However the roles will shift with technological changes, and something else will be at the very point of the spear--depending on the nature of the conflict.
I am reminded the BUFF is still flying after nearly 61 years after upgrades. The Iowa class is even older, and the carrier has been around, in one form or another since the Langley. Good basic designs fill niches well, it is only the overall importance of those niches which changes.
Imagine launching swarms of stealthy ship-killer drones with loiter capability and the ability to engage an enemy's vessels with multiple drop free, but powered and maneuverable attack drone warheads.
Now imagine those warheads able to independently coordinate an attack from different levels and directions on a target.
Even the best countermeasures will only be able to be directed in so many directions given the time allotted before impact.
The mobile airfield remains relevant, but in order to protect it, the distance of projection of force will have to increase.
Lasers and railguns will be limited by recharge rates of capacitor banks. Consider effectiveness limited by target acquisition and recharge speed, and the idea of relatively cheap, expendable, programmable, weapons systems which can 'jump' and overwhelm enemy targets comes into its own.
While those are only part of the equation, the means to transport and deploy those in theater becomes what will shape the navy of the future. Do we go with smaller, platforms, fewer crew, more stealth, or do we go with larger platforms which can have more power, more room to mount defensive armament, and greater capacity to deploy and carry weapons?
I think the answer is a combination of those, and not just one or the other.
I think the big question will become one of how many baskets we put our eggs in, and whether those eggs will be surface, air, or submarine assets (or a combination of all three).
If 'Rat trolls like nickcarraway have their way, the eggs will all be in Obama grocery-delivery bags on their way to "he'p New America".
Or full of America's hard-won tax cash, burning in the middle of the street in spite, lit up by the biggest Benedict Arnold of all time, bigger even than Srick Wirrie, whose Chinese case officer was Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, whom nobody has seen since someone put the word "Chinagate" in a newspaper story.