"jkochko68" wrote in message
...

At 25 knots you can move move a hell of a long way in 24 hours. Do the
math
the area to search is pi*r*r where r is 24*25 in nautical miles, thats a
LARGE
search area

I'm not an expert but won't a sat in a polar orbit, orbit the Earth
once every 90 minutes?

More like 100 and the earth rotates under it so it doesnt return to the
same spot. Any given location will be visited once a day or so.
The very detailed pictures that recon birds return paradoxically
makes searching the returned pictures for the carrier group
a painstaking job. Imagine using Google StreetView to scan a
medium sized town for a single vehicle.


Satellite orbits are predictable and minimising their overflight is
a tactic that any competent naval commander understands.

Reconnnaisance satellites are excellent tools for examining
a specified location but they are very limited when it comes
to real time maritime search. This is why the US uses the P3 Orion


So like I said before if you
are using three, four or more sats its going to get darn near
impossible to evade detection assuming your carrier and rest
of the strike group are not stealthy and actually get to where you
need to go in order to conduct your mission.


Incorrect and the assumption that you know the mission is likely
to be wrong. In Dec 1941 the USN thought the mission of the
IJN carriers would be Malaya , the NEI or the Phillipines.

Oops

Of course
you can attack the sats but that shoots the hell out of the catching
your foe unprepared and perhaps will be viewed as a major
provocative act. If China and Taiwan get hot that may be viewed as one
thing but if China goes after strategic U.S. assets...

China cannot realistically interdict strategic US assets with a carrier.
Its much more likely they want to project power tactically in disputed
areas such as the Spratly's where their rivals dont have that capability.

Keith