Spoken like someone who's never had to try a nighttime recovery under EMCON Delta. The damn thing is invisible then.
Whats to keep someone from sneaking up on one is a boat or small sub (hell, even the drug runners have those now) and just blowing a hole in the bottom of it?
Let's see. There's the rest of the carrier battlegroup--destroyers and cruisers, the air wing, the submarine we have riding shotgun on the group; there's the great difficulty in finding the thing when it is underway (she may look big, but the ocean is about a gazillion or so times bigger); you know, stuff like that.
Well, actually.. No, I havent.
I understand their usefulness (especially if we are dealing with nations that will not allow us to use their aristrips) but they do look big, slow and venerable.
Maybe they aren't, but it sure looks that way from here.
It also looks like the Reagan's (I love that boat being named after him.. He would be so proud and it's going to be an absolute joy to see the newsies wretch when they have to mention it on television) anchors will hit the bobulous bottom part of the boat when they are lowered.