In terms of investment, on top of the cost of the carrier itself and its aircraft one has to count the cost of all the supporting vessels in the carrier group whose task is to protect her. I would rather see funding go toward Stealth, Rail Guns, Chemical Laser anti-aircraft and anti-missile technology, etc. than one more carrier group. The idea of small, flexible, nearly invisible, and packed with incredible firepower sounds like the way forward in the "next" war.
China has one of the worst Anti Submarine Warfare capabilities. US wants to contain China, stick to good subs with good sub launched weapons.
I agree.... I had a thought for a radical, cheap fast attack force...
Take some of the old burke class destroyers, gut them leaving only the reactor and engines... install fast lifting marmac elevators, 1 fore and 1 aft. Convert lower decks into hangar bays. Each ship will carry 4 f35b vertical lift aircraft. Add the laser cannon forward, or the long range gun.
4 of these ships make up a squadron. With one ship carrying 2 helo’s, you have 16 aircraft and 2 helo’s.
That would be one hell of a punch. Pretty hard to take out an entire squadron of these at once.
You could do 8 squadrons of these attack carriers for the price of one big floating target. And these could go where the big boys could not.