Aircraft Carrier Research Paper

The Importance of the Aircraft Carrier in Defense of the United States of America

The aircraft carrier has been around in various forms since the First World War. Its emergence as the key denominator of naval power is legendary,and its continuing prestige in this role is even yet spawning building programs among established and growing navies. The aircraft carrier is the largest and most complex of all warships and in most cases the most expensive. In addition to the cost of the ship itself, that of the embarked air wing must be considered, not to mention the extensive logistics and training infrastructure needed to keep carriers operating and useful. The normal way to discuss doctrinal roles of
Fighting for sea control in specific in stances may still be necessary. The carrier battles of World War II were generally aimed at securing command of the sea; however, the carriers still had to function as local sea-control platforms,a role in which they were very effective. However, it should be noted that as the American fleet approached the Japanese home islands, threats from land based defenses required ever greater concentrations of carriers to secure sufficient control of the sea to allow amphibious operations to take place. The advent of nuclear weapons caused significant turmoil within the U.S. military establishment. The newly independent Air Force argued that its intercontinental nuclear bombers made aircraft carriers obsolete. The Navy, for its part, sought to defend the carrier force by making it apart of the nation’s nuclear war plans and deterrent posture. As a nuclear delivery platform, the carrier would operate a bit as it did in the cavalry role, depending on speed and stealth to reach a point at which it could launch its nuclear bombers. After that launch, it would attempt to survive as best it could, either to get back to the United States or to be ready for additional tasking.The point is that in this role, just as in the cavalry and capital-ship roles, its model f operation was to deliver a pulse of power and then scoot—standing and fighting was a recipe for destruction.Keeping risk acceptable was a function of the ability to stay unlocated and untargeted. The ballistic-missile nuclear submarine replaced the aircraft carrier in this role because the risk of it being found before it could fire its missiles was all but