Sequestration cuts mean the Navy may have to cut its fleet of aircraft carriers from 11 down to eight or nine. Naturally, the Navy doesn't want to do that. I kept reading wire stories that listed the carriers and then mentioned how long each was expected to remain in service. How come I've not seen a big timeline with all this data? Well, hell: I guess I should build one, then. I went all the way back to the first carriers built after the end of World War II. The Forrestal was the first "supercarrier." The laying of its keel 61 years ago made a great starting point. The final three carriers on this page haven't been built yet -- those are renderings from the Navy. Aug. 16, 2013.