Title: Is the "Day of the Aircraft Carrier" Over?
Subject: Historical documentation of CV employment and rational for their continuing requirement in the future.
Author(s): James Paulsen; Albert L. St. Clair (Faculty Advisor)
DTIC Keywords: AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
Abstract:
Joint Vision 2010 raises the question of aircraft carrier viability in the 21st
Century. The aircraft carrier has often come under scrutiny by other services
and civilian leadership, usually in times of fiscal belt-tightening. Joint
Vision 2010 -Concept for Future Joint Operations provides the thesis for this
project and the question is characteristic of its ideology.
I will address this ongoing debate by demonstrating how the aircraft carrier has
historically survived repeated political attack. This paper will document some
of these political events including historical aircraft carrier responses to
global crises, examine previously unsuccessful attempts at replacing aircraft
carriers with different weapon systems and explore aircraft carrier
survivability and adaptability. Further, these arguments will recall the
coincidental failures or shortcomings of different forms of military
applications to these historical political situations.
Some theorists replied to this prospect with the claim of "virtual presence" through the
"global reach" of air assets based within the United States. I believe that
this virtual presence theory is in reality "actual absence" and I have chosen to
pursue a historical approach to disprove the concept.
My discussion of responses to global crises will show how aircraft carriers have
been used to quell minor crises simply through their presence as well as how
they have been employed in wartime as the primary supplier of air power to
theater commanders. The aircraft carrier has answered the nation's call an
average of four times a year in response to contingency and limited war
operations since World War II; there is no evidence to suspect that this trend
will decrease in the foreseeable future.