Scott Kenny
ACCESS: Above Top Secret
- Joined
- 15 May 2023
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The challenge is thoseI would not consider that deployment to indicative of a 7th fleet CSG during hostilities. The only reasons to disperse are 1) to complicate opponent scouting / targeting 2). ASW and 3). nuclear weapons. Those may or may not be relevant in the Pacific theater: overhead surveillance is likely ubiquitous, submarines likely are thin on the ground at the range the USN could reasonably strike PLAN assets (~1000 miles), and tactical nuclear escalation may seem unlikely, at least initially. In fact, pre conflict, it can be assumed all units are continuously tracked, so dense packing of surface units with an ABM capability (and likely ASAT capability by extension) seems perfectly reasonable to me.
That's what I thought, too, and yet the Ford was miles away from any other ship in all those satellite photos.In any case, I wouldn’t assume the Fords formation typical: I thought it was relatively unheard of for the SAM boss to be more than 3000 yards from the CV, and I think it often acts as the plane guard as a result. But I never was the service so my info is generally third hand.
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