Originally Posted by
sandiego89
Sounds like the carriers could use a carrier based twin engine MPA/ASW aircraft with good endurance, good sensors and payload capability for these cross ocean sea control operations. Oh wait, the US Navy retired the S-3 Viking, that still had plenty of fatigue life left, went with helos for short range ASW, and abandoned any replacement aircraft to pay for more "fighters" for the land strike mission ........
The roles and missions debate after the Gulf War of 1991, and the BRAC that followed, left a lot of stuff bleeding on the floor, the S-3 being only one of them. Rummy's aim to shrink the Navy before the decision to head into Iraq sealed the fate of some other systems ... but it took until 2008 to finally retire the T-2 Buckeye. back on topic ...
Ever since I was (in a very small corner of a large room) involved in some JSF (and then F-35) stuff, early 00's, and once I'd operated for real with Global Hawks, Predators, and a few other drones, it occurred to me that F-35 is the last manned fighter we'll ever need. The X-47B UCAV trials on a CV only underscores my feeling on that.
They'll start with unmanned tankers, or at least that's what they said last year.
It may take a few decades, but what I think will happen is that fewer and fewer manned aircraft will be flown or needed, and they'll operate in conjunction with unmanned aircraft from seaborne platforms. But that's gonna take a while to implement and flesh out.
How many carriers are needed, how big they are, and how many people to man them, is the next hard problemn to solve in the mid to long term.
Short term: necessary.
And when we do transition, we still have a whole family of large amphibs that may provide the deck and hangar space needed.