Does the United States need 13 aircraft carries ? France and China has only one.?

Question

The nations we go to war with like Iraq have a very small Navys.Is our Navy a transfer of wealth to defense companies who make big donations to the elected ?. Should we spend some of this money on health care or education ?

Thanks for all the wrong answers.In a major war the Air Craft carries will be nuked. Yes other nations have more then 13 nukes and will use them Checkmate

Answer 1

Do you feel an aircraft carrier will save us in a war with China or Russia? Both nations will blow our Navy out of the water. If you know anything at all about weapons, you know China and Russia share the same system to destroy our slow moving Navy.By the time China and Russian weapons have nuked our Navy you will have learned a new word overkill. Russia has the Moskit Nuclear Cruise Missile which it shares with China.Our own Navy agrees we have no chance to defend against this system. We do not need 13 or 12 or 10 carries. I feel we could get by with five or six. This is not money well spent.

Answer 2

Dude, the problem with nuking a carrier is first finding one, then getting through the defenses ( cruise missiles, submarines, or aircraft) or accurately hitting it (ICBM).

Then again, one nuke begets two, two beget four, and then it doesn't matter because everything will end up glowing.

Until then, carriers let US forces keep most fights at arm's length using air power instead of putting troops on the ground all the time. They are also very flexible, as the tidal wave in Indonesia showed.

Additionally, carriers make what the US government says internationally a lot more credible because they have at least an element of force behind them.

As far as other countries needing only one, they tend to rely on international good faith for the most part, good faith historically enforced militarily, often by US forces supported by... CARRIERS.

The fun part, of course, is when countries without have overseas problems and no carriers, for example the Falklands War...

Answer 3

America has the largest Military in the World. We do so because we are the strongest nation in the world and vise versa. The ability to project power at any corner of the globe helps us to maintain our standing as well as protect or allies. Our military should be staffed to fight 2 1/2 was at the same time. An Aircraft carrier is the strongest and best projection of power on earth. It is not possible to have every carrier out to sea all the time. Also, since 2/3 of the world is ocean there is a lot of area to cover. It is a huge diplomatic asset to have a carrier of the shore of a country. China is less likely to attack Taiwan if there is a US carrier in the china sea.

Answer 4

Japan had 10 aircraft carriers at the start of WWII.

The US is much larger, and has two oceans to defend.

But looking ahead:
China is building another one
France is working 1-2 more.

The US is retiring one this year, and another next year. So we'll only have 11 active at the end of 2008. (Going up to 12 again in 2009.)

Answer 5

I'd rather we spent it on a Carrier. Giving to health care is flushing money down the drain as fat women live longer and making doctors, and pharmaceuticals companies rich.
Carrier aircraft were vital in Bosnia. Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. There were not only made for Navy versus Navy battles.

Answer 6

Great, so in a war, we just have to sink ONE aircraft carrier. Great military strategy, China.

France also has only one, but with an interesting feature. The motor has one gear only for "Ahead", but three for "Reverse" (get it?)

Spending more money on education is not the answer. Kids in Europe are educated (very well) on a fraction of the money wasted on too many fat, lazy American kids who don't even do their homework. My father was taught in the proverbial "one room schoolhouse" in rural Wisconsin, and was taught so well that he was able to enter a prestigious High School in Chicago. More money is the simplistic answer, but it doesn't work.

Answer 7

Let me answer you question with some questions of my own. Why do you take a bath/shower because you are only going to get dirty again? Why does everyone that has a car need one because they could get where they wanted to go by a motorcycle or bicycle or walking? Why does the lottery winner INVEST his winnings because he is taking a chance on losing what he won? And finally, why would we determine what and how many weapons we should have in our arsenal by what other nations have or do not have?

Answer 8

The key is force projection. The reason that we are a superpower is because we have the ability to act militarily anywhere in the world on short notice, and the aircraft carriers are a key part of that.

Don't really think of them as ships -- think of them as mobile slices of US territory that we can move when and where we want. Having many aircraft carriers gives the US that force projection around the world.

Answer 9

*** Updated due to asker's update *******
Aircraft carrier's nuked....you say.

All 13 Carrier strike groups are protected by the theatre ballistic missile defense system. Once anyone launches a nuke at us, it is all over for them and their allies.

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No, our Navy is not a transfer of wealth to defense companies.

We spend plenty on people programs, in fact too much. The war on poverty has cost us trillions with no return on investment and only made it worst , that was a transfer of wealth to the poor and made them dependent and stuck in poverty.

If we didn't have this many carriers, the world would be much worse off!!! The US of A is a force for good in the world.

Answer 10

Aircraft carriers are completely necessary for us to maintain our global response times to both military AND civilian crises. We were first responders for the Indonesian tsunami because of the proximity of an aircraft carrier. Until we can rely on scramjets and hypersonic craft for short-response missions, we will continue to need them.

We are already dumping too much money into the pockets of NEA goons and medical malpractice buzzards. You want to fix Education and Healthcare, get rid of teachers unions and trial lawyers. There will then be plenty of money for those causes.