Originally Posted by
ShawnP
JDAMs are cheap. They come in a few varieties and they work. You can load up a B- (fill in the blank 1, 2, 52) with a bunch of these things, go loiter for hours and effectively take out a lot of patrol boats or larger. This fills a valid need that carrier-based aviation cannot provide. They can do a lot of things, but are limited by the size of aircraft. This is a win in my book.
In the opening days of OEF the carriers on station could huck more iron into country in a given time than the USAF could with the turn around time on each sortie. (Could being the operative word as we still had Tomcats.). An air wing running full tilt can move mind boggling amounts of explosives in country, so much that the magazine capacity on the carrier becomes the limiting factor.
Like Hobbit demonstrated, a couple of 60's and helfire posted on station can respond for weeks at a time on a moments notice from the decks of DDG/FFG/CG ETC.