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Is the USN defying the aircraft carrier’s obsolescence?

16th October 2020 - 17:00 GMT | by Richard Thomas in London

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Aircraft carriers retain their relevance in the latest USN strategic thinking, despite arguments against their continued development

Central the USN’s force structure is its fleet of aircraft carriers, providing power projection into its main operational theatres and acting as 100,000t symbols of US maritime dominance. Even discounting the America- and Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, the US has more carrier decks than the all those in NATO, Russia and China combined.

However, with the new Gerald R. Ford class suffering with cost overruns and problems integrating and certifying the range of new technologies foisted upon it, the US appears to have taken another look at how best it can structure it flattop fleet to meet the rising

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