Former 4-Star Fleet Commanders: Don’t give up on carriers
By: Adms. (Ret.) Robert J. Natter and Samuel J. Locklear  
The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, left, the air-defense destroyer HMS Defender and the destroyer Farragut transit the Strait of Hormuz on Nov. 19, with the cruiser Leyte Gulf. (Navy photo by MC3 Zachary Pearson)
Since World War II, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have uniquely served as the most flexible and effective tool in the nation’s warfighting toolbox.
Presidents from 1942 to today have used them to reassure friends, warn opponents, and, when necessary, fight and win wars. With the re-emergence of great power competition, coupled with fewer and fewer viable options to forward deploy land or air forces to defend our national security interests, large deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers have been and will continue to be indispensable in providing quick response options and credible, visible deterrence. And with its fleet of large deck nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy is the sole proprietor of the eleven most mobile and survivable airfields in the Department of Defense.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/11/22/former-4-star-fleet-commanders-dont-give-up-on-carriers/
