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China is not planning to launch one or two missiles at an aircraft carrier; it is planning to launch dozens, if not hundreds. The PLARF possesses the largest and most diverse missile arsenal in the world, with thousands of launchers. In a conflict, they would unleash a massive, coordinated salvo attack designed to overwhelm any defense.

Key Points and Summary – The Pentagon’s decision to defund the Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program is a catastrophic mistake that threatens to render the new $13 billion Ford-class aircraft carriers strategically irrelevant.

The U.S. Navy and the Pentagon are locked in a public struggle over the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter, a program the DoD moved to defund in favor of the Air Force's F-47. The Navy argues the F/A-XX is essential to overcome the critical range limitations of its current F/A-18 and F-35 air wing, keeping its aircraft carriers viable against long-range Chinese "carrier killer" missiles.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only aircraft carrier, is likely headed for the scrapyard after a disastrous career. Plagued by mishaps, including a fire, a crane collapsing on its deck, and the sinking of its drydock, the carrier has been out of service since 2017. With its crew reportedly transferred to fight in Ukraine and the Russian economy strained by war, the Kremlin can no longer afford the “albatross.”

Absent the leaders in Beijing acting like they will be the next Golden Horde, America’s fleet of aircraft carriers might have been headed for the mothball fleet, floating museums, or candidates as artificial reefs. That’s not going to happen. The odds are that the Trump administration will extend the lease on life for carrier-centric fleet operations for another generation. Here is why.

One question that few are asking about the potential of war between the United States and China is this: Does the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) even need aircraft carriers to win the fight?

The F/A-XX program is intended to develop a carrier-based sixth-generation fighter that can conduct the same missions as the Super Hornet but that also enjoys supercruise, stealth characteristics and that can operate as the communications hub of a system of manned and unmanned systems. The F/A-XX is a conceptual cousin of the NGAD program, but the projects have been kept at arm’s length, probably because of concerns over a replay of the F-35 program. Although the F-35 program eventually produced variants for the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps, the pursuit of commonality resulted in much confusion and...

NATO is making a show of force this month with five aircraft carriers operating in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, one month after the alliance and Russia held rival nuclear exercises amid the latter’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Two U.S. carriers are involved: the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS Gerald R. Ford, according to a U.S. Navy press release. The other three carriers are the U.K.’s HMS Queen Elizabeth and the flagships of the French and Italian navies: the Charles De Gaulle and Cavour. The exercise allows NATO forces to practice working together. It’s also another beat...

In the last couple of years, there has been a lot of attention on the build-up of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It has undergone a major modernization effort and is now the largest naval force in the world. Just last month, the PLAN launched its third aircraft carrier – the second to be entirely indigenously built. This will allow China to flex its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. Likewise, there has been great speculation regarding China’s efforts to develop a capable fifth-generation fighter aircraft and a medium- to long-range stealth bomber. In very short order, Beijing...

Reflecting the Pentagon’s new focus on China, US aircraft carrier strike groups almost doubled deployments to the South China Sea in 2021 compared to the year before. According to the Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), US carrier strike groups entered the South China Sea 10 times in 2021, compared with six times in 2020, and five in 2019. “The US military have drastically reinforced their military deployment in the South China Sea since last year, in terms of training scales, sorties and scenarios,” SCSPI director Hu Bo said Friday, according to The South China Morning Post. Hu said...

While armed services often crave “gold-plated” weapon systems, Kaiser’s cheap jeep carriers showed how simple, affordable and numerous platforms well-suited to operational requirements can prove to be of greater value. The Casablanca class’ finest hour came in the Battle of Samar, when sixteen CVEs and their escorts covering the amphibious landing at Leyte Gulf single-handedly took on a Japanese battlefleet consisting of four battleships and nineteen cruisers and destroyers. In a frantic few hours, the carriers’ combined air wings and self-sacrificing destroyer escorts managed to sink three cruisers and persuade Admiral Takeo Kurita to withdraw. “Mass-production” isn’t a term one...

