Pentagon Study Calls for Cutting Two Aircraft Carriers and Replace with Smaller Drone Ships

This is a sign of the changing technology:

An assessment prepared by the Office of the Secretary of Defense proposes cutting two aircraft carriers from the U.S. Navy’s roster to boost the number of smaller warships. Under the proposal, the Navy would retire two aircraft carriers and plow the savings into buying several dozen frigate-sized ships, as well as large unmanned ships. The proposal is likely to run into stiff opposition from proponents of carriers as well as the carrier lobby both inside and outside government.

The study, according to Defense News, would trim the number of nuclear-powered “supercarriers” from 11 to just nine. The number of large surface combatants, both guided missile cruisers and guided missile destroyers, would remain constant at between 80 and 90, compared to the approximately 83 ships in service right now. The number of frigate-sized small surface combatants, on the other hand, would swell from 15 to 20 to between 55 and 70.

Popular Mechanics

You can read more at the link, but smaller ships including unmanned ships make more sense if the Navy is preparing for a conflict to keep sea lanes open in the South China Sea. Bulky carriers that are big targets for China’s increasing ballistic missile capabilities are more challenging to deploy in response to such a crisis.

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Korean Man
Korean Man
4 years ago

Coupled with the USFK withdrawal back to USA and the age of drones and AI automation there will be a lot of unemployed ex-servicemen. Especially at a time when the age of America being the world’s good cop has ended.

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

Sure glad we have the Chinese view of things…

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
4 years ago

There’s going to still be a lot of lonely Chinese men too.

2ID Doc
2ID Doc
4 years ago

@J6Junkie, there already are. No links handy but the 1 child rule lots of Chinese couples determined the sex of the baby and aborted if it wasn’t a boy. I read about it once, they had a name like Lonely Dragon Syndrome. Basically they were overly spoiled little boys, with not a lot of prospects for a wife. Probably why the quality of the trolls are going down…

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

You’re right, Doc. I hadn’t thought of that.

Korean Man
4 years ago

setnaffa, J6Junkie, and 2ID Doc, do you guys know how to fill out the welfare application forms? You might need to do that soon.

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

Projection again? That’s pretty sad.

You should probably get that swollen hemorrhoid looked at professionally.

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