[jonstewart]

I agree with most everything you say here about the limitations of drones, but there's a high likelihood that current aircraft carriers are quite vulnerable to anti-ship missiles. A DF-26 costs ~$10M, so launching several at a carrier, though expensive, would still be massively cost-effective in a real war. This article on WotR discusses the threat a bit more (I don't have an opinion on the solution/approach it advocates for the US military): https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/when-it-comes-to-missiles-....