When 100,000 tons of sovereign American territory isn't enough, land bases beckon.
About a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have flown to a military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon’s effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops, according to a U.S. official.
Navy mini-AWACS aircraft are part of the deployment.
Defenders of carriers (and I'm a defender with caveats) like to say that carriers eliminate the need for land air bases. At best they reduce the need. As the calls for more carriers to keep carriers forward deployed, I will ask again why, in the absence of an available carrier, the Navy can't employ land-based aircraft squadrons and wings without carriers?
Sure, nobody can deny America the use of our carrier planes. But gaining support sufficient to allow use of allied air bases is surely both valuable for the mission and a good indication we have support. With land bases Navy planes can deploy without an expensive carrier ferrying the planes.
And at least land bases can't be sunk. Runways can be repaired much faster than damaged carriers can be.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.NOTE: I'm now on Substack, with The Dignified Rant: Evolved.