Predicting the demise of powerful weapons systems is a hobby horse of many people and it comes with the same pitfalls of any and all predictions. When I was a teenager, an author (name not worth mentioning) sold 3 MILLION copies of a book telling us that overpopulation would bury humanity in its own waste before the dawn of the 21st century. The reality is that world population is DECLINING.

Not long ago I gave a lecture explaining why the main battle tank was not and would not be obsolete for the forseeable future (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLnGfpyd5IE&t=1107s) and just now I enjoyed a short seminar explaining why aircraft carriers would also remain the worlds most powerful single weapon system available today and for the foreseeable future (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t23y2PM6TjU).

I am not a naval warfare expert, but as a historian and military theorist and student of strategy, I can give full-throated support to my navy brethren who support building more aircraft carriers. NOTHING, and it bears repeating, NOTHING can project power like a carrier strike group. A carrier group allows a nation to move not only naval power but also concomitant air power almost anywhere on the face of the earth. Are they vulnerable? Of course. All military forces are vulnerable, but that does not obviate them. It simply forces commanders to understand the vulnerabilities and mitigate the risks. By the way, the admirals who command those strike groups are not chosen by lottery. They know what they’re doing.

Battle tanks, modern aircraft and modern ships are all expensive. Carriers breathtakingly so. But here’s something that is many, many time more expensive: losing a war to an enemy.