The US Navy sold two old aircraft carriers for a cent each to a ship-breaking firm.The USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy had been decommissioned for years.They are due to be broken up by a firm in Texas, who can make money from the scrap metal.The US Navy sold two aircraft carriers to a ship-breaking company for 1 cent each after decades of service.The cut-price fee reflects the fact the company will profit from selling the ship metal for scrap, officials said.Naval Sea Systems Command, a US Navy sub-organization, said it had agreed to sell USS Kitty Hawk...

Japan is back in the business of operating a fixed-wing aircraft carrier, with the first embarkation of short takeoff and vertical-landing F-35B stealth jets from the U.S. Marine Corps on the modified helicopter carrier Izumo. It is the first instance of the country operating fixed-wing aircraft from ships since the end of World War II. The trials are set to kickstart a new era for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, or JMSDF, which has long harbored ambitions to adapt its two 24,000-ton Izumo class helicopter carriers for fixed-wing operations. The Japanese Ministry of Defense announced today that the Marine Corps...

Don’t we have enough pots boiling on the military front at this point? We’re already dealing with a madman in North Korea with nuclear weapons, Russia and Turkey talking about “taking over” the conflict in northern Syria, counter-terror operations in Yemen and a minor conflict in Afghanistan that’s been dragging on since before some of the people who will be voting in 2020 were even born. Do we really need to get into a shooting war with the Chinese on top of all that?That seems to be the thinking of at least one Chinese “admiral” who delivered some rather...

In its 10-year Defense Program Guidelines, Tokyo said it will buy 42 of the stealthy F-35Bs, which are designed for short-run take offs and vertical landings. Those planes will be available for deployment aboard two flat-top ships, the JS Izumo and JS Kaga, which at more than 800 feet long and displacing 27,000 tons are the largest ships in the Japanese fleet. The Izumo and Kaga have been carrying helicopters designed for anti-submarine warfare since entering service over the past three years. They will need to have their decks reinforced to accommodate the heavier F-35Bs, as well as the heat...

The Chinese are rapidly building a world-class navy that, by 2022, could include as many as four aircraft carriers, according to current estimates. Already, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has fielded a pair of carriers: The Liaoning, a Soviet-era vessel that the Chinese spent many years refurbishing and which now serves primarily as a training ship; and the Type 002, which is currently undergoing sea trials and has yet to be named. There is a third carrier, the Type 003, under construction at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, and there are “credible reports of a fourth ship of the...

US Navy leaders have announced that the first-of-its kind carrier-launched F-35C stealth fighter will deploy for its first operational deployment on the USS Carl Vinson -- in 2021. The anticipated historical deployment could be accelerated by the 2019 budget proposal which supports a transition of the F-35C program from a developmental phase to more formal test and evaluation before being declared operational later this year, Rear. Adm. S.D. Conn, Director, Air Warfare Chief of Naval Operations, told Congress. “Stealth technology and advanced integrated systems enable the F-35C to counter rapidly evolving air-to-air and surface-to-air threats. Whether the mission requires the...

The US has simultaneously deployed 7 of the 11 U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers for the first time in over a decade according to the US Naval Institute. The three aircraft carriers with full air wings and strike groups positioned in the Western Pacific are the following: USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76); USS Nimitz (CVN-68); USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). Another four are conducting “short training missions as part of training operations or workups ahead of deployment”. Two out of four are operating in Eastern Pacific – USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) – and the remaining two are...

Everything about the aircraft carrier is analyzed these days. How vulnerable they are. How vulnerable they aren’t. How easy it is to sink one with a French attack submarine. How big they should be. How small they should be. Should we even have them at all? Yet most of these arguments have lost sight of the fact that the only reason a carrier exists is to take its air wing into battle. The air wing—the actual aircraft on the aircraft carrier, naturally—is the true measurement of a carrier’s worth. Without the air wing we wouldn’t need these ships at all....

Zero Hedge reports: While details are scarce, and we would urge confirmation from US-based sources, Yonhap also reports that according to the government source the operation of three aircraft carriers in the same location is unusual, and demonstrates the US commitment to North Korea. Other sources said the Trump administration is demonstrating deterrence by acting on its behalf. “We expect it to be completely different from the previous administration.” The U.S. and South Korea, according to a South Korean government official, are discussing joint drills that would ultimately include the three U.S. aircraft carriers and other vessels.