What's the most lethal vessel in the Navy's modern arsenal?

LHD easily. Wasp class (Wasp, Essex, etc). Holds 2k~ Marines. Essentially an ARG (3 ships) holds an entire MEU (BLT, Squadron+, Log Element, and MEU Command Element). The other two boats have "about" 1 Company each on them.

Marines are powerful in a "Plant the Flag" way. SSBNs are powerful in a "no one will be there when we Plant the Flag" way. They're incomparable assets, because they do two different things.

The best marine is a submarine. SSBN = black-glass parking lots, while-u-wait, LOL!

Yup Chief lol

24 missiles that are EACH capable of carrying 3-12 warheads.

So wouldn't the flex ability make it better then? Just asking sir?

Twenty-four years of experience in Naval Aviation taught me carriers are a lot harder to find then one would thank. It's a very big ocean and even with satellites there are ways to hide.

We rigged the carrier I was on to look like a merchant at night, a few times during exercises.

Don't know how many times an SSBN has sent pictures of people smoking in the hangar bay to the CO of some CVN during an exercise, close enough to read their name tags, LOL! CVN's are awesome, but they look pretty small through a periscope, and they can't take out four countries at a time from anywhere on the planet.

You're right and my bias in neutral working four carrier deployments and a couple SPMAGTFs. Regardless there's no reason to ignore the simple math. Setting aside ALL the air assets, trac barrels, weapons companies and a battalion's worth of crunchies lead absorption units, each big deck can deploy the 12 artie and tank tubes ready to give out some mad love. gives it around 2,000 pounds of heavy ordnance BOOM every minute - sustained. A carrier running cyclic ops has a throughput of AT BEST around 80 F/A-18s a day each for OTH strikes with around 8,000 pounds. That peaks out at just over 400 pounds a minute. Even if we throw SOPs and common sense out the window and loaded for bear against something a few miles from the CVN with zero air-to-air, we're still talking less than 1000 pounds a minute. Take all the stuff into account that I ignored before and there's no argument. Additionally, the CVN doesn't employ CAS control organically whereas the LHs carry over a hundred CAS-able troops ranging from 0369 all the way to the harbingers of death JTACs.

Well Being a carrier sailor I have to vote an Aircraft Carrier, although the bubble heads will say a sub