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Modern warships are far, far better than the ones that we used in the 50s. We have more powerful engines, more redundancy, and better damage control systems. The sensors that we have on the ships are much better, and they are used to control more advanced, accurate, and powerful missiles. The crews are better trained, because they're a fully volunteer force, and more lessons have been learned over the years.

The carrier is not obsolete. They are surrounded by a battle group of the best of these modern ships, in open ocean with mobility unrestrained by the rules of engagement of a pre-planned exercise. On their decks, they carry 50+ aircraft that can investigate anywhere within 500nmi, ensuring that nothing moves on the surface that they don't know about. When a plane lands, it can be turned around for another sortie in an hour with a fresh pilot and more missiles. Each of these missiles have a range of their own of 100nmi+, and can be carried more than 500nmi by the aircraft carrying them. An aircraft carrier at full power can even outrun some smaller surface ships.



Yeah true, I shouldn't have stated in absolute terms ... But I still suspect there is a differential in the progress in tech for offense (holding a territory) vs. defense. And maybe that differential is greater than you consider Russian offense vs. western defense ...




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