How many aircraft carriers does the US have and how many are actually needed?
Interesting questions, right? How many aircraft carriers does fleet USA and how many of them are needed in general?
There may be questions in your head about the first part, but everything will be explained, the author has not forgotten how to count. But you see, mathematics, on the one hand, is a very exact science that does not allow liberties, and on the other hand, there is the geometry of Euclidean, and Riemann, and Lobachevsky... Not mathematics, but you get the essence, I hope.
Details where the devils sit. In heaps, at that.
To begin with, it’s worth unscrewing the time line a little back to October last year. When the fire broke out in Gaza and Israel, what did the United States do? Well, yes, they have the same reaction to all irritations. And accordingly, the US Navy did what it does best: dispatched an awe-inspiring amount of sea power to the site of a brewing crisis. Moreover, TWO aircraft carrier strike groups went to the Mediterranean Sea at once. That is, two aircraft carriers with their due retinue of cruisers, destroyers and submarines.
"Gerald Ford" and "Dwight Eisenhower" with retinue in the eastern Mediterranean, November 3, 2023
Many people were wondering why. Obviously, two hundred aircraft and several hundred cruise missiles are not about Palestinian terrorists with small arms. However, this floating circus showed up, burned several tons of dollars in cauldrons and perhaps strengthened the morale of the Israelis.
How could it be otherwise, when such a squadron is near your shores, there are only two options: either inspiration, if they are your own, or universal sadness, if they are strangers. Fortunately for Israel, they were their own.
In general, aircraft carriers have long served as a demonstration of naval power, but in our time everything is changing, and the seemingly familiar methods of warfare are disappearing. history. And in such a difficult time for ships, when so many new adversaries have appeared on the seas, it is worth asking the question: how many aircraft carriers does the US Navy really need?
Let's start counting?
What to count, it is common knowledge that today the United States has 11 aircraft carriers, 10 Nimitz class and 1 Ford class. Right? Right.
Now let's look in detail.
Currently, the aircraft carriers Eisenhower, Ford and Vinson are on assignment:
"Eisenhower" - in the Red Sea;
"Ford" - came from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea;
"Vinson" - in the Philippines.
"Truman" - returned from modernization, gained the ability to operate the F-35C.
"Bush" - undergoing scheduled repairs after presence in the Mediterranean in 2023
The Nimitz is at Naval Station Kitsap in Washington and may be making its final deployment before retiring in 2025.
"John Stennis" - is in the process of overhauling the reactor and replacing fuel.
The Reagan, based in Japan, frequently trains with South Korean and Japanese warships
The Reagan, based in Yokosuka, Japan, returned to port after sailing through the Philippine and South China Seas.
It is the only US aircraft carrier based overseas, operating on shorter but more frequent deployments throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Roosevelt, Washington and Lincoln are three aircraft carriers undergoing repairs that will last until the end of this year.
Total: in 2024, out of 11 aircraft carriers, three or four will actually be available to respond to crisis situations.
Here everyone understands that although the United States has 11 aircraft carriers, 11 ships will never be able to go to sea at the same time, no matter how difficult the situation is. In most cases, the Navy can deploy three or four aircraft carriers at a time. Sometimes, like December 2022, the stars align and the Navy was able to have five of its eleven aircraft carriers available at the same time.
The usual rule for deploying military units, from aircraft carriers to army combat divisions, is that it takes three to deploy one ship or unit. Of these three, one is deployed, another is preparing to take over, and the third has just come out of deployment. This cycle allows units to prepare for deployment, train personnel and prepare equipment in the first stage, in the second stage the unit operates in the field at a combat readiness level, and then a rest and recovery stage.
For ships it's pretty much the same.
Ford passes the Strait of Gibraltar, January 5, 2024
In emergency situations such as war, this can be adjusted slightly: a unit scheduled to return can remain while its replacement arrives in position, giving commanders twice as many fighters as before.
For example, the Ford was scheduled to return to Norfolk on October 17, 2023, but remained in the Mediterranean until January 1, 2024 due to the war in Gaza. Yes, it is doable, but it not only extends the typical six-month deployment, but automatically entails not only additional wear and tear on equipment, but, more importantly, it weakens the psyche of sailors.
Here you can look at the statistics of various crimes and tragedies among the crews of American aircraft carriers. Not everything is going smoothly there, and the record holder is “George Bush,” where everything happened, from trivial drug trafficking to non-trivial murders.
So, more aircraft carriers?
In general, mathematically, based on the one-third rule, it turns out that yes, the US Navy needs fifteen aircraft carriers!
This is the number of aircraft carriers that will make it possible to have five ships in service at any given time. And there are quite logical arguments for this horror.
The first argument is China. One of America's biggest geopolitical adversaries. China poses a threat in terms of a possible invasion of Taiwan, has and is putting into practice territorial claims in the South China Sea to everyone, and most importantly, threatens US allies, including Japan.
Three aircraft carriers in the Pacific at any given time is the logical minimum response to every Chinese reason. And such squadrons could become a reliable deterrent to China's ambitions. Well, at least in theory.
