It has been my opinion that the "game is changed" with regard to conventional naval power. I just wanted to list the many reasons why I believe US carriers are obsolete and why China may strike the US sooner than later.
I think China is only feigning interest in building aircraft carriers. Evidence show they are not. They may build a token 1 or 2 but not in significant numbers necessary to be a major strategic component. You can't hide the building of these things easily. If they were building them, I think we'd likely know about it.
Remember when Pres. Obama went to India with a carrier group? China parked a sub off LA and launched a ballistic missile. In response, India instead of supporting the US, became the "I" in the "BRICS".
Also, Pres. Obama confessed to Gov. Romney during the debate that navy ships were obsolete like "horses and bayonets". I actually think he was telling the truth there.
Chinese Naval power centers around asymmetric warfare by these fast attack, stealth, foil-cat, ballistic missile boats. These hydrofoil power catamarans will be protected by stealth submarines with supercavitating torpedoes. With the US carriers gone, there will be no significant air threat. In the age of anti-ship ballistic missiles, any slow moving surface ship is not just a sitting duck but a dead one.
The consequence of China already building the Navy they want and need is that China and Russia don't need 10 years to strike the US. They are not going to give the US that long to wake up to the threat. We may only have 3 years.
I'm really not sure if Aircraft Carriers is the only reason for your 10-year outlook other than its always better in these forecasts to shoot long and then narrow later.
I'm not sure if Biblical prophecy may be affecting your forecast. It is my opinion that the Biblical 1/2-hour of silence may not apply here. The 1/2-hour (21 years) of silence was in heaven but I don't think applies to trumpets that sound on the Earth. I could be wrong.
I do confess being influenced by David Horne's GAS account. I know the family very well and despite his gold digging episode and quirks, he is a very sincere and humble man. Joseph Smith was guilty of some of that. The Chief Wakara gold story is intriguing. However, we know Brigham Young got the capital infusion to build Zion as a fortuitous side-effect of the US military occupation and travelers passing through Utah headed for California.
Another reason I feel the current navy is obsolete is the movie "Battleship" tasted like a propaganda piece.
The only reason that you have repetitively given for your 10-year-China-needs-carriers plan is that China will need to project power onto the rest of the world. However, you forget that TPTB have no intention of China winning and dominating. China is also being double crossed even after they duke it out with Russia. If you read "Why China will never rule the world" it makes the very simple point that despite their manufacturing, their Confucianism may not anything to contribute to a Socratic western world of "rugged individualists" who at least have been fooled into believing they are free thinkers.
The Power Elite want the US to give up our sovereignty to global government in order to defeat the Communist threat. That means China also looses out in the end.
But even during the secondary China-Russia conflict, the countries share a boarder. Most of the conflict will likely be closer to shore and on land. China already controls ports all over the Earth and military equipment will be shipped by Supercargo container ships and not carriers. The expansion of the Panama canal and deep water ports I believe are part of the Chinese strategy.
If China ends up needing some kind of carrier. Supercargo container ships can be converted to launch drones.
Finally, in the age of drones, GPS and now hypersonic Mach-10 SCRAM-jet missiles, you don't need expensive fighters and carrier groups to project air power. Now you can reach out and bomb the other side of the planet in less than 2 hours. SCRAM-jet tech is cheap. There are no moving parts. You accelerate the missile with conventional solid fuel to Mach 3 and then turn on the SCRAM-jet. Now the missile accelerates to Mach 10 using liquid fuel using only the shape of the intake and the hypersonic shockwave to compress the air, mix, and burn the fuel. The warhead is simply kinetic.
In the end, only time will tell. However, we will see if the current Congress will broker a last-minute deal before Oct 17 to raise the debt ceiling or if they will allow the US to default. If the US does collapse, banks holding credit-default swaps (= divided-up bond insurance policies) will be caught holding the liability. If that happens we could see a Cyprus-style bail-in take the place of QE bailouts. A default or partial default where we do a Greek-style debt settlement with China may serve to enrage China even more.
TPTB still need a pretext to go against Syria and Iran. Chemical weapons attacks are not working and won't work. Assad could be framed for more 10 more chemical attacks and the majority of US wouldn't care. We don't want another war. The only false flag event that could convince us I think is a nuclear detonation blamed on Iran. A false flag of this magnitude would get our minds off the government raiding our bank accounts.
The US has been prepping us for a nuclear event telling us that AlQaeda sleeper cells have been taking nuclear science classes in Canada and walked away with Cobalt 60.
Also, I believe an isolated nuclear detonation will NOT get people prepping for a full-scale nuclear first strike. Wherever the detonation occurs (N Utah?), FEMA is ready to clean it up, bury the dead, and relocate downwinders. Besides, with the worsening economic hardship, citizen's likely won't have the money to prep in the next 3 years.
The US wants war with Iran, they want martial law, they want to confiscate guns, they want to enrage China and Russia to illicit an attack. Yes, I don't believe their will be complete collapse. But what other kind of event is going to get us into Iran and achieve these other globalist goals?