Post
by Smitty-48 » Thu Apr 20, 2017 11:58 am
The other thing which Grumpy has got (generally) right, is that with all these bases all over the world, the Pentagon has shot the aircraft carrier in the foot, because it is extremely difficult for the Navy to find a "Falkland Islands" scenario, where only the aircraft carrier would do, there are almost no scenarios at all, where the Air Force is not within strike range, and when it comes to strike, the Air Force dwarfs the Navy, rendering the Naval Air Force moot.
This also applies to the Marines and their opposed beachhead mission, because there are almost no scenarios whatsoever, where the US would actually conduct an opposed landing, rather than just blast the shit out of it with the Air Force, and then send the Army in to mop up. The whole US military doctrine revolves around airpower, so if you're not an airforce, you're not of much particular utility, at least until the counter insurgency phase starts, but again, Grumpy is right, for COIN, you just fly the troops in, mostly with commercial aircraft in fact, airliners chartered to move the troops.
Nec Aspera Terrent