"Putting Torpedoes on the Webber Class WPC" Topic

"What is the Problem?:

For a good while, I have been pointing out that the Coast Guard really does not have a means of forcibly stopping a medium to large ship, if its crew is willing to risk death. Even the largest guns the Coast Guard has (76 and 57mm) are unlikely to be able to reliably stop such a ship, and those larger cutters that carry the 76 and 57mm guns are unlikely to be available when needed anyway. They are more likely to be either deployed far from the ports or in maintenance status, unable to respond in a timely manner. There are also no other US military forces positioned and ready to respond to this type threat.

This means, the assets most likely to be available to stop a terrorist attack are Webber class WPCs and smaller vessels. They are armed, at best, with the 25mm M240 chain gun in a Mk38 mount and .50 caliber machine guns. These are even more unlikely to be able to forcibly stop a vessel. In addition there is a good possibility, a hostile vessel used for such a mission could be equipped with weapons that can out gun and out range the cutter. The Mk38 has a reported effective range of 2700 yards. I estimate the maximum effective range of improvised weapons on a terrorist vessel might be as much as 4000 yards. (I have never seen any indication anyone is attempting to train to use anything approaching the 25mm's maximum range of 7,450 yards.)…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Can some one confirm didn't the Italians numbering on their aircraft the first numbers where the squadron then the last number in a different color the airplane in the flight?

fullmetal

Fullmetal,

From the book Courage Alone by Chris Dunning,
"The squadriglia number was normally shown on both sides of the mid-fuselage, followed by a hyphen and the aircraft number. Occasionally the squadriglia number would appear on the fin. The colour was nearly always black, although some aircraft with dark camouflage received white numbers. The aircraft number was mainly red but black, white or yellow was used if paint stocks were limited."

So not a flight colour. All aircraft in the squadriglia should have the same colour aircraft number.

@Armand: The problem is, nobody makes 21" heavyweight torpedoes for surface ship use anymore, everyone uses missiles to kill surface ships from another surface ship. The only torpedoes used by surface ships are ~350mm or so lightweight antisubmarine torpedoes that don't have the explosive mass needed to break the back of a modern merchant ship.

You'd have better luck giving the Coasties some Javelin ATGMs or even just RPG7s. Sure, Harpoons or Hellfire/Brimstone missiles would be better, but there's a limit to how small a ship you can mount Harpoons on.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand