Next step in naval evolution: Aircraft Carrier SUBMARINES....................
I’ve never heard any suggestion Aircraft Carriers were being considered Obsolete.
News to me.
The question is - if today we didn’t have any and were starting from zero - would we be rushing to build aircraft carriersl?
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
It is my understanding that the US Navy can’t assure the free passage of ships in the Red Sea.
Sure, James Jay Carafano.
Most traditional expensive weapons systems are obsolete.
Look at what happened to Russian tanks in Ukraine.
Look what Ukraine did to the Russian navy in the Black Sea.
Next step in naval evolution: Aircraft Carrier SUBMARINES....................
Carriers won’t be obsolete until one is sunk by a hypersonic missile.
The carrier, at its introduction, was able to be sunk by a couple of well placed 1,000 lb bombs falling from a single engine diver. Frankly the battleship is not obsolete either with proper air, tarp, and missile defense.
Battle group effectiveness against all attack vectors determines survivability of ships.
Taiwan and its neighbors:
Taiwan can afford to buy lots of US warplanes and missiles and store them securely.
The silicon chip made naval surface combatants obsolete.
You have the boat to launch the planes to protect the boat. It’s a self licking ice cream cone.
Bottom line, we have GOT to increase our capacity for building subs. I’d suggest we should open another shipyard somewhere in the South. To me its completely understandable why somebody would not want to relocate to Connecticut where most of them are built.
Try somewhere like Jacksonville or Mobile or Pensacola. Then you don’t have to put up with the cold weather, the oppressive leftism, the restrictions on your constitutional right to keep and bear arms, the lack of college football or good barbecue, the high taxes, and having to put with obnoxious Yankees in general. You might find it considerably easier to recruit a workforce willing to live in one of those locations.
The biggest mistake any large military makes is, that it is equipping to fight the last war that was fought, not the next one.
Russians are learning that lesson. Robots and Drones.
Guerilla tactics with 21st century technology. are eating them (and the N. Koreans) up
At every single hot spot or crisis that erupts in the world, what is the first thing sent but one of our carrier task forces? Look no further than the current crisis with Iran for example. Two carrier task forces were sent.
Obsolete? I think not.
SecDef Pete Hegseth: “China could sink entire US carrier fleet in 20 minutes...”
https://interestingengineering.com/military/chinas-could-sink-all-us-carriers