[maccam94]

There are multiple shipping corridors through areas with less than stable/friendly governments. Sure, there are the pirates off of Somalia, but there's also governments that could threaten blockades or charge steep fares to pass by. Check out this map and consider how many ships are passing by China, the Middle East, and Africa.

https://www.wired.com/2010/01/global-shipping-map/

The carrier fleet is more about maintaining the two-front fight capability. It sounds like the military is shifting away from that strategy however:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-11/two-wa...

[gdy]

"there's also governments that could threaten blockades or charge steep fares to pass by. Check out this map and consider how many ships are passing by China, the Middle East, and Africa"

That's ironic considering that it's the US who has been harassing Chinese and Iranian ships [0], [1]. In fact, the US Navy is a major threat to China that heavily relies on the sea routes for its import and export.

"threaten blockades"

If you meant Iran threatening retaliation with blockade of Saudi's oil shipments, the US is the part of problem, not of the solution. Any other cases?

"or charge steep fares to pass by"

Any precedents? Especially considering that almost the whole world has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea[2]. The whole world except the US, I mean[3].

Think of it, the whole world lives by the law, which the US refuses to be a subject to, and you are talking with a straight face about the US deterring other countries from breaking it. The world is doing fine without American policing.

"The carrier fleet is more about"

And the carrier groups are responsible for the bulk of the US naval military expenditures.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinhe_incident

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49589075

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_t...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_United_N...