The Aircraft Carrier Age Could End in Disaster for the U.S. Navy

[rangerrebew]

The Aircraft Carrier Age Could End in Disaster for the U.S. Navy
Story by Brandon J. Weichert • 21h


Summary and Key Points You Need to Know: The United States has long relied on aircraft carriers as the centerpiece of its naval strategy, a tactic that has served it well since World War II. However, in today’s increasingly hostile global environment, this reliance may be a strategic liability.
 
What Is At Stake: With great power rivals like China and Russia, along with nations like Iran and North Korea, developing advanced anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems and hypersonic weapons, U.S. carriers are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

The Worry About Aircraft Carriers: As these adversaries can predict and counter U.S. deployments, there’s a growing need to rethink America’s naval strategy to avoid catastrophic losses in a potential future conflict.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-aircraft-carrier-age-could-end-in-disaster-for-the-u-s-navy/ar-BB1m62Da?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=8ab873b3099d44c7bdeca1f346db8628&ei=90

[Smokin Joe]

I have tossed this idea out before, but here goes. again.
Large 'fleet' carriers are useful for projecting air power, but the picture is changing. They are also the largest surface vessel military targets. Looking back at past wars, it only takes a few hits by bombs, kamikazes, or in the future, guided drones to disable or sink one.

Food for thought.

The future of air power is in flux as well, with unmanned aircraft on the verge of dominating the battle field. Unmanned naval drones are coming into their own as well, and the cruise missile, hypersonic missile, and aerial drone swarm launch platforms are only a thought and prototype away from being serious threats.

Mama said to never put your eggs in one basket,and with vtol capable aircraft, and even STOL aircraft (arrested landings are the ultimate short field landing), smaller vessels with reduced compliments of aircraft could serve as those points of projection of air power. The 'jeep carriers' of the WWII era come to mind, allowing the projection of more limited air power using smaller, cheaper, (and harder to hit) vessels which would allow more points of projection. Today, with GPS and other systems, it should be pretty easy, by comparison to WWII to vector different air groups together for a more massive attack, and that coordination should be easier as well. Add in that those rendezvous will possibly involve more unmanned craft in the future than manned (smaller, pilotless, attack craft) and they would need less vessel to operate from than conventional manned aircraft.

Maybe we have been going about this all wrong, or the concept of the larger carrier is just outmoded or limited in its temporal utility. Maybe there is a place for both.

[PeteS in CA]

Yet another rehash of the same BS-argument that was used against building the Nimitz class of carriers. USS Nimitz will have outlived the argument by nearly 4 decades when she enters the decommissioning process in a year or three. This is not the first time I've pointed out that the old 1970s argument has been disproved by 4 decades of history.

It should not need to be pointed out, but apparently does, that the defenses in a modern carrier battle group have advance considerably in the past 40 years, just as those defenses had advanced between 1945 and 1975.

The US' current classes of amphibious assault ships are capable of carrying AV-8Bs and/or F-35s (plus helicopters), along with their other functions (without those other functions they probably would be a poor use of personnel - less bang per sailor/Marine). There are 7 of the Wasp class currently in commission, 2 of the newer America class in commission, 2 being built, and 7 more planned. IOW, the USN already has the functional analogs of light carriers and escort carriers in commission. They just don't have the same public visibility as the Nimitz and Ford class carriers. This is also not the first time I've pointed out that the USN has the analog of light carriers in service.