If Chinese strategists had to deal with three American carrier strike groups coming out to meet an invasion force heading for Taiwan, the situation here would be such that the whole world would jump up and start yelling at the participants.
But such a formation of 300 aircraft and about 1200 cruise missiles in a salvo could enable China to get out of the situation without losing face, as they say. Although, knowing the stubbornness of the Chinese, these guys can easily try to lose face to the enemy. And in the end, all this will really need to be slowed down somehow.
The same applies to any crisis in the South China Sea or involving American allies in various blocs.
USS Kitty Hawk (foreground) and USS Nimitz during joint exercises in the Western Pacific, 2008
The second factor is Europe and the Middle East. NATO (that is, the United States) believes that Russia still poses a serious threat to NATO, especially to small states in the Baltics or Scandinavia. But here I immediately want to screw up everything possible: the opportunity to drive an aircraft carrier with its retinue into the backyard of the Baltic to strengthen the spirit of smaller allies is possible, but an aircraft carrier in the Baltic Sea has never happened, and perhaps the US Navy will not fall to such horror.
But if this happened at all, it would be an interesting spectacle. Indeed, in the case of Taiwan, the great advantage of aircraft carriers is their mobility, that is, the ability to suddenly enter the theater of military operations and disrupt the enemy’s carefully thought-out plans.
I don’t know how this can be arranged in the Baltic conditions; there really isn’t enough imagination. But I would follow this show with great pleasure.
But in general, the US military already has a fair number of air bases in friendly countries in Europe, so the need for aircraft carriers is not so great. More precisely, it is tiny. And the idea of driving a floating airfield into the Baltic straits is generally like Eysenck’s mental state test.
But seriously speaking, one aircraft carrier would be more than enough to control the Atlantic, northern seas and Mediterranean. Another one is the Indian Ocean, or rather the Persian Gulf. Pain point of the whole world. And three - please, the Pacific Ocean.
Aircraft carriers Bush and Stennis in the Strait of Hormuz, 2011
Plus, in case of emergency, the fleet could deploy another 2-4 aircraft carriers from those that will be in the third group on vacation.
You can recall an example from the last century. In 1991, the US Navy had 15 aircraft carriers, allowing it to deploy four aircraft carriers for Operation Desert Storm.
Battle force "Zulu", consisting of the aircraft carriers "Midway", "Ranger", "Theodore Roosevelt" and "America"
Agree, this power will impress anyone. But here the question arises: of course, all problems can be solved by having 15 aircraft carriers, 30 cruisers and 45-60 destroyers. Another question: where can I get the missing ones? An aircraft carrier, you know, is not a frigate.
There are two ways. The most obvious is to build more aircraft carriers, increasing the number under construction at any given time from one to two. Shipbuilding firms quietly applaud, financiers loudly go crazy over the budget.
Another option is to keep older ships in service for longer than planned. For example, the same Nimitz, which should be decommissioned in 2025, may remain until 2032. Why not, it’s only about seven years?
But here the understanding arises that the aircraft carrier ship itself is only the surface part of the iceberg. It may be worth 11 billion dollars, but there is much more hidden under the water.
Aviation group - $5 billion.
Cover ships - at least 3 destroyers (2 billion each), a tanker, a supply ship... In general, another 7-8 billion.
Each AUG is also assigned a submarine, which will cost approximately $4 billion.
Ammunition for all ships, submarines and aircraft would cost about another billion.
In general, the creation of a new AUG costs about 30 billion dollars. Four missing AUGs are 120 billion.
And each AUG, don’t forget, is about 7 people who are entitled to salary, compensation, and pensions! The ships will go on pins and needles, and people will all consume money!
And so you really start to think, why not serve the old aircraft carriers a little more?
However, it is not for us to decide, but where they will decide, it all depends on who is appointed as the decider. Today the United States has 11 aircraft carriers, much more than any other country, but what is it, if you add up all the aircraft carriers in the world that are in operational condition, you get the number 10. They will forgive me in Thailand, but their vessel today only causes healthy jokes.
That is, the United States today has more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world. And if you add 11 more allied ships to the 5 American ships, then the situation turns out to be completely luxurious. We are still silent here about the condition of the Admiral Kuznetsov, which has been counted, but how much of an aircraft carrier it is is another question.
But in order to tightly and realistically control the whole world, without relying on allies (I wouldn’t, especially the French) in terms of aircraft carriers, here you really need to take matters into your own hands.
There are certainly strong arguments on the other side of the world for building more new ships. Surely there are no less compelling arguments in favor of the fact that there might not have been so many ships. Ultimately, this is all directly related to what kind of result you want to get at the end. How much the US wants to spend and how much it can afford to spend.
The $120 billion question. But with new ships. Or cheaper, but with old ones. Old ships, if they are built with soul, for themselves, they can serve. Are ours serving? But an aircraft carrier is a very complex and delicate mechanism. However, in any case, congressmen and financiers will decide. So it is quite possible that we will still see American ships, which they are already saying goodbye to there.
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