Assuming any Kamakazis survived the CAP, (and the present-day destroyer escort screen), they'd start taking hits from Sea Sparrow SAM's at a range of about 10 miles. Just wave after wave of bogies getting splashed from beyond visual range by modern air to air missiles. The Japanese would seldom see what hit them. Again, the Hawkeyes would begin picking up bogies 450 miles out depending on their altitude - giving us plenty of time to get combat air patrols up. Let's take another scenario: holding station offshore of Okinawa supporting the invasion and enduring daily Kamakazi attacks. We would sink most, if not all, of the 185 ships Yamamoto sent over and they'd never catch a glimpse of who was killing them - just the occasional flash of a missile or jet exhaust. They'd never even get a chance to launch their planes since they had almost zero ability to conduct night ops. It would be a turkey shoot - we'd simply spam their transports with Harpoon anti-ship missiles from our S-3 Vikings and drop laser-guided 1000lb bombs on the carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers from 10,000 feet using our strike aircraft. Even all by our lonesome, the early warning our Hawkeyes would give us would allow us to mount nighttime alpha strikes against both Japanese battle groups - the carrier fleet and the amphibious one. Our E-2C Hawkeyes by themselves could swing the battle by detecting the Japanese fleet a day or two before they were discovered IRL and simply radioing their coordinates back to Pearl Harbor for our submarine fleet to intercept. The Battle of Midway for example would have been a cakewalk. I'd still want to surround the carrier with a battle group of contemporary destroyers and cruisers to further reduce the chance of the Japanese getting in a lucky shot, but this carrier would have been orders of magnitude more powerful than anything at sea in that era. The only thing that would have posed a serious threat to a modern carrier back then would be a random sea mine or a submarine - but the submarine wouldn't be nearly the threat that they are now since they spent most of their time on the surface and would be easily detected by a carrier's shipboard or airborne surface-search radars. I've got a good grasp of what a carrier can and can't do and I've thought of this quite a bit just sitting around daydreaming - esp the IJN aspect of it.Īssuming that the logistics were taken care of, then yes, a single modern CVN would have likely shortened the war by several years. I worked as an Operations Specialist for a USN Carrier Battle Group staff back in the late 80's and early 90's. Previous AMAs | Previous Roundtables Featuresįeature posts are posted weekly. May 25th | Panel AMA with /r/AskBibleScholars Please Subscribe to our Google Calendar for Upcoming AMAs and Events To nominate someone else as a Quality Contributor, message the mods. Our flaired users have detailed knowledge of their historical specialty and a proven record of excellent contributions to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read and Understand the Rules Before Contributing. Report Comments That Break Reddiquette or the Subreddit Rules. Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions. Provide Primary and Secondary Sources If Asked. Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices. Questions should be clear and specific in what they ask, and should be able to get detailed answers from historians whose expertise is likely to be in particular times and places. Nothing Less Than 20 Years Old, and Don't Soapbox. Be Nice: No Racism, Bigotry, or Offensive Behavior. Downvote and Report comments that are unhelpful or grossly off-topic.Upvote informative, well sourced answers.New to /r/AskHistorians? Please read our subreddit rules and FAQ before posting! Apply for Flair
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