Found this little snippet whilst trawling through some websites - one in the eye for the USN me thinks!
"We get them in here in Perth pretty often. I've been on board The Johnny Reb, John C Stennis, Nimitz and Carl Vinson.
Funny story, when I was in the airforce I was part of a training exercise in the Channel that actually "sank" the Enterprise. Scenario of a dash by the carrier group down the Channel into the North Sea, we were the bad guys.
I was on Phantoms then, mixed it up with their fleet defence guys, I think they thought we were going to be a push over - wrong......
Meanwhile a Buccaneer flight did their hiding in the waves trick and got past the air defence pickets and onto the carrier. Hypothetical multi- torpedo strike and bye bye Enterprise....
At the de-brief the US rep wanted to say how torpedo-proof the carriers were, and besides the real enemy didn't have Buccaneers.
The ranking Brit officer, Navy, remarked that the Su-24 and /or TU-22 could probably do a similar job, and both had nuclear capability......Then proceeded to discuss RN tactics in a very unfavourable comparison to those the USN had used.
Given a similar attack a few months before had failed to get through to Ark Royal, which could field far less fleet defence fighters he had a point.
That most priceless of things, a discomfited and speechless American officer, mission accomplished.......:-) "
