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My biggest problem was is that while carriers could make good cover for your fleet, it was that you could not us them to mount a prolonged air campaign. (ie: Invasion air support, and strike bombing of coastal targets.) I like to use strike aircraft, like F-16s and things of that size, to attack my enemies and support my troops. Mainly cause things like the B-2 are very costly and do not work well for how much they cost. When I launch an invasion, if it is say cross ocean. I have no or very limited air support. Reason why is that even if I have 10 carriers and use them to base aircraft, those aircraft are only good for 1 sortie before being rendered useless. So you can see what problems I would have if I wanted to launch an aircraft strike against china (playing US.) Carriers to not near do what they can in real life. In the game, they are so underpowered that they are damn role-less. Carriers in the world are a source of fear and admiration. When the US sends its carriers anywhere the whole world notices. I remember a few years back, the chinese were firing missiles over Taiwan. The US responded by sending 2 carriers into the area. As soon as they showed up on radar the chinese stopped firing and even offered reprimands for the trouble.

My biggest problem was is that while carriers could make good cover for your fleet, it was that you could not us them to mount a prolonged air campaign. (ie: Invasion air support, and strike bombing of coastal targets.) I like to use strike aircraft, like F-16s and things of that size, to attack my enemies and support my troops. Mainly cause things like the B-2 are very costly and do not work well for how much they cost. When I launch an invasion, if it is say cross ocean. I have no or very limited air support. Reason why is that even if I have 10 carriers and use them to base aircraft, those aircraft are only good for 1 sortie before being rendered useless.

I think im still of the mind that a re-balance vs ships,better recognition of the carrier as home by its aircraft,and missile supply would do the trick well enough.

I disagree here. In many SR2020 campaigns, if I played as the US I usually had a fleet of carriers I could post off the coast of an enemy and run almost constant "air patrol" missions until I had secured land airbases. In one memorable campaign, I had sent a large amphibious force covered by 5 Nimitz class carriers to invade Egypt. My carriers were using a combination of F18 and F35s, and other than some damage attrition they managed to keep the Egyptians' heads down quite well until my ground forces siezed key targets.

I did the same thing again in another campaign when I invaded mainland China.

In any discussion about modern aircraft carriers, the key point to remember is that they are intended as force projection weapons and have always been vulnerable to anti-ship munitions.

One need only look at the Falklands War in the 80s to see how even the early model Exocet was able to disable the HMS Sheffield, the destroyer HMS Glamorgan and the container ship Atlantic Conveyor. It's arguable whether such weapons would have been equally effective against advanced Cold War US aircraft carriers, but given enough missiles launched, defense overload would be inevitable. Even the Soviet SS-N-2 Styx developed in the '50s presented a serious threat to aircraft carriers. Tech level is less important in this discussion than numbers - the Japanese kamikaze was little more than a low-tech cruise missile, and caused immense damage to enemy ships out of all proportion to their costs.

better recognition of the carrier as home by its aircraft

My biggest problem was is... I have no or very limited air support. Reason why is that even if I have 10 carriers and use them to base aircraft, those aircraft are only good for 1 sortie before being rendered useless.

Making them part of the carrier is a step backwards,making them reconize the carrier as their Home (as per the suggested feature) and making it so carriers are small supply generators would both be steps forward.And thats the way they should go.

The problems I see with carriers in SR2020 is

1. The compliment of aircraft that you can load on 1 carrier does not adequately represent the all the capabilities a carrier can perform. You are limited by squadrons as to what you type of aircraft you can put on your carriers. Depending on the type of carriers in play, you need several to alot to perform all the abilities a carrier should be able to perform.

* * One of the problems here is that nearly all SR fighter and ftr-bomber squadrons are based on 18 aircraft [that is going to change]....
so that getting a flexible and effective air wing is difficult, especially if your carrier is rather small (anything smaller than Kitty Hawk CV).
You need to Split your squadrons to smaller units, especially with AEW and helicopter squadrons.


2. The inability to resupply aircraft. Unless your lucky enough to be attacking a region with a Ocean Platform out at sea, you have to manuever your carrier fleet close to the enemy shore lines to be able to resupply your aircraft. Being that close to shore makes your whole fleet easier to be seen and then attacked by the enemy. Which brings us back to number 1, you have to bring in more carriers to provide air cover for your fleet.

* * Try taking a half-squadron of KA-6D or other carrier-capable refueling aircraft on each carrier, or allocate one squadron to one of the carriers and keep it rotating to the area when your aircraft are return from (w/out putting in within interceptor or SAM range).


They are not the "awe" or "projection of force" that a carrier should be IMO. Players can work around these problems but the AI cant. Probally why we see the AI carriers stay pretty much at home ports in SR2020.

* * This is more a BG programming issue, as with the lack of AI "patrol" operations that don't take place - seen games when Japan is at
war with China and Japanese P-3 Orion's never leave their airfield to undertake over-water patrols.


A possible solution to #1 might be to create Carrier Air Wings that represent all the capabilites of Carrier Wing. Each class or type of carrier would have its own wing representing its capabilities. These squadrons would be able to operate on the carriers of thier class and on land (no way around it ). They could be used for anything from airsupply to recon, to ASW to CAS and used in Arracks and Defense. The problem I see with this idea is that these air wings might be to powerful (as a combination of abilities) and may be used as a substitute for everything.