Having the aircraft carrier enter the ranks will be of important significance in raising the overall fighting capacity of our nation's navy to a modern level
It seems to me that while the USA held overwhelming carrier group force, they could easily deploy carrier groups for willy-waving "gunboat diplomacy" purposes. Once the carrier group becomes the international symbol of naval strngth and an arms race in carrier groups takes place, we have the same situation as when the Royal Navy was faced with the battleship arms race at the beginning of the 20th century. In the event, the battleship found itself outmoded and superseded by the carrier and the Royal Navy has declined from being the undisputed ruler of the waves to relative insignificance in the global order.
I can't help feeling that in the age of the cruise missile, the carrier may be about to go the way of the battleship. Hell, even the Brunei navy can sink an aircraft carrier, or the whole carrier group if they felt like sending all their boats out - as long as their opponent wasn't expecting it. I'm a short-arse myself and learned early in my school career that the best way to deal with big boy bullies was to go directly for their goolies while they were still talking tough (think Pearl Harbour).
