Quote Originally Posted by orly_andico
regarding the destruction of carrier battle groups:
the soviets had two methods of doing so..

1) the oscar-class SSGN with the Granit missile (although the russian heavy cruisers like the Peter the Great and their carrier also carries the Granit), mach 2.25 speed, 600km range

2) (tom clancy used this device in his book "red storm rising") send a whole squadron of Tu-160 supersonic bombers against the CBG, and all of them would salvo their AS-10 cruise missiles. the AS-10 is a low-flying missile with a "flying geese" behavior (one missile takes the lead, others follow it like a flock of geese; if the "lead goose" gets shot down, another missile will take over the lead) in the book, a salvo of 200+ cruise missiles was able to destroy the carrier simply by overwhelming the aegis defense system
The Aegis isn't the only line of defense that a CBG has. A Hawkeye + F14 can also be utilized to intercept such threats.

The Granit & AS-10 are a bit old... what is worrisome is the new Yakhont & Moskit supersonic cruise missiles (lighter & longer range) which are still untested against current US missile defense. These are the best missiles out in the market! Besting the their Western counterparts (Tomahawk & Exocet of the USA & France, respectively). Though one wonders if these are just the marketing strategies of Russia in order to sell them to China. Hehe.