The next leap in power projection technology seems likely to be unmanned remotely controled air borne weapons systems which have the advantage of not needing to carry a human and associated life support systems. So they will be faster, can pull more g-s, carry more payload per fuel used etc. Once these things get past the current preditor stage it’s going to be like tanks against calvary only in the air. If we can get over our Star Trek religion taboos about space based weapons systems there is a lot of power projection capability there too. Sad to see the “last” of the big carriers built if that happens. I watched the New Jersey go into mothballs. I doubt though that the Bush will be retired for another 30 years given how we hang on to these old ships and upgrade them as time goes by. I wonder what the motto of the Bush will be. Read my lips, no new taxes doesn’t cut it. If we really wanted to scare the enemy we should have named it the USS Cheney!
The Bush has a special automatic built in half life {25 years of service} decomissioning feature built in honor of the Bush Family Naval planning policies. /sarcasm