Sinking an Aircraft Carrier

I seldom agree with William Lind, but this article is an exception:

...contrary to the U.S. Navy's fervent belief, the aircraft carrier is no longer the capital ship. It ceded that role long ago to the submarine. In one naval exercise after another, the sub sinks the carriers. The carriers just pretend it didn't happen and carry on with the rest of the exercise.
About 30 years ago, my first boss, Sen. Robert Taft Jr., R-Ohio, asked Admiral Hyman Rickover how long he thought the U.S. aircraft carriers would last in the war with the Soviet navy, which was largely a submarine navy. Rickover's answer, on the record in a hearing of the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Senate, was, "About two days." The committee, needless to say, went on to approve buying more carriers.
Another lesson is that diesel-electric subs can be as effective or more effective than nuclear boats in same situations. The U.S. Navy hates the very idea of non-nuclear submarines and therefore pretends they don't count for much. You can buy four to eight modern diesel-electric submarines for the cost of a single American "U-cruiser" nuke boat.

Its sad, but it will probably take another Pearl Harbor for the Navy to accept that their big ships are no longer viable in precision warfare.