Long Live the Aircraft Carrier

By SLt Joe Reilly RN

Message from the Editor

The author takes on the classic systemic technological argument of naval platform obsolescence. Reprinted from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings with permission. A 10 minute read.

Commander Jeff Vandenengel begins his book, Questioning the Carrier, by arguing that “The U.S. Navy has the most powerful fleet in all naval history. The large nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is the most powerful surface warship in that fleet and in all naval history. The U.S. Navy should stop building them immediately.”1CDR Jeff Vandenengel, USN, Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in fleet design for the U.S. Navy (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2023). Vandenengel later clarified his use of “immediately” as meaning “years or decades.” See Jeff Vandenengel, “Questioning the Carrier,” T…

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