Attack Of The Baby Carriers

"All these drones can't be coming from only one American carrier!" 

With all apologies to Imperial Admiral N'Gumo, the afore paraphrased quote could be applied just like bikini wax to shared wisdom the Pentagon Map guy shares with some hot psychic gossip about Super Carriers via Great Satan's Naval Proceedings Ezine.

One of the many hot! functional symbolic symbols of Great Satan's fun functional hyper puissance is the same critter that swept the seas of Nipponese naval naughtiness and set the stage for the creation of l'era moderne.

The American aircraft carrier is an awesome piece of peace projection - often toting about tons of hurt and regret on a global prowling scale that can sieze total air dominance in any environ and could actually annihilate most creeps along with their regimes over a long weekend.

Sweetly cuddled up with attending attendant ships, Great Satan's Carrier Battle Groups send a wonderful signal to friends, frienemies and far field competitors.

  'Member that Dongfeng thing?

Collectivist China's Carrier Killer chicanery in the form of a nasty little missiling minion nom d'guerr'd East Wind 21D in Sinospeak is serious meds to consider when (or if) China ever gets her game on with massive mass production assembly line prowess and quality control. Arcing wads of Dongfengs at a Carrier Group could be disastrous. (PDF)


"...No one in the West expected the dispute to spiral out of control. USS George Washington was conducting routine patrols off the coast of China to send a signal of U.S.resolve. China responded with a signal of its own—sinking the massive ship.
 
"...George Washington broke in two and sank in twenty minutes. The Chinese medium-range ballistic missile had a penetrator warhead that drilled through all fourteen decks of the ship and punched a cavernous hole measuring twenty-feet wide from the flat-top landing deck through to the bottom of the hull. Ammunition stores ignited secondary explosions. Two million gallons of JP-5 jet fuel poured into the sea. The attack was calamitous and damage control was pointless

Swap Super Carriers for Consort Carriers? Smaller, harder to hit and practically uh, bulging, with unmanned naval aviation drones - dozens could be constructed for the price a super carrier

"...Make no mistake: the Chinese are targeting our navy's ability to project its power into East Asia with their new "carrier killing" missile (DF-21D).  We can either see the future in defending those platforms – as is, or move to new carriers that mitigate the challenge.  You don't just ditch what you got because it's becoming more vulnerable, especially since modern supercarriers have a lifespan of half a century.  

"...But if it's becoming more of a liability than an asset for the operation in question, and the agents of that growing vulnerability (e.g., missiles, drones) suggest a new era is dawning, then you pay attention. Otherwise you risk Norm Augustine's nightmare coming true ("In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft."):  the military that becomes so expensive you can only afford one of anything – like the newest supercarrier (Gerald R. Ford) that rings in at $13-15B when all the bells and whistles are accounted for.  It may be the only one the US Navy can ever afford to build, and a couple of DF-21Ds could send it to the bottom of the ocean - their many-and-cheap against our one-and-absurdly-expensive.

"...The solution is obvious enough: match China's move  down the many-and-cheap scale by taking advantage of emerging naval UAVs that are capable of landing on less-than-super-sized decks.

"...So you start experimenting with the real future - mother ships featuring waves upon waves of cheaper drones, while running out the lifespan string of the big decks.

"...Signaling to the Chinese that we will continue to match them on the major features of their catch-up strategy while likewise demonstrating that we're moving on to the next generation of power projection – sort of a “I'll call your new carrier and raise you my next-gen, drone-spewing mother ship!”

Pic - "This is how the hyperpuissant maintains her global power projection"