They said Battle ships were obsolete but they sure sent em off Beirut.
Amazing when a shell the size of a V.W. come from over the horizon and lands ON target, maybe 32 miles away.
These aircraft carriers project American power the world over and GOD help any who try to sink em.
I don’t agree on the vulnerability of carriers against real powers, not when they are employed sensibly.
Their ability to project power ashore against minor and regional powers is an obvious benefit. They provide us with a forward air force base, and no neighboring power has to take the risk of allowing us to operate from their land.
Against a major power, carriers have to stand further back, but their value is still tremendous. Either Russia or China would have to defend not only against known lines of attack from known bases but also against a carrier approaching within hundreds of miles on any open water with access to their coasts. That’s a big increase in uncertainty, and uncertainty makes war less likely. I agree that the newest carrier cost too much, but that is a result of corrupt contracting, crony capitalism, and other flaws with our government, not flaws with the carrier itself.
The Uinted States today in 2016 is the equivalent of Rome in either 185 AD or Rome in 310 AD! For those history buffs among us you will know the significance of those dates. For those that don’t please research it. In either case the U.S. will NOT last as long as Rome did after either of those dates. The irony is of course that whether there is a U.S. here or not....things for the average “American” really won’t change much. In fact things might actually get better....
Carriers are now within range of many anti ship missiles.
if they are to survive they need to be able to stand off much further.
that means they require higher range robotic aircraft.
What ! it can’t fly
they have to stop building them other wise they next ones will be vsn? bill clintoon and obama.
The last ship of any design to be built is obsolete before the keel is laid. Same as any military aircraft.
This is just a fact of life. The good thing is most can be refitted to meet current needs. The damn near 70 year old BUF comes to mind.
The carrier needs to be far away from the target to avoid missile strikes. We should be renewing old but high performing fighter aircraft with new frames and updated engines and avionics that have range and performance and not what we are doing now...
The Navy has other things to worry about like Lactivism and Pregnancy Awareness - things that actually matter. When it comes to toys to justify its existence, it likes self-sinking surface ships and planes that don’t fly right.
The US Navy, like the rest of the US military, is on the same plan that NASA’s manned space program was put on in 1972 - the path into oblivion and obscurity.
Same could be said about bombers as they too are vulnerable to defensive weapons. The next war will be about controlling the information and communication capability of the enemy but, this is not a new thought. Destroying strategic lines of communication and transportation will defeat any battle plan.
An aircraft carrier group is extremely dangerous and it is so many miles out. I wouldn’t try to after one, it will not go well for you.
Super cavitation torpedoes can be shredded with a shock wave which collapses the forward bubble. Like hitting concrete. They probably would not be very effective.
NONE of these ships would be so expensive if they were not forced to be built by SHIP YARD BUBBAS (who by the way spend a good portion of their day drilling hole’s in female berthing to watch us change or sneaking into showers to catch one of us naked). Gotta love the Unions.
This article makes it sound like Aircraft Carriers are out in the ocean by themselves.... NOT: Carrier Strike Groups. There are subs, battleships, cruisers and Supply ships out there with them. Carriers protect the smaller ships, the smaller ships protect the carrier. Plus, CVNs are built to withstand a certain amount of Bombings as well as Nuclear War.
Teddy Roosevelt was wise on one front: Great Navy Fleets projecting power. Sailors going on port visits understand this. It is impressive to look out into a harbor from miles away and see a gigantic rusted warship sitting out in the bay. It’s a giant middle finger to bad guys and it says, “hey... our 1950s technology and 50 year old boats are still greater than anything you have. Respect us”.
The democrats want to do away with CVNs and that is what this is really about. They don’t understand them. One Indiana Democrat Congressman came on our ship during decommissioning because he couldn’t understand why it was so expensive to “removed Nuclear Reactors”. What a joke and what a Moron. CNN for months has been promoting the idea of getting rid of Aircraft Carriers. This is just one of the problems of professional politicians and a Congress that has few Veteran Members. It also conveys part of the growing divide between the warrior class and civilians.
The era of the aircraft carrier dawned in 1912. At first, it was envisioned as a support ship for a fleet organized around the battleship. The carrier’s purpose was to launch airplanes to search for the enemy fleet and then act as spotters, reporting and correcting the gunnery fire of the battleships. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with carrier-based aircraft, naval strategists began looking at carriers in an entirely new light. Six months later, the massive strategic victory at Midway permanently cemented the carriers as the centerpiece of modern naval power. During the 1950s, the carrier evolved into the supercarrier in order to carry aircraft capable of striking deep into the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. Ever since, it has remained at the fore of American foreign policy. It is the ubiquitous symbol of American power.
Pearl Harbor was not the first carrier raid on an enemies main base. The British did this at Taranto a year before Pearl Harbor. The Japanese copied this on a larger scale against the US and British Empire in 1941-42.
As to your and his point, people have been calling the carrier obsolete since 1945. No ICBM has ever hit a moving ship, and we have Aegis ships to prevent this.