THE PLACE OF THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER IN THE BALANCE OF
POWER EQUATION OF THE 21ST CENTURY
The 21st
as it appears, seems to be the most fluid and unpredictable century in the
history of modern man. There is no century in contemporary history that has
seen the spate of changes the world has witnessed within the last fifteen years
of the opening of the 21st century. Events and changes are occurring
at such a dizzying place and regularity that the long-range bet is no longer a
profitable proposition.
The same is
happening in the realm of technology and strategic assets particularly in the
military realm. In the 20th century, assets that had both strategic
and tactical value could be counted on to last at least half a century before
they began to decline in relevance, but that is not so any more as technology
to both enhance and counter the value of any asset are springing forth at an
amazing pace , sometimes both simultaneously.
During the
last years of WW2, the United States held such an overwhelming advantage on the
High Seas that it would have been thought impossible that any nation could
counter her power and influence for another 100 years. But then in this
technologically driven age, it isn’t safe to bet against the future.
But then
the nuclear weapon and the nuclear powered submarine showed up to counter the
power of a fleet that boasted over 28 main fleet carriers and over 71 escort
carriers, excluding the light carriers.
The fact
was that the US finished the war with over 114 ships that could launch and
recover aircraft including the main fleet carriers of the Essex class, light
carriers and the escort carriers, not to talk of the thousands of accompanying
warships of all classes.
It was an awful deployment of sea power that in the
days of Rome could have kept the US in control of the high seas for at least
300 years like Great Britain at the beginning of the 18th century.
The game
changer however has been technology, of which no single nation has a monopoly
of, no matter how hard you try to conceal it. Post world war two era quickly
turned from the capital ships particularly the Battleships to the deployment of submarines particularly the
nuclear powered submarines with both ballistic and cruise missile capacity with
both conventional and nuclear capability.
The
aircraft because it had the operational capability of the submarine has also
remained a strategic weapon of choice. That was why while many nations turned
from the Battleships, the aircraft carrier remained relevant acting more as a
mobile platform for deploying air power from the sea, from anywhere in the
world.
The fate of
the aircraft carrier is however tied to the ability of its air crews to deliver
offensive power through the application of air power. Thus the aircraft carrier
is a sure winner against those nations that lack the power to parry air strikes
by either retaliatory strikes or the anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles that
are proving more deadly and capable with each passing day.
The
Russians are building more progressively deadly anti-aircraft missiles in the
class of the BUK that are proving more and more deadly to planes flying in the
interceptor role. The planes that have the ‘capacity’ to evade these missiles
are getting prohibitively expensive both to build and operate.
And one of the cardinal rules of war is that a
prohibitively expensive asset is a liability on the long-run, a lesson
clearly grasped from Adolf Hitler and his miracle weapons that ultimately
drained Germany of vital resources towards the end of the second world war and
ultimately deprived Germany of the capacity to build the basic weapons that had
been most effective previously.
1942,
marked the beginning of Germany’s turn to miracle weapons that consumed an
unreasonable amount of the nation’s resources and drained her energy leaving
her vulnerable to the nations that concentrated on the basic and easily
mass-produced weapons of war.
You may not
believe this but the facts are there to prove it, 1942, was the beginning of
Hitler’s obsession with wonder weapons and that was also the year the tide
turned against Germany. The wonder weapons only served to nurse false hopes
that became the basic undoing of Germany surrounded with enemies that were
content to use the tried and proven assets with which they ultimately
humiliated Germany.
The law of diminishing returns climaxes in this
greatest of ironies, which only the most discerning can apprehend. IT IS A FACT
OF LIFE THAT THE MORE DIFFICULT A PROBLEM APPEARS IN THE NATURAL, THE EASIER IT
IS TO SOLVE IN REALITY, if you know how to handle it. Like they say ‘the bigger
they come the harder they fall’.
The fact remains that highly complex solutions should
never be rushed to a field of conflict, because they are highly vulnerable to
basic counter measures e.g., ‘David and Goliath’.
Hitler’s
wonder weapons were all neutralized by the Allies one after the other applying
the most rudimentary elements effectively. Allied destruction of Germany’s oil
supplies effectively eliminated the fuel hungry Tiger tank and brought Hitler’s
1944 offensive in the Ardennes to an abrupt halt.
The V-1 and V-2 Rockets were eliminated when
their bases were overrun by the Allies and the Me 262 jets were put out of
action when the Allies destroyed their overextended runways as It became
obvious that they required extended runways and the Russians on the other hand
used the humble shovel to dig
trenches that effectively stopped the Tiger tanks in the battle of Kursk in July 1943.
In the
Pacific war in 1945 as the war against Japan drew to a close, the Essex class
carrier, the USS Franklin managed to deploy about 50 miles off the coast of
Japan to inflict the daily dose of airstrikes that had become the lot of Japan
in the closing days of WW2.
It was on record that the Franklin set a record by
that record- closeness to the shore of Japan as it acted with impunity. A single
Japanese ‘Val’ with two 250 pound bombs closed the day for the Franklin
when the fire that bomb started made the Franklin the most heavily damaged US
warship that survived the war.
The USS
Bunker Hill suffered the same fate as the Franklin in a two plane strike.
Though both planes survived the war, they could neither launch nor recover
aircraft and that effectively put them out of action as far as the war was
concerned. The point is this, that the
strategic and tactical value of an aircraft carrier is not tied to its being
afloat, but to its ability to launch and recover aircraft.
Once it cannot launch or recover aircraft it has no
tactical or strategic value over and above any other warship. And that is one
thing I say that a hit by a single missile either ballistic, anti-ship or
intelligently guided cruise missile can be cheaply or realistically accomplished on a
modern day aircraft carrier regardless of the tonnage.
The idea is
not to sink the ship but to render it incapable of launching or recovering
aircraft, in that way its usefulness as an offensive asset is completely neutralized.
On the other hand the aircraft carrier is still very useful against poor nations
that are bereft of missile technology.
However in
the contemporary age the aircraft carrier is still very useful as a command and
control center and as a floating sea base in support of forward operations as
long as it is not deployed too near the shores of a missile capable nation. However
its usefulness as a weapon of intimidation is still very much relevant for
those nations who can be intimidated by its immense size and firepower.
The next writing will be centered on why the ‘Peace of
1945’ must be preserved at all costs no matter whose ‘Ox is gored’.
Civilization has no other choice as a WW3 is no longer
a realistic choice or option. No sane person starts a war he cannot win or
survive. Thanks for remaining on Deck.
