Originally posted by aldra
Like I said, modern missile tech has made carriers obsolete. In the case of actual war and not just posturing, it would be far too dangerous for carriers to be deployed anywhere near the theatre because there is no way to protect them from Chinese DDF21Bs or Russian Kinzahls, for example. Further to that I have no doubt any capable adversary would actively hunt them (even outside of active warzones) just for the morale hit.
The only instance they're (militarily) effective is when they're able to attack with impunity against countries that have no effective anti-air or hypersonic/ASBM capabilities, ie. menacing brown people.
That.
Carriers are no longer relevant in peer to peer combat with the proliferation of hypersonic missiles the way they were 'invented' in WW2...HOWEVER...the US doesn't use them that way. China doesn't have any combat capable carriers nor are they able to employ them properly.
I was on multiple carriers during soviet times and I can tell you with complete certainty that any platform with anti-carrier weapons was monitored closer than a proctologist does to their favorite patient. Except that whole BEAR incident...but I think that guy was fired. Everyone on a carrier knows their job is to get the aircraft off the deck then pucker up and enjoy the .00004 nanoseconds of searing heat before they die from a thermal blast wave and radiation poisoning.
Even Iran thinks they can kill a carrier with boat swarms but the US already has countermeasures for that too.
