A navy one shot one kill

I have a question? Given the amount of super sonic missiles that the PRC has. What would happen If one of these puppies penetrated the hull of a U.S carrier at mach 2.5 and kept going until it hit the nuclear engine/reactor and then detonated? I understand that there would NOT be a nuclear explosion but would the resulting steam explosion and or reactor melt down sink the carrier within hours?

well it propaply depends on the size of the explosion of the warhead and the turbines...can ship structures take that big pennalty, near the waterline? It will make the carrier mission-killed for sure...

There are layers of bulkheads and water filled compartments the missile would hav to travel through to cause any sort of mission kill damage. I'm sure is is possible but not probale.

I think the Nuclear reactor is under the water line. So a missile hit would have to hit it at the right angle to damage and go through several armored bulk heads to get to it. But since we are talking what if...

A hit that damages the nuke reactor will certainly slow down the carriers operations. Remember there are two reactors per Nimitz class. If both go down, there are still back up generators to at least move the carrier to safety.

Something the size of a Nimitz, with over 1500 water tight bulk heads, will take a long time to sink. The IJN Shinano (70,000 ton carrier) took about 5 hours to sink from 4 torpedo hits and this is without watertight doors on its bulk heads. Your best lucky hit is to hit its munition storage. However, given the size the carrier relative to its munition space, it may not be more than just mission kill it. If such a hit can make an out of control fire, then the ship may have to be abandoned.

Any server damage to nuclear reactor means you have to abandon the ship immediately, since the radiation will go out. The ship will be beyond repair and has to be wrecked.

Better not to think about this scenario, the ship will stay far away from the war zone.

Yes, but what about a hit on the reactor itself. could you have a minny melt down or some sort of super heated steam explosion? I am talking a moskit or that other yonkont missile. At such high speed The KE would surly or could possibly put the missile into the reactor or at least near it compound it with 600lbs of high explosive going off deep inside of the ship. the blast wave effect would be horrid in the tight of a area.

but again what about the reactor would it "melt down"??

utelore said:

Yes, but what about a hit on the reactor itself. could you have a minny melt down or some sort of super heated steam explosion?

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Unlikely you have a melt-down, that happens when you push the fuel rods toward together. But an explosion from outside likely to blow them apart.

Radiation is the problem no cure.

While we are on the topic. Modern warships are very hard to sink with missiles since most of them have watertight compartments. However, modern torpedoes are design to exlpode under the ship and create a bubble making the ship breaking its own back. Has the US Navy done any tests to show the effect of this kind of detonation have on super carriers? Will they break like the regularships or are they much more stronger and able to withstand the blast?

jwangyue said:

While we are on the topic. Modern warships are very hard to sink with missiles since most of them have watertight compartments. However, modern torpedoes are design to exlpode under the ship and create a bubble making the ship breaking its own back. Has the US Navy done any tests to show the effect of this kind of detonation have on super carriers? Will they break like the regularships or are they much more stronger and able to withstand the blast?

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The USN sink one of the Kitty Hawk Class supercarrier (USS America) as a target ship to see what it would take to sink one of her super carriers. Unfortunately, the findings are classified.

utelore said:

I have a question? Given the amount of super sonic missiles that the PRC has. What would happen If one of these puppies penetrated the hull of a U.S carrier at mach 2.5 and kept going until it hit the nuclear engine/reactor and then detonated? I understand that there would NOT be a nuclear explosion but would the resulting steam explosion and or reactor melt down sink the carrier within hours?

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I don't think China has this kind of missile. I believe you need an SS-N-19 to do that.