Aircraft Carriers: Offensive Power and Defense in Depth

Aircraft carriers are built for danger. Firepower is their mission, and carrier air wings are armed to fight at vast distances. As result, targeting U.S. aircraft carriers has long been a quest for China’s military; and China now has the largest ground-based ballistic missile force in the world.

However, China cannot sink U.S. aircraft carriers easily with a handful of missiles—or, in all probability, with multiple barrages. Most Chinese missiles fired at aircraft carriers will be destroyed or miss. Carriers move fast, covering miles of ocean during an enemy missile’s time of flight. Sea-based missile defenses from the carrier’s strike group escorts and the carrier’s own air wing, tactics, and defenses are designed to keep the carrier in the fight and hitting hard for the joint force—even while under attack. Space-based tracking of missiles with unusual flight patterns is now possible, as advanced satellites link with missile defenses to reduce the threat from hypersonic missiles. Drone swarms are easy prey for the carrier strike group’s defenses. On top of this, due to their construction, carriers are nearly impossible to sink, as World War II kamikaze attacks proved. The Ford-class and Nimitz-class carriers are the most survivable warship hulls ever built. Read the full analysis here.