TODAY'S US NAVY COULD LEARN A LESSON FROM THE ERA OF ESSEX-CLASS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
BY JONATHAN H. KANTOR OCT. 21, 2025 7:15 PM EST
U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons
When the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it unknowingly altered the future of the aircraft carrier. While carriers were seen as support ships up to that point, some saw the potential for more. To that end, the United States had already begun constructing new and improved carriers via the Naval Act of 1938. When Japan sank the Pacific Fleet's battleships while its three carriers were elsewhere, it accelerated the timeline, placing carriers as the lead capital ships in the Pacific.
This allowed the newly designed Essex-class carrier to shine, becoming a workhorse for the U.S. Navy throughout WWII. By the end of the war, the U.S. had constructed 24 Essex-class carriers, and not a single one was lost to enemy action. Several were severely damaged, but they always managed to return to the fight. When the war ended, construction of the Essex-class carriers was halted, and orders for more were canceled — the U.S. was looking to the future, which would eventually see the Essex-class carriers give way to the Midway-class and, eventually, supercarriers.
While modern carriers like the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) are significantly more advanced, the Essex-class carrier fleet were engineered for growth and expansion. They remained fully mission-capable for decades by adapting to technological and tactical changes. This allowed naval operations to be built around carriers, developing into Carrier Strike Groups and the lead ships of every major blue-water navy on the planet.
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https://www.slashgear.com/1998687/essex-class-aircraft-carrier-history/
