The unyielding U.S. Navy has been committed to the Ford-class aircraft carriers, while increasingly their commitment is questioned as, perhaps, an outdated and dangerous strategy. Though these behemothic vessels have garnered a storied history of being able to project power globally, they are largely considered multi-billion-dollar liabilities to some analysts in the shadow of contemporary threats.
The Ford-class aircraft carriers are expensive and complicated to build, thus easily being targeted and probably outmoded by an adversary, which is reportedly working on advanced missile systems that can neutralize such floating airbases. Some critics maintained that funds for the carriers would be better spent on modern and flexible defense systems such as Virginia-class submarines, unmanned vehicles, hypersonic weapons, and directed-energy weapons.
Aircraft carriers have been, since the end of World War II, the centerpiece of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet, holding the same position that battleships did before them. Yet just as air power removed battleships from center stage, so too might emerging military technologies mark the beginning of the end of the aircraft carrier era.
A battery of anti-access/area denial systems has been developed to explicitly counterbalance the U.S. naval juggernaut. The mix of anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles that comprise these systems is far cheaper and easier to replace than an American aircraft carrier. This cost disparity develops a strategic imbalance for the U.S. in a potential face-off between these A2/AD capabilities and American flat tops.
The Ford-class aircraft carrier is supposed to replace the fleet of 11 Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. While its lead vessel, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was deployed in 2021, sister vessels like the USS John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise, and USS Doris Miller will be deployed over the coming years. However, exorbitant costs and years-long construction times, along with their modern vulnerabilities, have some questioning the strategic benefits of these carriers.
Diverting funds from future Ford-class carriers would allow the U.S. Navy to invest in more multi-mission-capable and modernized systems: additional numbers of Virginia-class attack submarines, advanced UUVs, next-generation UAVs, hypersonic weapons, and directed-energy weapons are considered vital investments that would assure continued naval superiority against emerging challenges.
Similar to the battleship era before it, the aircraft carrier era may be all but over. It’s within this sea-change environment of modern defense systems and geopolitics that the U.S. Navy needs to reconsider what role and investments it makes in these iconic vessels so they can maintain their relevancy and effectiveness in today’s form of warfare.