submarines with proper strategy.
Cruise missiles are by far the most potent threat to an aircraft carrier like Carl Vinson.
Cruise missile tends to be versatile have the ability to be launched from different
platforms like surface vessels or land.
These also have the range to be launched from far off and are relatively cheaper when compared
with an aircraft carrier, hence can be fired in large numbers to saturate the enemy defenses.
In between the cruise missile and the carrier will be US's state of art Aegis Air Defense System.
Here are 3 most lethal weapon in this category and how they are expected to perform:
1. Russian 3M14 Kalibr is equivalent to the American tomahawk cruise missile in many parameters
such as range, warhead and propulsion.
It has a 2500 km range, a 450 kg high-explosive warhead and has a speed of 0.8 mach.
The Kalibr is highly maneuverable, but lacks speed, and is expected to be intercepted by
the Carrier Group’s Aegis system.
Even if 1 to 2 missile is not intercepted, they will not be able to deliver lethal
blow to a super carrier like Carl Vinson.
2. Indo Russian Brahmos is currently the most formidable challenge to a carrier like USS
Carl Vinson.
It has speed of 2.8 to 3 Mach, range of more that 450 km and is highly maneuverable.
Being supersonic, it has almost 16 times the Kinetic energy of a missile like Kalibr or
Tomahawk.
Brahmos is known to break ships in half in test scenarios.
Since it is so fast, the Aegis defense system will find it difficult to intercept, specially
if it faces a barrage of 4 to 8 Brahmos . The result is hard to predict, but can be
concluded to being 50 50.
3. Russia’s 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missile is expected to enter production in 2018.
The new weapon—which is capable of speeds of around Mach 6 is currently in testing.
The US currently has no way to stop it, and this is not expected to change in a year’s
time when it is deployed in combat.
A single shot from this 5-ton hypersonic missile will be able to cripple, or sink even a super
carrier like USS Carl Vinson.