“Floating Pointlessness”: Is This the End of the Age of the Aircraft Carrier?

Few sights are more majestic, even breathtaking—and ferocious-looking—than a massive warship, gray and bristling with weapons, flanked by other equally badass vessels in a naval flotilla, bounding through the high seas. That is the indelible image of the unstoppable power packed by the great navies of the world. But on April 14, with just two relatively low-tech, shore-launched Neptune cruise missiles, Ukrainian forces punched big holes in the side of a heavy Russian missile cruiser, Moskva, the flagship of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet. Like darts popping a balloon, the weapons sent the paragon of the Russian navy to the bottom… Read Full Article