Talk:Military
User: Eric's take:
For transparency sake; my dad was a navigator for P-3 Orions so I'm slightly biased
Getting that out of the way, The Chinese Fast Attack Craft/Missile Boat Seems to be more of a littoral/coastal area craft, not a blue water one, as it has little air defence on it's own (IE it needs airspace control via air superiority fighters to survive + work). Also it would be semi-negated by E-2D Advanced Hawkeye AEW, and Boeing EA-18G Growler Electronic Warfare Capabilities. Most CIWS's Could probably shoot down it's missiles, unless a truely overwhelming amount came through. The boost glide missiles are either ballistic (so moving ships are troubling; these are probably intended more for areas like Guam etc), or minimally controlled. Also Aegis will most likely be able to counter non-absurd amounts of misssiles (especially considering developing tech such as laser CIWS like the LaWS or larger scaled up units to come such as a possible Zumwalt mounted Free Electron Laser.
The third article uses this quote to imply that carriers will go extinct:
"In another time, the battles of Crecy and Agincourt signaled the end of the age of the armored knight who could be defeated from a distance with advanced, low cost, armor-piercing arrows. The age of the cavalry ended with advances in artillery, mechanized armor and the machine gun in World War I."
I think this is a misinterpretation; calvary "evolved" into mechanized infantry, it didn't die out to be supplanted by infantry only.
Granted this is no cause for overconfidence; the hypersonic cruise missiles that are being developed, along with supercavitatiig torpedoes (and stealthier diesel electric subarines (thanks in part to battery technology improving) are concerning, but this is just another episode in the cat and mouse game of military technology.