Alternatives?

This is coolbert:

From Danger Room and Wired thanks to the tip from Jeff:

"After the Aircraft Carrier: 3 Alternatives to the Navy’s Vulnerable Flattops"

A discussion - - those very large nuclear American aircraft carriers, the Truman, the Lincoln, the Ford, etc., super-carriers what they are called, very expensive to built, very expensive to maintain, and that not including the cost of the air wing. Warships their service admittedly lasting decades and able to project power to all points on the planet but at a cost that is no longer sustainable AND warships [large size aircraft carriers] now seen and having been seen as vulnerable to enemy attack as never before.

"The U.S. Navy’s huge, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers — capital ships that have long dominated military planning and budgeting — are slowly becoming obsolete, weighed down by escalating costs, inefficiency and vulnerability to the latest enemy weapons."

AND THE ALTERNATIVES ARE?

"But if the supercarrier is sinking, what could rise to take its place? Smaller, cheaper flattops; modified tanker ships; and missile-hauling submarines are three cheaper, more efficient and arguably more resilient options."

1. “Light amphibious carriers”. Those ships of the USS America class [2013].

USS America. "PCU America (LHA-6) . . . Her mission is to act as the flagship of an expeditionary strike group or amphibious ready group, carrying part of a Marine expeditionary unit into battle and putting them ashore with helicopters and V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, supported by F-35B Lightning II aircraft [20 F-35B strike fighters].and helicopter gunships."

Light amphibious carriers carrying helicopter gunships and the vertical-takeoff-landing [VTOL] version of the F-35 Lightning. Also I would assume an anti-submarine warfare [ASW] capability helicopters of the counter-rotating rotor variety also organic.

2. "Everything’s a Carrier". Those ships of the Montford Point class.

Montford Point "(T-MLP-1), the lead ship of her class of Mobile Landing Platforms (MLP)"

USNS Montford Point not necessarily a "modified tanker ship" but rather a multi-purpose vessel that can act as a "mother ship" during an amphibious assault, a floating pier and also perhaps can be configured for a variety of other purposes on demand, task tailored, combat aircraft incorporated a possible?

3 "Underwater Arsenal". Warships of the Ohio class cruise-missile configured firing submarines of which the USS Georgia is the archetype vessel.

"four Ohio-class guided-missile submarines  From 2002 to 2008 the U.S. Navy modified the four oldest Ohio-class submarines into SSGNs. The conversion was achieved by installing vertical launching systems (VLS) in . . . 22 of the 24 missile tubes, replacing one Trident missile with 7 smaller Tomahawk cruise missiles . . . This gave each converted sub the capability to carry up to 154 Tomahawks."

Those Ohio class submarines the original mission nuclear deterrence, firing intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. Four of those Ohio class to include the USS Georgia now able to carry prodigious numbers of Tomahawk cruise missiles, presumably of the tactical variety, and able to use NetCentric warfare for targeting. Can engage targets in a surreptitious manner at long-range, relatively impervious to counter-attack!!

Those large fleet carriers even during the time of the Second World War [WW2] often described as heavy-weight boxers with a glass jaw. Able to administer the knock-out punch against the adversary but at the same time also very susceptible to damage EVEN FROM A SINGLE BLOW. As was the case with the USS Franklin.

That super-carrier of the modern era not a lot less vulnerable than the WW2 counter-part, and not being to be built in such large numbers, but best understood AS AN OFFENSIVE WEAPON, TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE ENEMY - - OFFENSE IS THE BEST FORM OF DEFENSE!

Devoted readers to the blog can suggest other alternatives to the super-carrier? Power projection as that term understood today slowly but surely as a concept the validity diminished as the world order develops and changes in an organic manner, such warships becoming superfluous at some point?

coolbert.