Aircraft Carrier: Epic Sea Battles and Strategic Air Power

By Fouad Sabry

What is Aircraft Carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Aircraft carrier

Chapter 2: List of aircraft carriers

Chapter 3: Wasp-class amphibious assault ship

Chapter 4: Brazilian aircraft carrier Minas Gerais

Chapter 5: Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier

Chapter 6: Landing platform helicopter

Chapter 7: Naval aviation

Chapter 8: Landing helicopter assault

Chapter 9: Anti-submarine warfare carrier

Chapter 10: Spanish amphibious assault ship Juan Carlos I

(II) Answering the public top questions about aircraft carrier.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Aircraft Carrier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 19, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Aircraft carrier

A warship that functions as a seagoing airbase and is outfitted with a flight deck that extends the whole length of the ship as well as facilities for transporting, arming, deploying, and recovering an aircraft is known as an aircraft carrier. Because it enables a naval force to project air power worldwide without relying on local bases for staging aircraft operations, it is typically considered to be the capital ship of a fleet. In the early part of the twentieth century, carriers were wooden vessels that were used to deploy balloons. Since then, they have developed into nuclear-powered warships that transport a wide variety of aircraft, including fighters, strike planes, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. Despite the fact that aircraft carriers have been used to deploy larger aircraft like fixed-wing gunships and bombers, these aircraft have not yet landed on a carrier. It is common for aircraft carriers to serve as the focal point of modern war fleets due to the diplomatic and tactical influence they possess, as well as their mobility, autonomy, and the variety of methods they possess. It took the position of the battleship as the flagship of a fleet, which was a difference that may be considered tactical or even strategic. The fact that it sails in international waters means that it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty. As a result, it eliminates the requirement for overflight authorizations from third-party countries. Additionally, it decreases the amount of time and distance that aircraft must travel in transit, which in turn significantly increases the amount of time that is available on the combat zone.

The term aircraft carrier does not have a consensus definition, and contemporary naval forces employ a number of different types of aircraft carriers. Subtypes of aircraft carriers are sometimes used to describe these versions of aircraft carriers, As of June 2023, there are a total of fourteen navies throughout the world that are responsible for operating 47 active aircraft carriers. Among the largest fleet carriers in the world, the United States Navy possesses eleven huge nuclear-powered fleet carriers, each of which can deploy approximately eighty fighters. The total combined deck space of these carriers is more than twice as much as that of all other nations combined. In addition to the fleet of aircraft carriers, the United States Navy possesses nine amphibious assault ships. These ships are mostly used for helicopters, but they are also capable of carrying up to twenty fighter planes that are capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL). Their size is comparable to that of medium-sized fleet carriers. Every country in the world, including China, India, and the United Kingdom, has two aircraft carriers. Each nation, France and Russia, operates a single aircraft carrier that can accommodate between thirty and sixty fighter aircraft. Two light V/STOL carriers are operated by Italy, and one V/STOL aircraft-carrying assault ship is operated by Spain. Japan operates four helicopter carriers, two of which are now undergoing conversion to operate V/STOL fighters; France operates three; Australia operates two; Egypt operates two; South Korea operates two; China operates three; Thailand operates one; and Brazil operates one. The United States of America, China, France, India, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and Turkey are all now in the process of constructing or planning future aircraft carriers.

Because aircraft carriers need to be able to be deployed rapidly anywhere in the world and because they need to be swift enough to avoid identification and targeting by hostile forces, speed is an essential quality for these vessels. The wind over the deck is increased when the speed of the aircraft is high, which in turn increases the lift that is available for fixed-wing aircraft to carry fuel and ammunition. In order for the carriers to avoid being attacked by nuclear submarines, they should have a speed that is greater than thirty knots.

Considering the fact that they require a substantial amount of deck area, aircraft carriers are among the largest types of warships.

The capabilities of an aircraft carrier must be able to accommodate an ever-increasing variety of mission sets. The aircraft carrier is expected to carry out a variety of missions, including but not limited to the following: diplomacy, power projection, quick crisis response force, land attack from the sea, sea base for helicopter and amphibious assault forces, anti-surface warfare (ASUW), defensive counter air (DCA), and humanitarian aid disaster relief (HADR). In accordance with conventional wisdom, an aircraft carrier is meant to be a single vessel that is capable of carrying out powers projection and sea control duties.

It is necessary for an aircraft carrier to have the capability of effectively managing an air combat group. This indicates that it should be able to handle helicopters in addition to fixed-wing jets. Within this category are vessels that are specifically built to facilitate the operations of short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) planes.

Aircraft cruiser

Subtypes of amphibious assault ships and their uses

vehicle designed for anti-submarine warfare

A balloon tender and a balloon carrier combination

Escort carrier

Fleet carrier

Flight deck cruiser

Helicopter carrier

Light aircraft carrier

Sea Control Ship

As well as seaplane carriers and seaplane tenders

During the decade following World War II, the United States Navy was the primary user of this particular type of utility carrier.

According to certain sources, several of the types that are listed here do not precisely meet the definition of aircraft carriers.

The primary fleet is meant to operate with a fleet carrier, which typically possesses the potential to engage in offensive operations. The largest carriers that are able to achieve high speeds are listed below. To put that into perspective, escort carriers were designed to offer protection to groups of ships traveling in convoys. Compared to other aircraft, they were smaller, slower, and carried a fewer number of aircraft. Mercantile hulls were used in the construction of the majority of these vessels, and in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, they were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck erected on top. The light aircraft carriers were able to operate with the main fleet despite their smaller size and reduced aircraft capacity. They were also able to cruise at similar speeds.

It was referred to be a heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser when the Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Kusnetsov was in operation. In the first place, this was a legal construction that was made in order to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the Montreux Convention, which prohibited aircraft carriers from traveling across the Turkish Straits between the Soviet Black Sea ports and the Mediterranean Sea. These vessels, despite being of a size comparable to that of big fleet carriers, were intended to be deployed either independently or with escorts. In addition to providing support for fighter aircraft and helicopters, they also supply powerful defensive weaponry and heavy offensive missiles that are comparable to those carried by a guided-missile cruiser for offensive purposes.

In today's world, aircraft carriers are typically classified into the four kinds that are listed below, according on the manner in which aircraft take off and land:

Catapult-assisted take-off barrier-arrested recovery (CATOBAR): these carriers often transport the largest, heaviest, and most heavily armed aircraft. However, smaller CATOBAR carriers may have additional limits, such as the weight capacity of the aircraft elevator, among other things. Now, every single CATOBAR carrier that is operational is fueled by nuclear energy. Twelve are now in operation, ten of which are fleet carriers of the Nimitz class and one of which is of the Gerald R. Ford class in the United States, and the Charles de Gaulle in France.

Short take-off barrier-arrested recovery, often known as STOBAR, is a type of aircraft carrier that is typically