Why aircraft carriers can outlast a single weapon era

Why are aircraft carriers less likely than battleships to become obsolete?

Their value is the mobile base itself: it supports evolving aircraft, drones, maintenance, fuel, and weapons wherever a force needs them.

The answer begins by rejecting a proposed 14-inch/75 sniper cruiser: barrel wear and maintenance would be severe, and a carrier already present for scouting could deliver bombs more flexibly. It then distinguishes a carrier from a battleship by treating it as a platform for changing air systems rather than a hull built around one weapon. Crewed aircraft, drones, and future weapons can all change while the carrier continues to provide maintenance, fuel, ammunition, and command facilities. A land airfield cannot be sunk, but its position and fuel farms can be mapped and disabled before or during a war. The carrier's durability as a concept therefore comes from being a mobile service base rather than from the permanence of any one aircraft type.