Gordon wrote:
US carriers crave deep water - the idea that a skipper would risk a
strategic asset (his ship, crew, airwing, and of course, his own
career!) by taking the CV into the gulf is a non-starter.

Umm, I was under the impression that carriers have been in the Gulf for
some years now and were likely to be there for a few more.

A/C can
easily fly from one end of the gulf to the other (there is tanker
support after all), and penetrate the gulf from far out into the NAS
and IO. Whatever wants to sink a carrier has to get out into Gonzo and
Kermit Station, putting the delivery platform under the guns of the USN
for hundreds of miles. On war day, anything we remotedly considered a
delivery platform is going to have a hard time putting out fires.

v/r
Gordon
PS, that doesn't mean I am not rightly impressed with this Russian
technology transfer.