Well, yes. The US military is typically not deployed against people who can defend themselves.
Of course it does for the private contractors raking in peak profits!
That is the correct way to understand US military. Projects like F35 aren’t meant to produce practical weapons that are cheap and reliable. These are vehicles for funnelling as much public money back into the hands of the oligarchs as possible. Making really expensive toys in artisanal volumes and then charging exorbitant amounts for support is how you make money.
Do they make sense at all?
A bunch of those planes and pilots costs the same amount of money that could let an entire nation go on vacation via airplane.
Aircraft carriers can project sustained power over land by sea. Including supporting ground operations. Chinese are aware of counter measures against incoming projectile threats.
It’s pretty clear that a carrier would never be allowed to get close enough to Chinese mainland to project much of anything in case of a conflict.
