Posted on 08/06/2016 6:32:17 AM PDT by C19fan
This AO1 thinks carriers are already obsolete. Too big to hide, too expensive to risk losing one. Supporting even a single carrier strike group is a massive national investment. Improvements in cost and effectivity of "carrier killer" weapons limits the areas where we can deploy them. Losing 5500 souls and several billion dollars in assets would be a blow this nation might not be willing to bear.
Carriers were built to fight yesterday's wars, not tomorrow's.
They keep a lot of Americans employed though.
I guess I’m at the point where some sort of Sky Carrier platform would be more appropriate. How that works and how well is up for DARPA or somebody to work out. It seems to work out for that TV group about the Avengers and all that....:0)
It’s either that or constantly flying stationing UAV fighters that auto refuel from high altitude orbiting tankers.
The answer is an Underwater Carrier!........
I was never in the Navy or the Air Force.
What I find interesting is the debate about mission-specific aircraft versus a do-everything aircraft.
I remember the F-4 debates and the FB-111 debates.
This debate has been going on for awhile.
It all depends on who the enemy is. Carriers won’t beocme obsolete as long as aircraft remain a weapon of war. Carriers are floating airfields. Their strategic influence will wane but fighting against third world countries like Iran, they will remain essential.
It's all about UAVs these days. Piloted aircraft will soon be just as obsolete as the carriers they used to fly from.
It'll be cool. I, for one, look forward to our Skynet future, particularly once the machines become sentient.
I don’t know, but I’m not one to think a carrier battle group is impregnable in all scenarios. I think it is hubris to think so.
“The answer is an Underwater Carrier!........”
Japan had several during WWII. The US captured one at the end of the war.
The real question is “Will the Sentient Machines be liberal or conservative? Or, will they be ‘Bender’ - kill all humans?”
Force projection also means our presence in whatever AOR we are in. Also think about the other operations we run, such as humanitarian efforts that we have to do in adverse places, such as the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
In other news: tomorrow, guns and pistols are obsolete
Unless you have total control of the air and subsurface, carriers are completely worthless. Both Billy Mitchell and Curtis LeMay proved that conclusively over and over again. In our case its the usual, “Follow the Money” that drives military expenditures not tactics or common sense.
War with Iran? The first thing they'll do is block Hormuz. Any carrier trapped in the Gulf won't be floating for long. The rest will hightail it to Norfolk and wait it out while either President Hillary airlifts C-5s full of cash or President Trump nukes them.
Like I said, too expensive to risk losing.
Our Navy keeps evolving as the challenges to our country evolve.
I can remember the tears from some, when the Navy stopped building and using battle ships.
Our carriers helped to win the Pacific battles in WWII.
During the Cold War, our nuclear carriers presented massive fire power and destruction for any potential enemy near an ocean.
Now, unmanned and armed drones can kill identified terrorist leaders anywhere on the globe from anywhere the drones can be launched and controlled.
Our nuclear subs can carry seal teams and cruise missile firepower to cover most of where terrorists are training or trying establish control centers.
We need a Potus, who will enable our intel people to find and target terrorist leaders, who want to kill us and kill them first.
Clinton II will not be that person. She will focus our intel on us.
They were on life support for the last 20 years.
Judging from some Russian fly-by footage recently seen on FR, they’re already past the stage of obsolescence.
LOL...nailed it!
The Russian planes were judged a non-threats long before they had acquired BVR missile capability of the Navy ships - not carriers.
One of my rude awakenings was during Command and General Staff College where I learned that the US Navy was the power projection force for the United States. The impact of a US Carrier group arriving at a foreign port cannot be overstated.
And wow, I had to agree, the Army needs a transfer point however a carrier group can make a beach head or air head.
But then when you lead from behind a carrier is probably obsolete.
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