Too Big to Fail in Our Budget Battles But Not in Sea Battles

The Navy quietly declared the first of its class super carrier Gerald R. Ford to be minimally capable of fighting. Given its delays, problems, and costs I wouldn't have advertised that, either.

Break out the champagne! Or whatever the Chinese use to celebrate opportunity:

The Navy in December quietly determined the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) had achieved initial operational capability, the program manager for the ship revealed today.

The milestone was officially reached on Dec. 22, 2021, when the last advanced weapons elevator was turned over, Capt. Brian Metcalf, the ship’s program manager, told attendees at the Sea Air Space exposition.

Initial operational capability is an important acquisition milestone that indicates the ship’s capabilities have reached the minimum thresholds required to be operationally useful.

I don't worry about missiles knocking out tanks because losing tanks in battle has long been normal--the recent era of tank armor winning over anti-tank weapons is what is abnormal--and there are a lot of tanks to complete the mission.

But networked missile attacks can sink a carrier. And we don't have many. And they absorb a lot of our Navy resources to build, protect, and maintain.

Further, even if I concede the claim by some that carriers are too difficult to sink--and I don't--mission kills are as good as sinking if the war doesn't go on for years.

The carrier has come to represent American power projection. We can take pride in them, we are told. Can we be proud of them burning on live television for the world to see?

As a King's College London professor of war and strategy said of the loss of Russia's Moskva flagship in the Black Sea:

“Ships operate away from public attention, and their activities are rarely the subject of news,” he said. “But they are large floating pieces of national territory, and when you lose one, a flagship no less, the political and symbolic message — in addition to the military loss — stands out precisely because of it.”

And that's for an ancient Russian warship that eventually sank. Now do large aircraft carriers.

Mind you, carriers are great for power projection missions against enemies without the missiles or sensors to hit them. But sea control is another thing altogether from that kind of useful power projection.

Ford will deploy in the early fall this year. Unless there are more problems. 

NOTE: War coverage continues at this post.