No Enemy on the Horizon

As our Navy prepares for the next generation of carriers, I've worried that these behemoths are becoming big targets for a networked enemy; and that they will be less useful for our own networked Navy.

This report on work on the new CVN-21 shows we are going super-carriers bigger and better than our current ships. The platform-centric assumptions of the past have not been adapted to what the future seems to be bringing to naval warfare.

When a network allows firepower to be focused on a single point from widely dispersed small platforms, why build such a large platform as CVN-21? We don't need to launch all the assets needed to strike a single target from the same platform.

When an enemy may use their own network to strike us, why would we put such a lucrative target out to sea when dispersed platforms would complicate their targeting decisions and make any enemy success a small blow to our networked fleet?

Clearly, our Navy must not see any enemy on the horizon for the next fifty years able to fight us with a network. If the Navy is right, these carrier platforms will indeed be the ultimate weapon as they have been for us over the last 65 years.

Or perhaps the Navy sees a role for the ultimate strike platform in a diffuse and networked Navy. Maybe this ship is more resilient to damage than I expect it to be.

But I worry that the Navy is failing to adapt to network-centric naval warfare even as I hope the Navy is correct on whatever assumptions are leading the brass to launch this ultimate aircraft carrier.