Yes. That carrier article was disturbing. 17 would be a good number. We are now looking at nine. It was made quite clear that we are not able to be everywhere anymore when after 3500 American civllians were killed on 9/11, we weren't able to react until nearly a MONTH later.
The fact is we are not going to be able to afford big nuclear carriers for much longer. And there isn't a point anyways when they are designed to have airwings of 70 or so aircraft and will be going to sea with about 50 a few years from now. And 50 TOPS. We should bite the bullet and start building smaller, conventionally powered carriers that have half the complement (airwing included) of Nimitzs.
PD
|