Compare the construction price per foot of the nations’ warships and that may shed light on the issue. Separately, except for beating up on sad sack, low tech 3rd World natives, do surface ships have much of a future in modern battle? Or are they, like tanks, too vulnerable and thus should be relegated to smaller quantities in specialized roles?
I’m of the opinion that WWIII will be to the super carrier what the American Civil War was to wooden hulled ships and WWII was to the battleship. The most likely start of WWIII happens, in my opinion, when China sinks one of our carriers trying to break the coming blockade of Taiwan.