Saturday, November 30, 2013

End of era of aircraft carriers?

Are aircraft carriers becoming obsolete?

The new Jerry Ford carrier just launched. Aircraft carriers supplanted destroyers a generation ago because carriers had airplanes that could fly farther than the big guns on destroyers could lob a shell. Destroyers could hit targets up to a few miles away. Aircraft carriers could reach 50X farther with better accuracy and cause more damage.

My guess is that the next generation will be missile carriers. Instead of one ship with dozens of planes, the new missile carriers will have 100s of missiles that launch faster and covers more territory than planes launched from an aircraft carrier.

My expectation is that the current Ford class carriers will be the end of the line. The will still be used for decades but the ships that replace aircraft carriers will be quite different. Instead of a floating city of 1,000s of sailors, the next navy will have aircraft carriers for reconnaissance drones and electronics planes, not loaded with fighter planes. A strike force will be several missile carriers and several aircraft carriers as a coordinated group instead of one huge aircraft carrier (and dozens of support ships).

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