it seems increasingly possible, the article last week celebrating the hard working navy boys doing 24/7 launch and recovery operations on the air craft carrier didn't really broach the subject of why they suddenly started having to have a 24/7 defense screen of fighter jets in the air. Seems like they either don't trust their missile defenses or they're running low on their missile defense munitions.

[–] Parzivus@hexbear.net 37 points 9 months ago (2 children)

They admitted to shooting down a missile with CIWS, which is basically saying "it got close enough to shoot with a giant machine gun," and even that can spray the ship with shrapnel. They're definitely keen not to have that happen again.
I do wonder how much jet fuel a carrier can actually hold, like how long can they do 24/7 flights for? Do they have tankers for jet fuel as well?

[–] nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net 33 points 9 months ago

They can refuel ships at sea so I assume they can keep the jet fuel topped up. They don't have any ability to reload ship-launched missiles at sea, though, so if they run out they have to go back to a port with the capability to resupply those. I understand they fire two anti-missile missiles for every interception attempt, so it seems pretty likely they'd have ripped through their magazines pretty quickly.

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes. Shit tons of fuel. Stored around and underneath on the bottom of the carriers. We used to grab a bit when we needed to clean up paint spills. JP5 is some potent stuff.

Then they duck out and get regular refuelings at sea. These refuelings at sea are a particualr vulnerable time for both the merchant marine tanker ship and the carrier. They are very very close to each other, hooked up by multiple lines, have almost no maneuverability during the procedure.

[–] spectre@hexbear.net 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

:wkuk-you-can-not-say-that-trevor:

[–] Egon@hexbear.net 5 points 9 months ago

illegal-to-say