MwRYum
Major
That's literally within cannon distance, faster to swing the 5" gun / 128mm cannon and start shooting, than to get firing solutions for Harpoon, or launch alpha strike package from aircraft carrier.
CV-16 Liaoning (001 carrier) Thread II ...News, Views and operations
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MwRYum
Major
That's Cold War 2.0 for ya.
Now, all we need is Y-9 ASW buzzing the bridge of USN CVN, and/or PLAN FFG ramming USN DDG to get the full vibe...
I wonder if China and the US will sign a sea navigation agreement like the Soviets and Americans did in the 70s.
Peeping at someone's door like a wolf.
Intrepid
Major
It is in the middle, but escorts are only for photo shootings close to their carrier. Normaly they are several miles away.
The CV is in the middle of the group.
But as Intrepid says, they're miles away in a real life deployment. In photo ops they will be located right next to each other but that is just for the picture.
The other question one might ask, is why did the Liaoning CSG allow a USN destroyer to get within a kilometer or two of the carrier itself?
In which case, the answer of course is -- why not? No one is at war at each other, and apart from keeping a close eye on the destroyer and making sure they are not posing navigational hazards to each other, there's nothing that can be done to physically prevent one ship from getting within that distance of your own ship.
The same principle applies if it's a Chinese destroyer wanting to get close to a US carrier as well in the middle of their own escort group.
Intrepid
Major
There is one exemption: when an escort is responsible for the close in weapon support, than it will be all the time near the carrier. The British had such a configuration during the Falkland War. And during WW II the battleships with their AA guns to protect the carriers against kamikaze aircraft.
Alternatively the other exception is probably a planeguard ship during flight operations, where a ship will trail the carrier in case aircrew have to ditch in the water during flight operations if an accident occurs etc.
Sometimes that role is done by helicopters, sometimes by a ship, or sometimes both
By the way ... here is the image in a much better resolution and quite interesting, the USN has removed it from its image-server.
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