Ranked: The 5 Best U.S. Military Weapons That Were Never Built
These systems, including the AH-56 Cheyenne helicopter, B-70 Valkyrie bomber, A-12 Avenger stealth aircraft, Future Combat Systems (FCS), and Sea Control Ship (SCS), each represented innovative approaches to modern warfare.
In the early 1970s, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt pushed the idea of the Sea Control Ship (SCS), a small carrier that would defend sea-lanes against long-range Soviet strike aircraft and Soviet submarines. Faced with the growing expense of modern supercarriers (the first Nimitz class carrier would enter service in just a few years) and the impending retirement of the venerable Essex class carriers, Zumwalt sought a low cost option for air operations that did not demand the full capabilities of a major carrier group. Escort carriers had helped win the Battle of the Atlantic, and Sea Control Ships might make a similar contribution in a NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict.
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