In a discussion about the Navy’s latest carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford (still under construction), and the usefulness of carriers generally, Anthony Cordesman, currently sitter in the Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and ex-State and Defense consultant, had this to say:

We aren’t using a land base for a lot of our sorties in Afghanistan; they’re being flown via Pakistan by a carrier.  We need to be sure we can operate without being dependent on allies.

Hmm….