"Where the King is going is a big secret"
During World War II, aircraft carriers intercepted the informal title of "kings of the oceans" from battleships. And they seem to keep it to this day. Americans were and still are at the head of this "kingdom".
THE MORE, THE LESS
Over 30 aircraft carriers of the Essex, Independence and Midway types, built during World War II, served in the US Navy until the 1960s and 1970s (already with jet aircraft on board).
In 1955, the construction of aircraft carriers of the Forrestal type began (four units were built in total). They had a displacement of 60 thousand tons, a flight deck length of more than 300 m and a width of about 40 m, carried on board up to 90 aircraft and helicopters (including up to 50 combat aircraft). Such ships, thanks to their enormous striking power, became the "backbone" of the US Navy, and other surface ships turned into nothing more than "guards of aircraft carriers" for a long time.
Their development and addition were three aircraft carriers of the Kitty Hawk type, the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy and the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise, commissioned in 1961. It had a displacement of more than 80 thousand tons with a length of almost 350 m. These aircraft carriers have been through all the military conflicts of the Cold War (starting with the Caribbean crisis). To date, only the John F. Kennedy is in the sludge, the remaining eight ships have been disposed of or are in the process of being disposed of.
The construction of 10 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the Nimitz type took more than 40 years: the lead ship was laid down in 1968, the last (George Bush) was handed over to the fleet in 2009. These ships have a total displacement of more than 100 thousand tons, the length of the flight deck is 333 m. The size of the wing has remained standard since the days of Forrestal. But the presence of a nuclear power plant (EU) provides ships of this type with "endless" range and duration of navigation, higher speed and overall energy needs. Due to the large size of the ships and the lack of fuel reserves "for themselves", ammunition and fuel and lubricants (fuels and lubricants) for airplanes and helicopters are significantly increasing.
An improved version of the Nimitz should be nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the Ford type. In particular, they will have more advanced radar stations (radars) and control systems, electromagnetic catapults instead of steam ones, etc. The lead ship of this type is currently undergoing tests, during which a large number of technical problems have been identified.
At the same time, at the end of the XX – beginning of the XXI century, all the main types of deck combat aircraft of the Cold War era were sent for storage and from there for disposal: A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, A-7 Corsair, F-4 Phantom, F-14 Tomcat". Only the F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornet and their deep modification F/A-18E/F Super Hornet remained (VTOL AV-8B Harrier belong to Marine Corps aviation and are based on universal amphibious assault ships (UDC), not aircraft carriers).
The arrival of the 5th generation F-35B/S fighters is proceeding at a slow pace. At the same time, the massive equipping of nuclear submarines (PLA), cruisers and destroyers with sea-based cruise missiles (CRMB) raises more and more questions about the expediency of maintaining giant ultra-expensive aircraft carriers in the fleet. At least – in the same amount.
THE WEAKER, THE LESS
No other country has been able to create anything like "Nimitz" (however, now the question arises: was it necessary to do this?). The British Navy had about 30 aircraft carriers built during the Second World War or immediately after it, but gradually all of them were disposed of or sold abroad.
The Hermes served the longest: it took part in the Falklands War (with Harrier vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft on board), and then was sold to India under the name Viraat.
After the war (in the 1970s), three small aircraft carriers (only for Harriers) of the Invincible type were built. Of these, only Invincible itself managed to take part in the war with Argentina ( "The War for the Islands", "HBO" from 04/19/19). All these ships have already been disposed of.
In recent years, the aircraft carriers Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wells have been commissioned, on which the American F-35B VTOL aircraft will be based.
By the mid-1950s, there were five aircraft carriers in the French Navy, but only one of them survived until the 1970s ( "Heirs of the Trafalgar Defeat", "HBO" from 06.10.23).
In the early 1960s, the French Navy commissioned the aircraft carriers Clemenceau and Foch, which remained its largest warships until the beginning of the 21st century. Each aircraft carrier could carry up to 40 combat and support aircraft and helicopters. Both were decommissioned in the late 1990s, the Clemenceau was scrapped, the Foch was sold to Brazil (now it has already been decommissioned and disassembled there).
In the noughties, the French Navy received the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which houses (theoretically) all available Rafale-M fighter-bombers. However, the concept of having only one aircraft carrier in the Navy turned out to be very dubious: more than half of the time it is parked or under repair; accordingly, at this moment the fleet does not have an aircraft carrier at all. Nevertheless, to replace it, it is also planned to build one nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but much larger in size (comparable to the Nimitz).
The Argentine Navy was armed with the aircraft carrier "May 25", built in England during the Second World War, which served for some time as part of the Dutch Navy. He did not take part in the Falklands War, as his anti-submarine defense (ASW) was not provided, and soon after it was scrapped.
The aircraft carrier Dedalo, an American-built aircraft carrier built during World War II, served in the Spanish Navy until the end of the 1980s, which was re-equipped with Harriers from the early 1970s. Then it was replaced in the Spanish fleet by the domestically built aircraft carrier Prince of Asturias, originally built for Harriers (decommissioned in 2013, later disposed of). According to a similar project, the aircraft carrier Chakri Narubet was built for the Thai Navy in Spain.
