[Old Teufel Hunden]

"While the mammoth floating airports bristling with jets and missiles appear invincible, the reality is that since World War II they have mostly been used in conflicts with far weaker opponents. They have yet to face off against modern navies with their array of carrier-killing ballistic missiles, super-torpedos, and supersonic cruise missiles."

And which modern navy would that be that could take out our aircraft carriers? I don't know of one incident where any Navy has even damaged our aircraft carriers. Much less taken them out. The only time one of our carriers was almost taken out that I know of was the fire on the Enterprise in 1969. That was caused by bombs on the flight deck.

I think the armada of screening ships that surround our carriers make them pretty well guarded, even against a speedboat attack like the U.S.S Cole incident.

[Paleo Conservative]

The only time one of our carriers was almost taken out that I know of was the fire on the Enterprise in 1969. That was caused by bombs on the flight deck.

It was the USS Forrestal not not the Enterprise that had the fire in 1967. John McCain was on the flight deck when it happened.

[ClearCase_guy]

These ships are defended by an armada, and also by the fact that no one wants to piss off the US that much. No one.

If I'm not mistaken, our doctrine is that any nation which takes out one of our carriers received a nuclear counter-attack. We don't have a lot of events which trigger a US nuclear response, but I believe sinking a carrier is one of them.

In other words, any foreign nation which seriously attacks a US carrier is going "all-in" and WWIII has begun.

[Paleo Conservative]

The only time one of our carriers was almost taken out that I know of was the fire on the Enterprise in 1969. That was caused by bombs on the flight deck.

It was the USS Forrestal not not the Enterprise that had the fire in 1967. John McCain was on the flight deck when it happened.

[Kenny Bunk]

Yabut, DevilDog, the last Navy with any hope of taking out one of our carriers were the Japs, The CHICOM and North Koreans had no naval forces and could not project airpower offshore. The Vietnamese, ditto.

It's a lot more dangerous environment for carriers now. One Bear Squadron, loitering 500 miles from a task force with a full load of anti-ship missiles could make life very interesting for a particular carrier at low cost to them.

Carriers. IMHO, they are the modern equivalent of big-gun battleships. Instead of bombarding Benghazi and Tripoli from 1 mile offshore, ala 1911, the carrier can stay 100 miles out and take out (or at least attack) anything in all of Libya.