Yes it is an Aircraft Carrier

USS America LHA-6, CV-6 , one of the Navy's new aircraft carriers.

Yes folks, not putting a well deck on a $3.4B flatop, does make it an aircraft carrier. I don't think that a flatop with a well deck, is an aircraft carrier. The small amount of aircraft (with their small support structure) are just there to work with the boats. The ship without a well deck though, has all kinds of space dedicated to aviation, (can't do fast-jet flight ops without useful logistics on-board).

Best to put a ski-jump on the front of it to give better range/payload performance for the Harriers. We will have the Harrier out to 2030.

Ships primary mission is to carry aircraft with a large number of fixed wing jets as the goal = aircraft .... carrier...

What about sorties? What about them? Read The Carrier Myth. It isn't all out-of-date.

So yup. The U.S. is currently on course with growing the U.S. Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers.

Even the Dunning-Kruger-Effect F-35 fan club at SLD thinks so:

Can you imagine what we could have done in support of Operation ODYSSEY DAWN if we had 20 plus F-35Bs on the USS AMERICA operating off the coast of Libya? Yes, one could have easily run the air war, the air campaign, from right there. The USS AMERICA with 20 plus F-35 Bravos aboard gives you a phenomenal strike, EW, ISR and C2 capability. It truly is a mini- aircraft carrier; very capable.

If one really believes in the F-35B, there is no case for the U.S. Navy to have a less versatile, F-35C which is still in the extreme-risk ball park compared to the F-35B.

And this, killing the F-35C solves a lot of logistics and Navy budget problems with hair on them:





(click images to make larger)

3 Ford class nuke carriers (plan) and the rest of our carrier fleet to be "Flight 0" America-class boat-less flat tops?

The nuke-aircraft carrier club should worry if the budget cutters discover that building 3 non-nuke carriers for the cost of 1 nuke carrier is possible.

You can even use non-nuke carriers for more missions over their life time. They don't spend years having their power-plant refurbed.

Value! Especially for the many Operation: USELESS DIRT efforts; of which there are many. Operation: ODYSSEY DAWN did not use a big nuke carrier.

Perception is everything these days in D.C.

Ponder that.