Study: U.S. Aircraft Carriers Must Evolve or Die

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By Michael Peck,The National Interest

U.S. aircraft carriers must either adopt new tactics and equipment for twenty-first-century warfare—or prepare to be sunk.

That’s the essence of a new study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, which examined the air wings aboard U.S. carriers.

The problem is that the Navy carrier groups are using Cold War equipment and tactics designed to intercept and destroy lumbering Soviet bombers before they came within two hundred miles of a task force.

But that won’t work with modern anti-ship missiles, which come in multiple flavors from hypersonic Russian Mach 5-plus cruise missiles to Chinese “carrier-killer” ballistic missiles that can hit targets 2,500 miles away. CSBA predicts anti-ship cruise missiles, which can be fired by aircraft, ships and land-based launchers, will achieve a range of a thousand miles by 2040.

“Today the Navy needs to transform its CVWs [carrier air wings] to counter the emerging challenges posed by great powers like China and Russia and implement new defense and military strategies,” CSBA said. “During the quarter century since the end of the Cold War, CVWs emphasized cost-effectiveness and versatility because the United States did not face a peer adversary. Today’s CVWs, however, now lack the range, endurance, survivability, and specialization to carry out the operational concepts needed to defeat great power militaries. If the Navy is unable to transform its CVWs, Navy leaders should reconsider whether to continue investing in carrier aviation or shift the fleet’s resources to more relevant capabilities.”