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Yes, but it gets even more ridiculous once you consider the fact that the last 60 years have been relatively peaceful for Naval warfare. During WW2 the U.S. had
by anthonybsd 9y ago
Yes, but it gets even more ridiculous once you consider the fact that the last 60 years have been relatively peaceful for Naval warfare. During WW2 the U.S. had well over 100 aircraft carriers on active duty.
- sailfast 9y agoConsidering the cold war relatively peaceful at sea is interesting, firstly. Secondly, I would argue that the reason the seas have been free from "major conflict" over the last 60 years is in no small measure due to the preponderance of naval power wielded by the United States and Russia. If odds had not been overwhelming, do you think there would have been less conflict, or more?
- astrodust 9y agoRussia doesn't have much of a navy excluding nuclear submarines and the only reason those are a problem is because of the megaton-yield nuclear weapons they carry.
- gozur88 9y agoI doubt anything but nukes kept the US and Russia from going to war. Hell, aside from a few screwups, we almost went to war despite the nukes in 1963.
- dctoedt 9y agoIt was actually 1962 (Cuban Missile Crisis) and 1983 (false alarm) [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...
- gozur88 9y ago'62 then. We may have gone to war accidentally in '83, but in '62 it would have been on purpose, with full knowledge of what it entailed.
- TrickyRick 9y agoHow did they have well over a 100 carriers when the recently launched Ford has ID CVN-78 (I.e. the 78th carrier launched)?
- anthonybsd 9y agoZany already answered it, but yes, some were of the smaller or slower variety: https://www.quora.com/How-many-aircraft-carriers-did-the-USA-build-during-World-War-2 https://www.quora.com/How-many-aircraft-carriers-did-the-USA...
- patpending 9y agoThe US Navy built 78 escort carriers in less than four years during WWII. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/nav_legacy.asp?id=3 http://www.navy.mil/navydata/nav_legacy.asp?id=3
- astrodust 9y agoThat pace of production is absolutely nuts. The turn around time on these was six to eight months per ship, start to finish.
- jasonwatkinspdx 9y agoOnce they got going, liberty ships took an average of like 40 days. As a stunt they built one in 5 days. The scale of WW2 manufacturing boggles the mind. The numbers from Russian tank factories are pretty astounding too.
- astrodust 9y agoAll of that with virtually no automation as well. Just sheer brute force of labour: Machinists, welders, forge operators and their tools.
- flukus 9y agoKind of depends on your definition of automation, I suspect many of those jobs were using much more advanced tools than their grandparents would have. If I were to build a fence tomorrow I'd be using a nail gun and bench saw to automate most of the hard work, as little as a few decades ago I wouldn't have had those tools.
- ZanyProgrammer 9y agoBecause some of those carriers were light/escort carriers that were numbered differently.
- avn2109 9y ago>> "...the last 60 years have been relatively peaceful for Naval warfare..." Overwhelming American naval power is a cause of this peace, not an irrelevant/wasteful overbuild. It's peace through superior firepower, Pax Americana.
- astrodust 9y agoArguably it's the threat of nuclear annihilation that's done that. If anything the aircraft carriers are what the US does to stir up shit around the globe: Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Iraq, and Afghanistan among others.
- NikolaeVarius 9y agoThat's amongst the superpowers. And even then, "everyone" knows that Nukes are last resort. Carriers allow constant ACTUAL power projection that can respond to events that don't require nukes.
- gozur88 9y agoIt's not just the nukes. What makes arms races start is a relative parity of force. If you have one carrier and the US has eleven, there's no point in building another one or two without building ten. So you either bite the bullet and build ten, or you don't build any. That's a whole lot of money to shell out, so most countries won't do it. But let's say you have a carrier and nobody else has more than one. Building a second makes you top dog and opens up a range of strategic options.