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The single most important contributor to the U.S.'s military dominance is the country's powerful navy, which gives America the ability to project hard power just about anywhere in the world.

And this ability owes a lot to the Navy's unparalleled fleet of aircraft carriers.

The U.S. has 19 carriers. The rest of the world has only 12 aircraft carriers combined. The U.S. carriers are also larger and more technically advanced than any other country's.

China's sole carrier, for instance, is a retrofitted Soviet-era Ukrainian carrier that was originally supposed to be an off-shore casino .

Our friends at GlobalSecurity.org created a chart that captures not just the scope, but the size of the U.S. aircraft carriers in comparison to the rest of the world. It's pretty stark, and gives an idea of just how much of a gap in conventional military power there is between the U.S. and everyone else.

View photos carriers 2013 More

Courtesy of GlobalSecurity.org





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