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Ocean Supercarriers

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The first commissioned aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, made its debut in 1922 (Petty, The Carriers). From then after, navies across the world continued to improve and add these platforms to their fleets. With 19 aircraft carriers from nine countries steaming across the world, carriers are a prominent representation of a county’s naval power (Mizokami). The United States Navy (USN) alone boasts 10 Nimitz Class supercarriers propelled by twin nuclear reactors, allowing each carrier to steam across the world’s oceans for decades without refueling (Petty, Aircraft). By law, the USN is required to maintain at least 11 carriers; while the US only has 10 carriers in service, an eleventh and entirely new class, the Gerald R. Ford, is nearing commission …show more content…

At an operating cost of 6.5 billion dollars per day per deployed carrier strike group (which consists of numerous escort vessels for a single carrier), critics have taken aim at the supercarrier program’s funding as a money pit for the national budget (Hendrix). Some view the current number of supercarriers to be unnecessary, while others believe the US has no defense need to be the only nation with a fleet of large-deck carriers (Thompson). Proponents, along with the Navy, argue that the current number is an absolute minimum to meet the needs of the fleet and the Navy’s overall mission …show more content…

Unlike other surface combatants with conventional ammunition, aircraft carriers can safely remain hundreds of miles off the coast of a nation and strike farther inland by utilizing their embarked air wing (Thompson). Also unlike other surface combatants that sail closer to shore, the air wing of the carrier cannot be torpedoed or hit by an enemy mine; the small size and advanced deception technology on the carrier’s various aircraft also make them much more difficult for the enemy to detect than a visible destroyer or cruiser parked directly off their coast. When analyzing the US’s supercarriers, each of their 70 aircraft fulfill a certain role in the theater of war, but they all provide the Navy with the means to dominate the enemy in the sky, on the sea, and on land through electronic and conventional offensive and defensive means

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