Carriers PROJECT FORCE into anywhere you want them to. That’s what they are built for.
Yes, they can be vulnerable, but that’s the tradeoff for the ability to project force quickly, without established bases.
And since we are the only country that has super carriers, they act as a firm reminder not to mess with us.
When a ship that size, with its associated weapons, roles up into your AO, it is either a big relief or a giant warning.
Also, carriers do not travel alone. The modern destroyers and frigates provide layered defense and carry more raw firepower than a cruiser from WWII.@
Washington, DC, NYC, Chicago, LA, San Fran, Norfolk, etc. etc, etc are all vulnerable to the same threats.
Our perceived willingness to use the SSBNs in retaliation is the ultimate defense for a carrier battle group.
Once that is gone, nothing is safe. (well, maybe Cheyenne Mountain...for a while...)
Yep.
They also work better when your target’s air and land base systems have been compromised, either by special forces insertion, by satellite, by missile, or some other means.
You don’t ‘take land’ with carriers. You hold land with carriers.
Subs take ‘land’ by neutralizing the enemy’s sea power.
EMP is going to change a lot of things I suspect. What’s weird about EMP is that it is basically the equivalent of bombing civilian populations. Most of the destruction will occur over time on systems not hardened to EMP - most of which are civilian.
And having land based defenses isn’t enough. It has to be coordinated with the rest of your defense-in-depth so that you can protect your homeland while conserving your defense capability.
Drones are also going to make a pretty big impact in future war. You can use drones to terrorize a civilian population, forcing your military to shift its zone of protection away from military priorities.
Drones create a situation where you are in a room trying to protect a balloon from being popped while the people in the room all have pins.