Posted on 05/29/2024 4:17:43 AM PDT by hardspunned
The U.S. Navy's Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, intended to replace the aging Nimitz-class, are the largest and most expensive warships ever built, costing $13.3 billion each.
Despite advanced technology and automation reducing crew requirements, these carriers face challenges due to anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems deployed by potential adversaries like China.
The new carrier's high cost and potential vulnerability to cheaper A2/AD systems raise concerns about its effectiveness in future conflicts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Bkmk
So they are beyond fixing because the Chinese might have some weapon.
Drama Llama
I’m thinking some much cheaper and smaller ships with a bunch of relatively cheap drones is the way to go.
Given how a swarm of drones was able to sink one of Russia’s prize ships we need to learn from that.
So they have some cheap Chinese components in them: Do an assessment and yank them out. Don’t consider the whole vessel useless.
Also since China has surrounded Taiwan with permanent aircraft carriers aka man made islands- kind of a problem
A much bigger problem is that US neocons are much hotter for war with China than the Taiwanese are likely to be.
Austria 1938 all over again. Joyous reunification.
At least China won't have to sink the carriers.
Isn’t flying a US flag enough to prevent enemy hypersonic missiles from destroying a carrier? If not, why haven’t we been working to develop defenses, as Russia and China have been doing?
China’s manmade islands are well to the south of Taiwan, in the South China Sea near the Phillipines. They also are having an annoying tendency to sink all on their own, so probably not a factor re: Taiwan.
“ When China blockades Taiwan there will be nothing the USN will be able to do about it.”
There are these things called submarines. Maybe you’ve heard of them.
L
The Chinese have 10 large landing ships. Those will die before they are halfway to Taiwan.
And a $13 billion aircraft care was never intended to be used as designed anyway. It’s a $13 billion taxpayer-funded corporate grift and a jobs program.
My take: modern aircraft carriers aren't designed to win wars against nuclear powers. They do, however, have the ability to project power against other nations without us having as many military bases all over the world. Particularly against maritime nations that attack sea traffic. IMHO, it's premature to talk about aircraft carriers like they're the equivalent of battleships in modern warfare.
China is not a modern nuclear power. China is a failing state unable to cope with being
To blockade Taiwan China needs no ships. All China has to do is to declare it will sink any ship within the blockade zone. After using hypersonic missiles to sink a couple, Taiwan will be at the CCP’s mercy. How many ships did the Houthis need to shut down the shipping on the Red Sea that they wanted to? The USN is worthless against the Houthis! The Chinese will sink as many carriers as we care to challenge them with.
The Houthis proved that gunboat diplomacy was as obsolete as the carriers. If Iran or Russia or the NORKS had decided to share all their missile technology with the Houthis, the Eisenhower could have been sitting on the bottom of the Red Sea by now.
There are 27 navies patrolling the East and South China Seas.
China is totally incapable of countering such a naval force for more than a few hours. The likelyhood of a successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan is nil.
The next war is fought with drones and swarms of migrants across your border, the next will be space based weapons, aircraft carriers are a thing of the past and the US is years away from catching up.
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