Aircraft carriers are sitting ducks for countries with real armies. They are an outdated technology in the age of satellites, drones, and guided missiles.
US Sailor here. Iran is actually pretty scary. They have diesel submarines. They can sit silently in that sea and kill a carrier faster than any battle group could respond.
wouldn’t nuclear submarines be quieter?
Look at it this way: When a diesel sub is endangered, they can turn off everything and I mean EVERYTHING. Quiet as a mouse that doesn’t exist. However, it will have to resurface eventually. A nuclear sub cannot do that. The cooling pumps have to keep running. But they can stay under water pretty much indefinitely (until they run out of food).
I assume the cooling pumps make noise when they’re running?
Ah yes, sorry that detail was missing
How does a diesel sub get the oxygen to function? And where does the exhaust go?
Diesel-electric. They cruise around just under the surface on diesel, with snorkels to bring in air and expel exhaust. But, then they can shut down those diesel engines, fully submerge, and maneuver on batteries for a few days and maybe a hundred miles.
While they are on diesel engines, they are loud, and stuck to the surface. While they are on batteries, they are silent. For the few days that they are submerged, they are quieter than our nuclear subs.
Yeah, they pose a potential threat to a carrier group, but the “proportional response” to attacking a carrier would be the destruction of every naval facility they have, so not exactly a serious threat.
