Summary and Key Points: The U.S. Navy's reliance on large aircraft carriers like the Nimitz and Ford classes is increasingly risky due to their vulnerability to advanced anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) defenses from adversaries such as China and Russia.

-Instead of abandoning aircraft carriers entirely, the Navy could adopt a more balanced approach by investing in medium-sized aircraft carriers, inspired by Japan's Izumo-class helicopter carriers. These smaller, more agile carriers are cost-effective, versatile, and harder to target, offering a resilient means to project power in contested regions.

-This shift could ensure the Navy's continued effectiveness without the high costs and risks associated with supercarriers.

Because the United States Navy has invested so much of its resources into its aircraft carrier program, letting go of the flat top as a key element of its fleet will be difficult to do. So, rather than totally abandoning the carrier program in the age of the contested battlespace, it might be best to compromise.

Aircraft carriers certainly allow for immense power projection (so long as the area these warships are being deployed to can be penetrated by naval airpower without significant risk to the expensive carrier). As it stands now, however, China, Russia, and some other American rivals have robust anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) defenses in their respective regions of the world that would likely negate the power projection advantages........

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