2020, UK battle fleet Vs 1 US carrier fleet.

Was the tank 100% destroyed? As only 2 people were killed.

And I don't think the UK is going to give the US it's armour or technology any more, that time has gone.

 

uh....you do realize that the U.K. buys billions of dollars worth of U.S. armaments and technology every year, right?

 

Yes, buys. We aren't just given it.

 

My point was that Britain and the U.S. trade tech/equipment more than virtually any other country....

 

So is the IED threat why they don't use more tanks in Afghanistan, but elite force like the pathfinders?

 

Yes but what was the last thing the US paid for, apart from sniper rifles from accuracy international? Does the US pay for the weapons systems it gets from BAE systems?

And you must admit the UK did just give the US a lot of their technology in the 40's, 50's and 60's, and really get nothing back until the 80's. And most of the British technological gains in the last 10-15 years have came through join programs with other European nations, like France.

 

Maybe because IEDs destroy tanks as well as other vehicles.

Plus in a lot of combat areas, tanks are the last thing you want to bring into a hostile area.

 

The U.S. arm of BAE is an autonomous U.S. subsidiary. In fact, the head BAE corporate board in the UK isn't allowed to know what projects the U.S. arm is working on.

The U.K. uses dozens of U.S systems.

I'll list here just the primary weapons used by the British that are American designed. There are thousands of U.S. designed components in many of the other equipment that isn't designed directly by the U.S.

Small Arms:
Barret M82
Browning L9A1
M2 Browning
M72 LAW
Vehicles:
Mastiff Cougar
Ridgback Cougar
Wolfhound MPV
Husky MXT-MV
Air Defense and Artillery:
MLRS
Aircraft:
Apache
Boeing Sentry
Beechcraft Shadow
Lockheed Hercules C-130 (K and J)
Boeing C-17A
Lockheed TriStar
Boeing Chinook
MQ-9 Reaper
Bell 212
F-35 (Most of the funding/tech is U.S.)

Naval:
Harpoon Missiles
Phalanx CIWS
Tomahawk Missiles

I found all this in about 10 minutes of work. It does't include all of the systems and sub-systems. The U.S. exports 8 times as much in arms as the U.K. Most of these sales go to NATO/Japan/South Korea/ and a few select Middle Eastern countries.

 

To go back to the thread original subject, for your CVN escort and anti-missile defense system, would the USA be better served by doing what the japanese did with their Kongô class aegis heavy-destroyer/cruiser (it does have a displacement of 9,485 tons after all), that is, just drop the tomahawk system and replace them with more anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-sub system?

I know that they did this to comply with their self-defense only doctrine but since you already have plenty of other ship in the fleet that can launch tomahawk, including subs.

 

Not really, because the US Destroyers and Cruisers are dual role vessels.

Since the demise of the Battleships, these ships have become our major attack platform for the launching of Tomahawk missiles. And these have been used many times over the decades, both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Remove them, and then we are reduced to only sending in air strikes which puts pilots at risk.

 

But since every other type of ship present in the group except for tender has the possibility to launch tomahawk, wouldn't it be better to have the extra anti-aircraft and anti-missile?

 

What other ships in the group?

Your normal Carrier Fleet consists of only 4 classes of combat ships.

First is the Carrier. And unless we are talking of the Soviet/Russian Navy, these do not carry offensive missiles.

Then you generally have a fast attack submarine. This is one of the ultimate stealth platforms, and that is totally destroyed if it starts to fire off it's missiles.

Then you have the Arleigh Burke class Destroyers and the Ticonderoga class Cruisers. Which are the ships I mentioned.

Our carrier groups generally do not use any other ships (although they occasionally add an Oliver Hazard Frigate for ASW). And in fact, we do not have any other ships to use. The Virginia Class Cruisers were all decomissioned by 1998. The Kidd class Destroyers were all decomissioned by 1999. And the Spruance class Destroyers were all decomissioned by 2005.

We do have a few Oliver Hazard class Frigates left in operation (19 of the 71 built). But none of these have Tomahawk missile launchers on them so they can't fulfill that role at all.