What will the aircraft carriers of the future look like? Will they be similar to our present aircraft carriers or will they be much different? Well to answer that question perhaps we should reveal that the aircraft carrier of today is a giant platform built around a specific mission.

To carry aircraft to the battlespace; to fight and to win, since the aircraft carrier is designed around the types of aircraft, which will be used and this mission one could say as the aircraft change and the mission changes, the platform will change.

Now then, what are we currently seeing in trends of aircraft in the battlespace? Well we are seeing more UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles. These will need to be launched by ship, rather than ground bases.

We are also seeing future dirigibles being introduced as well and they will perhaps need a platform to launch from as well. We see our enemies developing fast moving skimmer missiles capable of supersonic flight and so the aircraft carriers defense systems will also need to be able to beat those and detect them too.

What type of catapult system will be used to launch UAVs in swarms or packs? Will the US Navy move towards new materials making the craft lighter and thus capable of VTOL vertical takeoff and landing, without sacrificing range? Many believe so. If this is the case the aircraft carrier may not need three or four catapults, it may only need one or maybe two.

Vertical take off aircraft could be launched out of the side of the ship or rear and capable of launching several hundred in minutes, which is currently impossible. So, as we look ahead into the future we will see the modern day aircraft carrier evolve into something very different that we have seen in the past. Consider all this in 2006.