[openasocket]

Actually read an article recently about the sea planes idea: https://warontherocks.com/2020/07/bring-back-the-seaplane/ . It's an interesting idea, but something where there will need to be a lot of research before it is viable. It's unclear if you can create a decent modern fighter that is also a sea plane. However, if you could, using those with a seaplane tender would be much easier from a logistics standpoint than the EAB. Even if you can't make a decent fighter seaplane, having a seaplane tanker would be very helpful for extending the range of the carrier air wing, as mentioned in the link.

For the drones, it's complicated. Airborne refueling has been a thing for decades, but off the top of my head there's never been airborne re-arming. But even if you had that you would still need to land for maintenance. But still you could probably keep these drones in the air for multiple days, maybe even a week at a time. But the logistics of managing so many tankers gets complicated fast. Check out the Black Buck raids for an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck . And that's just for a bombing raid, if you want to maintain a combat air patrol you'll need even more tankers running continuously, and a bunch more fighters since for every one on station there will be multiples coming to/from a base or a tanker. I think long-range drones will definitely be a part of future warfare, but I think you still want a carrier to base them. I think all you need to do is move the carrier further away from anti-ship missile platforms, and increase the striking range of the air wing to compensate. There's a very lengthy write up on this if you are interested: https://csbaonline.org/uploads/documents/CVW_Report_Web_1.pd...