![]() In a sense American aircraft carriers are throwbacks: relics of the military-industrial production of the Second World War, when US shipyards built thousands of warships. Japan had ten carriers by 1940 and Japanese admirals pioneered the carrier group, before the US sank almost all of them in the Pacific. The US has eleven full-size fleet carriers, more than the rest of the world combined. Naval enthusiasts tend to take emphatic pride in their nation’s carriers: the Royal Navy refers to HMS Queen Elizabeth, launched in 2014, as ‘4.5 acres of floating sovereign power’. US carriers are nuclear-powered so don’t need regular deliveries of fuel. ![]() An aircraft carrier is usually escorted by cruisers, destroyers and submarines, as well as fighter jets, attack aircraft and helicopters. The biggest of them, which belong to the US Navy, are 333 metres end to end (longer than the Shard would be if it were laid horizontal) and displace 100,000 tonnes of water with their bulk. The modern tool of naval power projection is the aircraft carrier. These five keys belong to England.’ But if you leave strategic bases aside, it is often the show of naval force, rather than its application, that has proved most potent. The best summation of the importance of naval position was given in 1904 by the British admiral John Fisher: ‘Five keys lock up the world! Singapore, the Cape, Alexandria, Gibraltar, Dover. Without secure access to the relevant seas a large navy is just a lot of metal to clean. Even the best ships with the ablest captains will struggle without conveniently located ports and the infrastructure they provide. Nor is it reducible to the skill of admirals. Sea power isn’t just a matter of building a bigger navy. ![]() ![]() Since at least the 15th century naval strength has been a central component of national power. Breakthroughs in hull, mast and rudder design, not to mention navigation techniques, led to the galleon and so to the early European maritime empires. T he ocean-going ship has been one of the principal engines of history. ![]()
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