The proposed carrier was designed around very large, long-range nuclear strike aircraft and would have had exceptional flight-deck area. It carried forward the wartime US Navy idea of massing several carrier groups for a concentrated strike, but placed the heaviest bombers on a specialist deck. Its weakness was that maximizing the strategic bombing mission stripped away functions that other carriers would need to supply. That dependence meant the ship added to, rather than replaced, a wider carrier force. The project joined a funding struggle between the Navy and Air Force, and its extreme specialization made cancellation easier to justify.
Chapter · 26:56-28:16
USS United States and the specialist nuclear-strike carrier
USS United States emphasized long-range nuclear attack and enormous flight-deck capacity, but its specialization left it dependent on other carriers for escort functions.