Aerial refuelling can extend an aircraft's flight, but it cannot rearm the aircraft after its weapons are spent. Some sorties over Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya are recalled as using their weapons within fifteen minutes on station before a multi-hour flight home. Maintenance, rearming, and another long outbound flight then delay the aircraft's return. Sustaining coverage from a distant base requires many airframes, crews, tankers, and support personnel. The base itself needs air defence, ground security, engineers, supplies, and political permission from its host. An aircraft carrier also demands an escorting group, yet it carries its runway, magazines, workshops, and base services with it. The comparison is between the complete mobile carrier group and the network of fixed bases needed to cover the same regions. Carrier mobility has operational limits too, with the Baltic and Black Sea given as waters where deploying the group would be undesirable.
Notable Point · 3:08:47-3:12:35
Why distant land bases do not make carriers redundant
Distant land-based aircraft need tankers, repeated sorties, defended bases, and political access, while a carrier moves its runway and magazines with the force.