The US Navy's ocean-going combat capability is the strongest in the world. Currently, the U.S. Navy has 11 aircraft carriers , including 10 Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers with full combat capability, and a Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with an incomplete warhead. According to the experience over the past fifty years, there are traces to the United States launching a relatively large military strike in a remote area, that is, where the aircraft carrier has been gathered by the United States.
Some people believe that the United States has 11 aircraft carriers, so in theory, it can dispatch up to 11 aircraft carrier combat groups. In fact, this statement is not accurate. The U.S. Navy also has several other surface ships with direct flight decks. The modified amphibious assault ship can carry 20 F-35B fighter jets and 6 SH-60F anti-submarine helicopters, becoming a " quasi-aircraft carrier ", and the warhead is no second to the Chinese Navy's aircraft carrier Liaoning ship and Shandong ships.
After strengthening the F-35B stealth fighter jet, the US amphibious alert brigade has made a qualitative leap in its ability to perform combat missions. It can use the network combat capability of F-35 to convert the formation that can only conduct amphibious operations into flexible combat marshals that can perform multiple tasks such as sea control, air defense, and land strikes. It can achieve sea area control and penetrating firepower strikes. The Amphibious Warning Brigade is actually equivalent to a medium-sized aircraft carrier battle group, which is enough to arouse our vigilance. The US Navy has nine amphibious assault ships with a displacement of more than 40,000 tons. Together with the existing 11 aircraft carriers, the US military can theoretically dispatch 20 maritime formations to fight.
However, the above statement is just pure theoretical data and belongs to paper talk. In fact, no country's navy can deploy all aircraft carriers at once. Because the aircraft carrier's airline rate is not high, it can only go to sea for 4 to 6 months a year, and needs to be repaired in the port for the rest of the time. There are always some aircraft carriers in a rest state, so the number of aircraft carriers that can be in combat is generally no more than two-thirds. Therefore, the 11 100,000-ton nuclear aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy look scary, but the U.S. Navy is also quite difficult and it is difficult for the U.S. Navy to deploy aircraft carriers.
Gulf War was the largest collective dispatch of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier forces after the end of the Cold War , and six aircraft carriers were deployed in the front and rear. From the beginning of Operation Desert Shield to the end of the Gulf War, a total of 8 aircraft carriers in the United States appeared in the waters around Middle East, but two aircraft carriers were transferred back to other areas. When the Desert Storm operation started, a total of 6 aircraft carriers of the US military participated in the war, namely: Midway class Midway , Saratoga and Assault, Kitty Hawk , and USS Kennedy, and Nimitz class , the No. 4 Theodore Roosevelt. There are 4 different types of aircraft carriers in an aircraft carrier formation, which is also relatively rare in US aircraft carrier formations after the Cold War.
This is the 154th special mixed formation "Zulu" aircraft carrier battle group of the US Navy in Persian Gulf region in in 1991, including four aircraft carriers, the US, the Roosevelt, the Midway and the Assaulter.
In 2003, the U.S. Navy announced a "Fleet Emergency Response Plan" to improve the troops' rapid response, long-range maneuver and asymmetric combat capabilities. The US military plans to send 6 aircraft carrier combat groups to hot spots within 30 days, and at the same time ensure that the other two aircraft carriers are reinforced or replaced within 3 months. This plan is called the "6+2 Plan". US military production can ensure that at least 6 aircraft carriers can operate in at any time in the Pacific region.
The cause of this plan was the Iraq War in 2003. At the beginning of the war, the US Navy deployed the USS Roosevelt and Truman nuclear aircraft carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean, Lincoln , Kitty Hawk and Constellation aircraft carriers in the Northern Arabian Sea. Nimitz was on the way here, but by the time Nimitz arrived, the war had ended. Therefore, after the Iraq War, the US military believed that it was necessary to build a six-carrier battle group plan to deal with the war of the great power.
However, 18 years have passed, and looking back now, the US military is obviously bragging, and it is basically unlikely that they will mobilize 6 aircraft carriers at once to enter the state of war. It is not easy to deploy three aircraft carrier strike groups at a time in one strategic direction.
The overseas cruise of the US aircraft carrier strike group is not a random walk, but has a clear purpose of combat. As a powerful weapon for the United States to achieve global hegemony, aircraft carriers wander around the Earth's oceans. The mission cruise of the US aircraft carrier close to the island chain of around China is mainly to detect the response capabilities of the Chinese Navy and Air Force. In the past, the approach of a US aircraft carrier could mobilize most of China's navy and air force to get in a hurry. This is the huge deterrent power of aircraft carriers and the main driving force for China to unswervingly adhere to the aircraft carrier route.
Before, whenever a crisis occurred overseas, the US president would ask: "Where is our nearest aircraft carrier?"
Goshha, a subordinate of the US President, quickly reported one by one that the 11 US aircraft carriers were there, and they would send some or several aircraft carrier strike brigades to the surrounding waters of the hot spots to show off their power and implement strategic deterrence. The sentence
highlights the importance of aircraft carriers. Aircraft carriers are currently one of the largest, most complex and most powerful weapons in the world. For example, the latest Ford-class aircraft carrier in the United States, maneuvering 600 nautical miles per day and night. For high-intensity combat, the carrier-based aircraft wing can dispatch 220 aircraft per day within a week and strike 2,000 targets in three days; for medium-intensity combat, the 180 aircraft per day within a month and damage 1,500 targets. If coastal countries only use shore-based aviation to fight, they need to use much more air power than US aircraft carriers. So aircraft carriers are actually weapons with high cost-effectiveness.
aircraft carriers have huge impact power. When attacking coastal countries with only shore-based aviation, such as China before the Liaoning ship was in service, in order to counter the large-scale maneuver and high-intensity attack frequency of the US aircraft carrier formation, most of the air force along the coast of China and naval aviation need to be mobilized to confront the Chinese coast. Therefore, aircraft carriers are the most important tool for the United States to implement national coercive power. The classic plot of
was reversed in 2015. That year, China improved the anti-aircraft carrier system with medium and long-range anti-ship ballistic missile weapons as the core, and publicly launched two of the world's most advanced anti-aircraft carrier missiles at the military parade.
So, when the crisis occurred, the earlier sentence "where is the aircraft carrier" became a question by the Chinese leader: "Where is the nearest US aircraft carrier?"
