Better retired than sunk

We may already be witnessing the US Navy’s retreat from its 65-year history of naval supremacy on the high seas:

Amidst rising anxiety over whether the US Navy’s thousand-foot-long flagships could evade Chinese missiles in a future war, the Pentagon has decided to cut the aircraft carrier fleet from 11 today to 10. By retiring the Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Truman at least two decades early, rather than refueling its nuclear reactor core in 2024 as planned, the military would save tens of billions on overhaul and operations costs that it could invest in other priorities. But the proposal, part of the 2020-2024 budget plan due out mid-March, is sure to inspire outrage on Capitol Hill.

Sure, it’s possible that these are just the usual military budget games, but I suspect that the Navy’s long-terms strategists are beginning to come to terms with the fact that the aircraft carrier is simply becoming too vulnerable to be worth the concentration of resources that it represents.

The age of the battleship came to an end with World War II. The age of the carrier will officially come to an end with the next conflict between the United States and a major regional sea power.