No More Floating Airbases: The Age of the Mighty Navy Aircraft Carrier Is Over
Story by Brandon J. Weichert • 18h •
© Provided by National Interest
Summary and Key Points: Aircraft carriers, once central to U.S. naval strategy, are increasingly seen as outdated and vulnerable to modern missile threats.
-Despite their historical success and significant cost, carriers face growing challenges from advanced missile technologies employed by rivals like China and asymmetric threats from groups like the Iran-backed Houthis.
-The U.S. Navy's reliance on these expensive assets may hinder its effectiveness. Instead, a strategic shift towards expanding the submarine fleet, investing in more agile surface ships, and developing hypersonic and space-based weapons is recommended to counter contemporary threats.
Most countries tend to fight--and prepare to fight--the previous war. This fact is seen in Washington's obsessive commitment to building and maintaining expensive aircraft carriers. While works of technological marvels, America's aircraft carriers are holdovers from a bygone era. They have become much like the battleships of yore that they replaced. In fact, the entire history of the flat top is one of accidental greatness. For the Americans, the reason that the US Navy relied on these technological marvels to beat the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War, was simply because they had no choice.
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