Austin wrote:A modern carrier is designed to take a good amount of damage ( above/below deck ) and still continue to remain partially operational .
So in such a case depending on the damage it takes and sustains , it can still continue to remain operational , at worst it would be in a position to save most of its assets even if its damaged badly
Any ship is built to take a certain amount of damage. For eg,in commercial /cargo there must be enough reserve buoyancy so that the ship doesn't sink if a bulkhead gets penetrated and two adjacent holds are flooded. Similary, with double hull, certain allowances for keel damage and also side damage are factored in.
Without these no registrar will certify your ship and you simply will not be able to insure your ship and cargo! .
Naval vessels of course designed to take more punishment .. Primarily by greater compartmentalization/ subdivision and more robust fire fighting and damage control equipment. Carriers by nature of their big size have higher reserve buoyancies as well.
The problem with these air launched anti ship missiles is that they usually dont sink the targets right away (esp on larger ships), but cause sufficient damage for mission kill /out of action for over a year kind of thing. For a single missile to sink a large sized ship, it should be very lucky and hit something like an ammo store or something. or at best you end up creating massive damage in like a 20 cross section.which will put it out of action and. which while being serious damage, can't sink the platform.
Why even a 500 kg Jihadi DAM on USS Cole right at the waterline couldn't sink it! ..Dunno how many bulkheads were punctured(would guess none) , maybe just the side and one compartment got flooded.. It was touch and go anyways.