“Building all 55 ships will cost the Navy at least $37.4 billion.”
Which would we rather have? 55 LCS’s or 6 aircraft carriers?
how many aircraft carriers do we need?
the cost of a carrier is much more than just the ship, there are all the other ships and aircraft which comprise a carrier group.
I think the answer is, "It depends." It depends on the mission, for one thing. Once you've achieved air supremacy and run out of air targets, you may want to get some boots on the ground. One LCS can put a lot more boots on the ground than one CVN. I am skeptical that the U.S. will ever get involved in "Littoral" warfare, basically retaking the Arabian Penisula from the sea.
“Which would we rather have? 55 LCS’s or 6 aircraft carriers?”
Non state actors like Hamas have sea-skimming ultra-fast anti-ship missiles. Mines are getting more intelligent and can be set to go after individual ships. The Chinese have repeatedly proven they can sneak into torpedo range of carriers. I think the era where carriers can safely move air power anywhere anytime are over. The next Pearl Harbor may take out all of our carriers or render them impotent by denying them access to where they need to be. (Each carrier has 5000 men and 90 aircraft. To put that into perspective Israel has 90 front-line planes and I think we have 13 carriers. Forgive me, Navy Freepers, if I’m off on that count.)
The point is that asymmetric warfare has put the carriers at a huge disadvantage. They are for today what the battleship was in 1939.