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Business Insider: These are the 20 aircraft carriers in service today
Despite aircraft carriers' immense cost, the Navy believes there is no replacing a well-armed, aircraft equipped, sovereign piece of US territory, powered by dual nuclear reactors.
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen was fond of saying that without "flattops" the US has "less of a voice, less of an influence." Evidently, many of the worlds nations also believe this is true.
The last few years have seen a number of interesting developments for aircraft carriers. Some nations, like India and Spain retired aircraft carriers, while China commissioned its first aircraft carrier, and the UK returned to the rather exclusive carrier owners club.
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