the Carriers' End
 

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4373/carriers.png
http://aviationweek.typepad.com/ares...nswers_yo.html

An interesting little article this one, the awesome battleship wiped out by the aircraft Carriers flight wing. But is the mighty carrier also approaching the end of it's eara. After all, look at all the Nations buying used submarines. One little sub can put an end to all this might, the USA had real problems finding Gotlands on naval war games recently, the last report I heard was that they could not detect Gotlands. I wonder if Cadaffi had a couple of used boats in the med if the French and British carriers would be flexing their muscle so openly.

just a thought

The British only have one carrier, Illustrious, currently undergoing sea trials after a refit. HMS Ocean may sometimes be mistaken for a carrier but is an Amphibious Assault Vessel, or Landing Platform Helicopter to some Americans.


No surree, if Libya had subs we'd clearly have our Nimrods patrolling...

...Uh, what? Whaddya mean we don't have any Nimrods flying? :nope:

The technology development regarding Detection v. Stealth runs apace. In my humble opinion, what will bring the era of the carrier to an end is this.

I believe the carriers will loose their importance together with the manned fighter jet. And eventually small ships carrying drones or advanced cruise missiles will be a viable and cost effective option for small navies and the big ones will follow. Though some carriers will probably remain in service for a long time due to their symbolic power.

Undoubtedly carriers can project their might much further than anything but ICBM atm but they are starting to look increasingly vulnerable to underwater threats.

Can't disagree with that...there have been many instances posted on the internet where carriers and their escorts have failed to detect subs on joint exercises.

Don't worry, the last one was in bad shape last I heard (probably hadn't made a dive since Y2K), and she was most likely captured by the Rebels in Benghazi.

Last known location on the civie overheads was 32° 6'34.48"N 20° 3'10.39"E on 8/13/2010. :03:

They might still have their R-2M SDVs but those can't do much damage.

Oh you have plenty of Nimrods flying about, too bad they are all in Whitehall. :O:

Amen TLAM.

I wonder if at some point we'll have UCAVs which can be launched and retrieved from submarines. That would go a long way to making the carrier a thing of the past, however as it is, there is still a need for eyes on target attack plus anti-air capability which is only just within reach of current gen drones. When they've improved the anti-air ability of drones some more, then we'll be most of the way there I reckon.

Carriers would then be placed from the role of force projection into that of ASW escort work perhaps, after all they provide a good platform for refueling and rearming of ASW aircraft, be they manned or drone.