Flatops
Yesterday I stood a stone's throw from the bow of an aircraft carrier in the Naval Shipyard at Bremerton. This monster of engineering and technology and two other sisters are being stripped down for scrap.
I walked the length of the gray corpse, marvelling at the audacity and capacity to create such machines. The ships are awe-inspiring but not for long. It seems foolish and short-sighted to cut up these aging ships without replacing them.
Only a few countries have made these mobile power projectors. Japan did, but not Germany. UK has since WWII. Sweden has submarines but not these. Russia put men in space but never build one. The Chinese don't have one. The French have some but only built one themselves and it can't leave the dock.
We need more of these plus the men and planes they hunger for. How else will we respond when the GWOT drags our fighting forces across the globe?
UPDATE: According to this site two of the carriers are being mothballed, not destroyed. Plus there are two new hulls in the works. Looks like we have twelve active carriers.