USS Cole bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole_bombing
The destroyer's rules of engagement, as approved by the Pentagon, kept its guards from firing upon the small boat (unknowingly loaded with explosives) as it neared them without first obtaining permission from the Cole's captain or another officer.
Petty Officer John Washak said that right after the blast, a senior chief petty officer ordered him to turn an M-60 machine gun on the Cole's fantail away from a second small boat approaching. "With blood still on my face," he said, he was told: "That's the rules of engagement: no shooting unless we're shot at." He added, "In the military, it's like we're trained to hesitate now. If somebody had seen something wrong and shot, he probably would have been court-martialed." Petty Officer Jennifer Kudrick said that if the sentries had fired on the suicide craft "we would have gotten in more trouble for shooting two foreigners than losing seventeen American sailors."
This incident is only meant for situation analysis. Of course, as to the real application - the only limitation is your imagination!
The Russian anti-ship missile we have no defense against? http://www.metafilter.com/88559/The-Russian-antiship-missile-we-have-no-defense-against
January 23, 2010 3:26 PM SS-N-22 Sunburn is the NATO designation for a Russian-made anti-ship missile that the US Navy (it seems) currently has no defense against.
Many years ago, Soviet planners gave up trying to match the US Navy ship for ship, gun for gun, and dollar for dollar. The Soviets simply could not compete with the high levels of US spending required to build up and maintain a huge naval armada. They shrewdly adopted an alternative approach based on strategic defense. They searched for weaknesses, and sought relatively inexpensive ways to exploit those weaknesses. The Soviets succeeded: by developing several supersonic anti-ship missiles, one of which, the SS-N-22 Sunburn, has been called “the most lethal missile in the world today...
As we learned in the Falklands war -- missles are cheaper than men. posted by effugas at 3:32 PM on January 23
There are no invincible defense system in the real world.
The destroyer HMS SHEFFIELD on fire after being struck by an AM39 Exocet missile fired by an Argentine aircraft
By the way, even if the nuke warhead miss its target, the strong EMP emitted by the nuke can still burn through most of the modern electronic components. Under such condition (serious EMP strike), most of the modern fly-by-wire aircrafts probably will fall from the sky.