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How America’s Aircraft Carrier Crisis Reveals A Military Decline

The Times

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America has 11 aircraft carriers. So why is the US Navy struggling to deploy more than three at once?

These 100,000-ton floating airfields have long symbolised American military power. But delayed ships, lengthy repairs and overstretched crews are making it harder to keep them at sea. Does the carrier now reveal the limits of US military power?

#usnavy #aircraftcarrier #geopolitics

Produced by Yasmin Butt

00:00 – America’s aircraft carrier problem
00:53 – Delayed ships and ageing carriers
02:24 – Trump’s proposed carrier redesign
03:25 – Longer deployments, greater strain
04:50 – The carrier gap in the Pacific
06:09 – The $25 billion carrier group at risk
07:30 – The cost to the wider fleet
08:38 – Shipyard decline and military power

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20 Comments

@MT-Pink 5 days ago

Who could've imagined that a country that has divested from education and turned against expertise would be in such a precarious situation

@boplax123 4 days ago

Military decline is one of the surest signs of an empire’s demise

@aaroncyoung1979 6 days ago

End of an era, defeated by our own stupidity.

@Dog.soldier1950 4 days ago

The difficulty goes back to the closure of 10 NAVY shipyards. The idea was cheaper for private yards to pick up the business but that hasn’t worked as planned

@Netsurf123 5 days ago

USA today: $ one trillion for its military per year, but $ two trillion to pay interest on their over $ 40 trillion debt...!

@pi.actual 6 days ago

A major part of the problem is that we have put a group of fully grown 7th graders in charge.

@pascalmartin1891 4 days ago

The parallel between the US and Royal navies is striking..

@VIP-vl5bl 6 days ago

The outcome to deindustrializing.. no free lunch.

@forbescronin302 6 days ago

The newest class of American aircraft carriers have a total life span of 100 years, at least 50 of which will be spent in port being built or under going repairs. This timeline is crazy long

@Lord_Wave 5 days ago

All empire must come to an end

@scroggins100 5 days ago

Up here in the North, we call that a case of all fur coat and no knickers.

@RickBerman-iv2il 5 days ago

It’s just incompetence. There’s a $1trn budget. You can field 11 carriers. Or you can siphon off money to your buddies.

@missterious27 5 days ago

Building bridges is a lot cheaper than sustaining a few wars i guess

@hvbris1 3 days ago

How well would an aircraft carrier cope if someone fired 5000 shaheds at it simultaneously?

@sosayweall7290 5 days ago

USS Nimitz has not served years past it's scheduled planned de-commissioning, that's just not correct. However, it is currently serving past that date because of the over-stretch of resources and is expected to leave service in 2027.
The EMALS and automated systems on USS Gerald R Ford have been troubled and taken longer than planned to reach maturity. However, reverting back to steam causes issues beyond further delays. The EMALS system allows greater variation in what can be launched because it can be better tuned to the varying weights of future systems e.g. uncrewed systems. China recognises this and has built it into it's new carrier. To revert back to steam is assessed as being a mistake if it happened.

@anthonyfrank4634 6 days ago

When everything is a crisis, nothing is. Oh internet.

@Edward-l1p4i 6 days ago

Interesting report. Thanks Mark

@charliecampbell197 6 days ago

Deployed to trouble spots?
They are trouble spots BECAUSE of the deployment.

@chuniquepaceno470 4 days ago

Thank you, very comprehensive and informative, this retired carrier rider appreciates the update...glad I'm no longer active duty, seems like nothing but hard times ahead.