The U.S. Navy today deploys 11 Supercarrier battleships around the globe, each carrier bristling with aircraft capable of applying overwhelming American firepower. The era of the aircraft carrier began with the ship's key role in the U.S. victory over Japan in World War II. The U.S. Navy keeps the peace on the world's oceans today because of the unchallenged power of the aircraft carrier.

The modern American nuclear (two reactors) aircraft carrier is nearly 1,100 feet long, displaces nearly 100,000 tons but is fast (over 30 knots) and maneuverable. It carries more than 6,000 service personnel and more than 80 aircraft. Until now, the carrier has been virtually invincible. Short of a nuclear hit, the American Supercarrier could not be sunk – until now.

The Chinese have built, tested and are on schedule to deploy next year a missile designed to kill an American carrier.

The Dong Feng 21D, according to published reports based on Chinese sources, could penetrate the carrier's existing antimissile defenses from 900 miles away with a nonnuclear precision warhead. A version of this missile was seen publicly for the first time in a Chinese military parade last year.

American defense analysts acknowledge that this missile could be a game-changer, immediately affecting American naval operations within 1,000 miles of the Chinese coast.

Last month, the U.S. and South Korea moved a joint naval-training exercise from international waters in the Yellow Sea off the coast of China to the other side of the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan after China objected to the location of the exercise and specifically the presence of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington. The original location would have put the carrier within 900 miles of the Chinese coast.

The U.S. defense industry is developing laser defense weapons that could counter the Chinese carrier-killer. The question is whether Obama will allow these weapons to be tested and deployed.

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For example, a prototype shipboard laser weapon has successfully tracked target ships "under maritime conditions." The prototype was developed for the Navy's Maritime Laser Demonstration program by the Directed Energy Systems segment of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Division. Initially designed to counter swarms of small, fast-attack boats (such as used by the Iranians), the technology was developed out of tests conducted with a high-power, solid-state laser which successfully hit "rockets … in flight."

On Feb. 11, 2010, the better-known U.S. Missile Defense Agency airborne laser in a Boeing 747-400F successfully shot down a sea-launched liquid-fueled ballistic missile in ignition stage (within two minutes of launch) and, within one hour later, shot down a solid-state land-launched rocket.

The agency grew out of Ronald Reagan's dream of a successful missile-defense technology that would end the madness of "Mutual Assured Destruction." Obama and the Left derided this dream as "Star Wars."

Once in office, Obama cut the program's budget, eliminated a second airborne laser 747 and scaled back the ground-based antimissile weapons scheduled to be built in Europe to defend against Iranian threats, and in Alaska to counter North Korean missiles aimed at Los Angeles and Seattle.

The North Koreans responded by a successful launch of a ballistic missile designed to hit the western U.S., and the Iranians did the same with multiple missile tests demonstrating their ability to hit European targets.

The February 2010 airborne-laser test eliminated all doubt about the reality of Reagan's dream. We have the capability to knock down land- and sea-based missiles with airborne, sea-launched or land-based laser technology.

After the successful February 2010 test, no further tests were scheduled or conducted by the administration. Obama's proposed 2011 federal budget eliminates all funding for laser-based antimissile weapons systems.

Unless Congress acts to restore funding, the United States mainland, our ships at sea and Europe will have no defense to missile threats from the Chinese, the Iranians and the North Koreans.

Obama is engaged in unilateral disarmament. Aboard the USS George Washington, more than 6,000 brave men and women are left defenseless.