In 1982, Argentine Air Force A-4 skyhawks used free fall bombs against British ships during the Falklands war, utilizing high speed, sea skimming attacks. The most famous casualty was HMS Coventry, which was sunk after three bombs pierced her port side, destroying the machine room, communications, and operations hull.
How effective would such attacks be against the AI ships in the Air RB battles? Could it sink the carriers such as USS Lexington?
The carriers guns don’t do damage so they can’t hurt you. They also don’t have any damage control so the smallest fire kills them. They’re not good targets to go for because they give you barely any reward but all you had to do was find the US carrier. Fire some rockets or even cannons into the rear turrets to start a fire and you had a kill.
All Ships in War thunder are able to repair damage that should sink them IRL. AI ships are no exception to that, though I am of the opinion that they should have more limited damage control than players do in naval.
Smaller targets like a destroyer are easily sunk by 1-2 well placed 1000lb bombs
Sorry man, but this is wrong - i play frequently on old JP vs US/UK Pacific maps - and in every 2nd or 3rd match i see players getting killed by carrier aaa.
You might want to watch the replay:
Gaijin Entertainment - Single Sign On
The carrier aaa killed the last enemy B-34 bomber - and stole my kill as i just got an assist for scoring a crit minutes earlier…