I checked a recent deployment and every combat aircraft on that US carrier is an F-18. Using one multi-purpose aircraft has some fantastic advantages if you ca

I checked a recent deployment and every combat aircraft on that US carrier is an F-18. Using one multi-purpose aircraft has some fantastic advantages if you can pull it off. A carrier can use all its combat aircraft to fight enemy aircraft (effectively double the number of anti-air aircraft on board), then after the enemy Air Force is the destroyed, switch around to using all the F-18's to attack ground targets. With specialized aircraft types, some combat losses focused in a particular role can cripple the entire air wing, whereas with multi-role aircraft, you can keep right on operating. It's great from a maintenance, logistics, and training as well.