[cva66snipe]

For some neysayers. Carriers are still a huge asset to our nation and Navy. We fought WW2, Korea, Nam, and The Cold War with them remember? The nuclear threat was there then was it not? Look it takes a lot more to sink a carrier now than the early WW2 carriers.

Case in point is the carrier sank to gather data to build the FORD. The Navy hit her hard off and on over a week or so time frame and she stayed afloat in ZEBRA readiness. The America went down only because before it left Philly they placed massive explosives in her hull at many key areas not just one. She floated until they deliberately gave the final engineered explosions to sink her. BTW America was built on 1950's technology awarded under POTUS Ike.

I'm uncertain about the new launch technology being developed. But a carriers value to the Carrier Group and other ships is highly significant. Got a motor burnt up? A carrier has a shop to rewind the motor. Need a specific with very close tolerances part made? A carrier has a well fitted machine shop. Have mass causality on a ship such as fire or explosion? You can take team off a carrier to assist and not harm the carriers mission capabilities. With the older DFM steamers we could fuel smaller ships at sea and did so many times. A carrier is a whole lot more to it that planes. It is a fully functional command center.

The last U.S. Navy carrier sank by enemy combat was in WW2 and they were older versions before the Navy began building them with compartments and voids. My vote would have went to build both Nimitz Class and a couple of DFM steamers as well.

My biggest beef about carriers is this. No more than three preferably two at a time should ever be berthed at N.O.B. Norfolk piers for any reason. Modify Mayport for a carrier berth again.

[GreyFriar]

I guess that means bh0 will be giving it to the Russians, since he has elevated them back to superpower status while reducing the USA to 3rd World wantabee.

[dennisw]

RPGs and anti-tank missiles negate-defeat armor these days. These 13 billion dollar aircraft carriers travel in “armored” carrier battle groups that today there are many RPG equivalents to take them out. The Chinese and Russians have missiles of various kinds that will waste or render inoperable these 13 billion dollar battle wagons. And they will distibute these missiles to their proxies

Russian sunburn missile ranks high on the list of “rpgs” that will easily nullify these aircraft carriers

The SS-N-22 Sunburn: Iran’s Awesome Anti-Ship Missile!
Aug 31, 2013 - The SS-N-22 Sunburn missile is made by the Russians. Iran is rumoured to have improved upon this missile in terms of range and speed!