Repeat After Me: The U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier's Are All Done

The Navy must focus on destroying A2/AD systems before considering the deployment of aircraft carriers to avoid making them liabilities in a high-threat environment. It has come to view its aircraft carrier force, the crown jewels of its surface fleet, as the cure all for great power competition. Denying the aircraft carrier access to the Taiwan Strait area would be a critical move early at the start of any conflict. Instead, the US military, as it has done so often, will have to go to war with the military it has, not the robust military it needs-or wants. If the Chinese forces are given any amount of breathing space they will use that time to mount devastating counterspace strikes against sensitive American satellite constellations as well as brutal cyberattacks against the infrastructure of both Taiwan, their objective, and Taiwan's allies-notably the United States-which could sow confusion and cripple the US military's response. Any thought of deploying aircraft carriers into the region to deter the invasion must be abandoned. The Navy must deprioritize the aircraft carrier and elevate the importance of the submarine.