U.S. positions 12,000 sailors off Israel with second carrier

Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and an adviser to the British military on the development of concepts of operation, emphasized the importance of such carriers. "It's noteworthy that every major country that aspires to project force at the moment is investing heavily in the production of aircraft carriers," he said, citing the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K. and France. "If you are an expeditionary force trying to project power a long way away, then it gives you a survivable sovereign capability and you decide when it's there."