US Carriers
My recollection of the Iraq Southern NFZ between GW1 and GW2 was that the US carriers had difficulty in mounting 24 hours ops and were very reliant on land based AAR, AWACs and the whole C3 piece. Even then the Navy aircraft seemed very limited on range and I don't recall them penetrating much further than Tallil before they needed to dart back to the ship. I can' swear to this, but that's how the ATO looked to me. So it would seem that even if carrier based aircraft were used, the ship becomes, essentially, just another airfield that needs to be plugged into the bigger air plan most of which is land based. Bottom line was that when the carrier couldn't fly no one really noticed or cared but they were useful to have around to allow for a few down days and a visit to the local swimming pool. Not sure how it would work with UAVs but I assume that the useful long range UAVs are all land based.