Modern war is not total war; the fact that aircraft carriers can be destroyed is mostly irrelevant, because any conflict which escalated to the point where aircraft carriers are being sunk, has a very high risk of also escalating to nuclear armageddon. Modern military operations mostly consist of projecting force into asymmetric conflicts; aircraft carriers do well at this.
Noting that this is correct, but incomplete. They are very important for force projection even in near-peer engagements, since otherwise you likely can’t get your planes to where you need them. The question that matters for this is who wins the area-denial / anti-aircraft battle, i.e. can drones and similar get close enough to sink anything, and this is the critical question anyways, since your carriers and planes are useless if you can’t get close enough. And this isn’t my area, but my very preliminary impression is that AA/AD makes aerial combat fairly defense-dominant.
Modern war is not total war; the fact that aircraft carriers can be destroyed is mostly irrelevant, because any conflict which escalated to the point where aircraft carriers are being sunk, has a very high risk of also escalating to nuclear armageddon. Modern military operations mostly consist of projecting force into asymmetric conflicts; aircraft carriers do well at this.
Noting that this is correct, but incomplete. They are very important for force projection even in near-peer engagements, since otherwise you likely can’t get your planes to where you need them. The question that matters for this is who wins the area-denial / anti-aircraft battle, i.e. can drones and similar get close enough to sink anything, and this is the critical question anyways, since your carriers and planes are useless if you can’t get close enough. And this isn’t my area, but my very preliminary impression is that AA/AD makes aerial combat fairly defense-dominant.