US aircraft carriers may be in danger due to missile weapons that will not allow them to approach the shore for massive strikes from a safe distance.
As he writes The Wall Street Journal, Russia and China already have effective combat capabilities that seriously hinder or exclude the possibility of carrier groups approaching the coast at the distance necessary for an attack.
The publication notes that the weapons that have appeared in Russia and China can keep aircraft carrier formations at a distance of up to 1800 kilometers from the coastline. This means that the targets on the shore will be inaccessible to F/A-18 fighter-bombers. At the same time, the F-35B and F-35C fighters, which are just entering the troops, are only 720 and 1120 kilometers away from the aircraft carrier.
The Wall Street Journal writes that the F/A-18 Super Hornet, operating at a distance of up to 900 kilometers, performed well during the war in Iraq and Yugoslavia. But in these conflicts, the enemy did not have the opportunity to deal a serious blow to aircraft carriers, so they could approach the coast at the required distance.
Curiously, the range of the carrier air group decreased from 1400 to 900 kilometers. In particular, it is reported that the US Navy has decommissioned the A-6 Intruder deck attack aircraft, which could fly at a distance of up to 1400 kilometers with a full bomb load, and up to 2200 kilometers with additional outboard fuel tanks. And the range of the A-12 Avenger carrier-based stealth bomber developed in the USA was almost 1800 kilometers. But this car turned out to be too expensive, and they eventually decided to abandon it.
The Wall Street Journal believes that the situation could be improved by unmanned MQ-25 Stingray tankers capable of taking off from aircraft carriers. But there are very few of them, and they cannot carry large amounts of fuel.
Meanwhile, the United States plans to build super-aircraft carriers of the Gerald Ford type with a displacement of 100,000 tons. Each of them will cost $13 billion. But at the same time, huge aircraft carriers will not be able to strike at protected enemy territory.
Mikhail Rusin
