&gt;&gt; If we lose an aircraft carrier we lost the war economically. At that point its cheaper to just give up.<p>That&#x27;s not the Navy&#x27;s approach.  The general thinking is that carriers are so valuable, their crews so difficult to rescue, not to mention their nuclear payload, that the loss of a carrier in heated combat will likely precipitate a full nuclear exchange.  See TheSumOfAllFears for some of that scenario.  The economics are beside the point.