phungus420
Deity
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2003
- Messages
- 6,296
(reality, not the game) I think it's actually a worse case for the navy: I think their whole era is over. Any capital ship can be sunk by powerful ship killing missiles which can be fired from airplanes and land based locations. Missiles exist that stay close to the water and can fly at supersonic speeds over large distances. And such missiles only cost a tiny tiny fraction of what the capital ship costs so you can afford to lose a few to any defensive measures that might exist or are developed.
Aircraft carriers can easily be replaced by airborne refuelling which is far more flexible and a lot faster if you want to suddenly strike a distant target.
The only reason that these ships still exist is because the most powerful nations elect to fight against nations that don't own such missiles or don't have the means to deliver such weapons. In that case, it is nice to have a moveable airbase close to the enemy.
I think that if the world was divided into two powerful nations separated by an ocean with the present technology, then both wouldn't be able to move their navy close the others lands because it would be annihilated. And because heavy material cannot be transported en masse through the air over an ocean, it would be hard to fight eachother with conventional weapons on eachothers lands. The whole war would consist of bombing and missiles and fighter airplanes until one or the other was weakened so badly that it became possible to transport military hardware over the ocean to the others lands. (all of this assumes a conventional conflict without nukes which is probably not even that realistic with that setup).
It's worse then this, submarines would also destroy all surface vessels that were far enough out or protected from aircraft. A war between any of the major powers would lead to the destruction of pretty much all surface vessels within the first day of hostilities. Subs are the only thing that would stay at sea.
Of course the Navies of the major powers are designed and exist solely for proxy conflicts, as a world war between the major powers would also see the use of nukes and the anhilation of civilization as we know it, the loss of surface vessels would be the least of anyone's problems. And none of this is pertinent in game, because it's a game, and not a realism simulator.