Re: OT: WW2 sub-vs-sub followup

At 10:07 AM 8/27/98 -0700, Bruce Alan Macintosh wrote:
>In some earlier thread I think I mentioned the case of modern Aegis
cruisers -the
>the most capable surface warships the USN is constructing - which would
>be essentially incapable of damaging each other except at short (gun) 
>ranges, as their anti-air/anti-missile capability is vastly superior to
the
>handful of anti-surface missiles they carry. They only have a dinky
little
>5" gun, too - they'd practically have to ram each other. As Chris
points out,
>these are specialized warships rather than general purpose, though.

	As an AEgis Cruiser Driver, I must Disagree with Bruce.  While a
cruiser
may be limited to its ability to affect events ashore with a 5 inch gun,
there are weapons systems coming online to change that.  As listed in
Jane's a cruiser can carry 8 Harpoon Missiles and the Standar Missile,
normally used for anit-air missions, are actually quite capable of
damaging
a ship.  I may not get a catastrophic kill with these, but I'm certain
to
get a mission kill.  A Standard Missile is very fast...

Gort, Klaatu barada nikto!