Thus, there was a peculiar design of a subclass of light aircraft carriers, on which helicopters and VTOL Harrier were based – the British Hermes, three British ships of the Invincible type, two aircraft carriers of Spanish construction) – of which only the Chakri Narubet is currently alive. Moreover, he now carries only helicopters.
ON YOUR WAY TO A COMMON DEAD END
Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union demonstrated a separate direction in the development of aircraft carriers.
In Italy, three cruisers were built in the 1960s: two types of "Andrea Doria" and then "Vittorio Veneto". In addition to artillery, they were equipped with Terrier anti–aircraft missile systems (SAMs), as well as helicopters - four on both Doria and nine on Veneto.
At the same time, two 1123 anti-submarine cruisers were commissioned in the USSR, also with the Storm long-range air defense system and with 14 Ka-25 helicopters. By now, all these cruisers have been scrapped.
In Japan, two Haruna-type helicopter destroyers and then two more Shirane-type destroyers were built in the 1970s (they carried three SH-60 helicopters each), by now they have also been disposed of. Then all three countries moved on to building aircraft carriers.
For the Italian Navy in the 1980s, the aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi was built with American VTOL AV-8 Harrier (a licensed version of the British Harriers); at the same time, unlike any other Western aircraft carriers, it carried a significant amount of other weapons, including anti-ship missiles (anti-ship missiles) "Otomat." In the 21st century, the Italian Navy commissioned the aircraft carrier Cavour. Like the Garibaldi, in addition to Harriers and helicopters, it carries a significant amount of other weapons (although without RCC); in addition, it can be used as a UDC, having four landing craft on board.
Four ships of the 1143 ave. were built in the USSR, which were also considered anti-submarine cruisers. They carried the entire range of missile weapons, including the long-range PKR P-500 "Basalt". However, their Yak-38 vertical take-off deck fighters proved unsuccessful, and the ships could not solve the task of anti-submarine defense. As a result, the main "Kiev" and "Minsk" are now entertainment attractions in China. Novorossiysk was sold for metal to South Korea. Admiral Gorshkov (formerly Baku) underwent a radical modernization with the dismantling of the PKR and transformation into a normal aircraft carrier, as which it was sold to India under the name Vikramaditya (in the Indian Navy, deck-based MiG-29K with horizontal takeoff and landing are based on it).
The "heirs" of these ships were to be the aircraft-carrying cruisers 11435-11437 ave. They were already designed for deck-based aircraft with conventional horizontal takeoff and landing (Su-33 and MiG-29K). However, the first two of them did not have catapults: instead, a bow springboard was used, which limited the capabilities of carrier-based aircraft. In addition, the ships housed the Granit anti-ship missile system (PKRK) (firing range – 700 km).
Before the collapse of the USSR, it was possible to build only one ship (11435 ave.), which is now called Admiral Kuznetsov and is the only active Russian aircraft carrier. The Varyag of the same type (11436 ave.) in an unfinished state went to Ukraine (the ships were built in Nikolaev), was sold to China and entered into the PLA Navy under the name Liaoning, becoming the first Chinese aircraft carrier ( Celestial Armada, HVO from 01.10.21). The third ship, Ulyanovsk" (11437 ave.), it was supposed to become atomic and have catapults, but it was not built due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2019, the PLA Navy received the aircraft carrier Shandong, built according to an almost similar project. Both Chinese ships are based on J-15 fighters copied from the Soviet Su-33. Currently, China is building a "full-fledged" aircraft carrier ave. 003, which will be equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Presumably, two aircraft carriers of ave. 003 will be built, after which the construction of nuclear aircraft carriers of ave. 004 will begin.
In the 21st century, the Japanese Navy received two Hyuga-type destroyers, and then two Izumo-type destroyers, which are full-fledged light aircraft carriers in size and architecture. Now they only carry helicopters – but at least F-35B fighters will appear on Izumo-type ships in the near future ( "Japanese self-defense as an addition to the American offensive", "HBO" dated 07.07.23).
At the same time, almost all deck vehicles outside the United States are aircraft of one or two aircraft carriers. Rafali-M are used only on Charles de Gaulle, Harriers on Garibaldi and Cavour (Spanish Harriers were left without an aircraft carrier, Indian and Thai ones were written off), MiG–29K on Vikramaditya, Su-33 on Kuznetsov, J-15 – on the Liaoning and Shandong.
And more and more often the question arises: is the aircraft carrier still the king of the ocean or is it already an expensive burden for the fleet? China will definitely choose the first answer except for the United States. It is impossible to unequivocally vouch for the rest of the countries. I just hope that Russia will give the second answer and will not get involved in the aircraft carrier madness.
Alexander Khramchikhin
Alexander Anatolyevich Khramchikhin is an independent military expert.