Why The U.S. Navy Sends Oldest Nuclear-Powered Ships To Confront China

Rather than consider the U.S. Pacific fleet’s agglomeration of older aircraft carriers and attack submarines an embarrassing sign of American weakness, the old nuclear combatants of the of Indo-Pacific Fleet deserve recognition for being as dangerous as they have ever been. With little to lose and nothing to prove, the relative combat value of nuclear-powered platforms increases as they age.

America’s aircraft carrier power plants were built to provide around 50 trouble-free years of service, and the lifespan of America’s submarines is similarly fixed. In a rough sense, the combat value of most nuclear combatants is inversely tied to the remaining service-life of each vessel’s nuclear power plant. Any loss of a relatively young nuclear vessel echoes through America’s overall force structure, while older nuclear craft enjoy the freedom to operate under a very different risk calculus—they can be employed far more aggressively.