Quote Originally Posted by pvebber View Post
Our soultion to the tactical instability of the CSG is to invest in High Energy weapons with the hopes that they offer a solution to the magazine and speed of engagement issues that are rapidly backing defenses in o a "one shot-one kill" requirement. historically speaking, the tables WILL get turned again, the question is when, by what means?

Currently the Navy is crusing along happily, certain of its plan to move to high energy laser defensive weapons to at least return defense to parity. The prpoblem is that this ignores the tactical instability problem that has crept in as frigates have left CSGs and LCS's are eyed for lots of non-CSG type tasking.
pvebber-

I agree, lasers are probably the best answer to this problem. While there are issues with their ability to operate continuously, they will still far exceed the current VLS' magazine capacity. I think the real issue will be how many lasers can you get in the CSG.

Another option is to make the ships "stealthier", though I doubt you can really get there with a CVN size ship.

Another option for dispersed ops as you say is to take a page from the UK in the Falklands War, and put a VSTOL F-35 on small deck ships that can get closer to the action before launching without getting hit. You possibly could make these ships stealthy, or just cheap enough to have a lot. You could retain the CVN as the landing platform, just further to the rear.

I imagine that even with a lot of missiles any adversary will run out of them after a day or two- then it's back to standard ops.

V/R,

Cliff