No More Floating Airbases: The Age of the Mighty Navy Aircraft Carrier Is Over
Aircraft carriers, once central to U.S. naval strategy, are increasingly seen as outdated and vulnerable to modern missile threats.
It's tinpot, two-bit, third-rate terror organizations, like the Iran-backed Houthi Rebels in Yemen, who have proven the asymmetrical advantages that antiship missiles provide to enemies of the United States. For a fraction of the cost of US aircraft carriers, the Houthis proved in late 2023 that they can hold the entire US Navy at bay with such missiles. After the egregious Iran-backed Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel in October 2023, the Houthis intervened on the side of Hamas and began harrying foreign maritime trade by launching a ceaseless wave of terrorist attacks in the Red Sea. By doing so, the terrorists complicated international shipping, increased risk in that important industry, and exploded the cost of goods on everyone (since the global economy relies upon maritime trade).
The US Navy has, since the end of the Second World War, been the guarantor of last resort for the world’s expansive maritime trading routes—notably in the Middle East. But the presence of Iran-provided antiship missiles under the control of the Houthis was more than enough to keep the bulk of the US Navy away from intervening against the terrorists in the Red Sea.
Therefore, the terror on the Red Sea lasted far longer than it ordinarily would have. The hesitancy of the Pentagon to deploy the expensive naval assets under their command in the region to stop the terrorist attacks on the high seas not only increased the bite of the terror attacks on everyone, but it sent a signal to rivals, like China, that they’ve little to fear from America’s once fearsome aircraft carrier fleet.
What’s needed instead is a refocus of US strategy to enhance and expand America’s submarine fleet. Smaller, more maneuverable, and harder-to-destroy surface warships should be invested in as well. Meanwhile, as both missiles and hypersonic weapons become the norm for modern warfare, rather than blowing America’s budget on legacy systems that won’t be useful, the Pentagon should be investing in its own hypersonic weapons and new age space weapons to counter the threats that its forces are facing globally. Until these actions are taken by the Pentagon, the US military’s effectiveness against its foes will continue to be degraded.
Raider
