Key Points and Summary: In the 1950s, the U.S. Navy nearly built a revolutionary aircraft carrier—the USS United States—which would have been capable of launching heavy strategic bombers. Championed by Admiral Marc Mitscher, the design envisioned a 100,000-ton, flat-decked carrier optimized for nuclear operations.
Key Point #1 – However, post-World War II budget cuts and inter-service rivalry ultimately led to the project’s cancellation by Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson.
The subsequent Korean War exposed the dangers of cutting defense budgets too severely, underscoring the strategic importance carriers could have played.
Key Point #2 – Thus, the ambitious supercarrier concept was abandoned, and strategic bombing remained primarily with the Air Force.
USS United States: The Forgotten Supercarrier That Could’ve Changed Naval Warfare
The USS United States was to be the first ship of a new supercarrier class: lightly armed but enormous. They would have been immense launching pads for some of the heaviest bombers in American service.
One of the leading proponents of the new supercarrier was Admiral Marc Mitscher, commander of the USS Hornet. This carrier launched 16 B-25s that made up the air fleet of the Doolittle Raid that targeted the Japanese homeland following the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Mitscher envisioned what he thought would have been the ideal aircraft carrier for the Doolittle Raid: a 100,000-ton flattop that could fly at least 16 and possibly up to 24 heavy bombers, likely without fighter escorts, with enough internal storage space for about 100 sorties before needed to head back to port for more fuel and weapons.
Each of the four planned new enormous carriers would fly alongside other, smaller carriers: a pair of Essex-class carriers and a Midway-class would carry a mix of different aircraft to complement the larger flattop’s heavy bombers.
While a completely flat surface, without any control towers, would undoubtedly have helped push many aircraft into the air quickly, it also had a less obvious benefit now that the world was in the age of the atom.
A completely flat surface would help the carrier “duck” the immense shockwave of a nuclear explosion, allowing it to ride through the shock without risking intense structural damage.
The logic of the time was sound, and the idea held promise. But it was not to be.
The Bomb
Following the end of the Second World War, the United States looked for areas where they could cut military expenditures and reduce overall government spending. To that end, all the branches experienced some belt-tightening. The United States was also involved in the Marshall Plan and was spending heavily to lift Europe out of the ashes of the war.
During the war, the United States Air Force had the branch tasked with dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A preliminary design model of the proposed U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) undergoing seakeeping tests at the David Taylor Model Basin, Carderock, Maryland (USA), circa 1947. This is an early version of the CVA-58 design, without catapult sponsons. Note the folding smokestacks in the down position, as they would have been during flight operations. Aircraft models on the flight deck appear to represent the Vought F7U Cutlass fighter and a notional heavy attack bomber.
Following the war, the US Air Force made a strong case for why it should be the primary branch responsible for the United States’ nuclear deterrence.
The case that long-range, heavy strategic bombers would be the bedrock of American security in the future was convincing.
Looking to trim fat wherever possible, then-Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson canceled the USS United States — a mere five days after the first sections of the keel had been laid down, and in effect ending the rest of the new carrier program.
The Korean War
Following the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, President Truman decided that nuclear weapons would not be an option, at least at the outset of hostilities. He ordered a naval blockade of the peninsula — but the order could not be entirely completed thanks to the austerity measures that had rocked the armed forces after the war’s end, particularly the US Navy.
The Korean War ultimately validated arguments against austerity and cutting defense spending, which would not see a significant dip until the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union decades later.
USS United States Aircraft Carrier.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
