12 is the magic number. More than that we cant afford. Less than that we cant meet commitments. So 12 is what we try to hold. If Kennedy gets retired (and she should be if only from a maintenance standpoint) she will be replaced by the George H W Bush (Fancy that - a Kennedy replaced by a Bush!) in a few years.
For you trivia buffs. Does anyone know how many carriers we had at the start of WWII? I don't know. Just wondering.
We used to have 16. We at least two more. It will get very expensive if China thinks it can grab taiwan.