Aircraft carrier
[1] Typically it is the capital ship of a fleet (known as a carrier battle group), as it allows a naval force to project seaborne air power far from homeland without depending on local airfields for staging aircraft operations.
By their tactical prowess, mobility, autonomy and the variety of operational means, aircraft carriers are often the centerpiece of modern naval warfare, and have significant diplomatic influence in deterrence, command of the sea and air supremacy.
Since the Second World War, the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet, and largely transformed naval battles from gunfire to beyond-visual-range air strikes.
Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, RN, former First Sea Lord (head) of the Royal Navy, has said, "To put it simply, countries that aspire to strategic international influence have aircraft carriers.
Future aircraft carriers are under construction or in planning by China, France, India, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and the United States.
Most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top.
In addition to supporting fighter aircraft and helicopters, they provide both strong defensive weaponry and heavy offensive missiles equivalent to a guided-missile cruiser.
[12] Both China (Type 003), and the United Kingdom (Queen Elizabeth class) have carriers undergoing trials or in service with full load displacements between 80,000[13] to 85,000 tonnes[14] and lengths from 280 to 320 meters (920 to 1,050 ft)[15][16] which are described as "supercarriers".
[26] The 1903 advent of the heavier-than-air fixed-wing airplane with the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was closely followed on 14 November 1910, by Eugene Burton Ely's first experimental take-off of a Curtiss Pusher airplane from the deck of a United States Navy ship, the cruiser USS Birmingham anchored off Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia.
Two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss Pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay.
Early in World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Wakamiya conducted the world's first successful ship-launched air raid:[29] on 6 September 1914, a Farman aircraft launched by Wakamiya attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth and the Imperial German gunboat Jaguar in Jiaozhou Bay off Qingdao; neither was hit.
Seven Sopwith Camels were launched from the battlecruiser HMS Furious which had been completed as a carrier by replacing her planned forward turret with a flight deck and hangar prior to commissioning.
[34] HMS Furious was modified again when her rear turret was removed and another flight deck added over a second hangar for landing aircraft over the stern.
These conversions gave rise to the USS Langley in 1922, the US Lexington-class aircraft carriers (1927), Japanese Akagi and Kaga, and British Courageous class (of which Furious was one).
The Japanese surprise attack on the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor naval and air bases on Sunday, 7 December 1941, was a clear illustration of the power projection capability afforded by a large force of modern carriers.
However, the vulnerability of carriers compared to traditional capital ships was illustrated by the sinking of HMS Glorious by German battleships during the Norwegian campaign in 1940.
This new-found importance of naval aviation forced nations to create a number of carriers, in efforts to provide air superiority cover for every major fleet to ward off enemy aircraft.
Escort aircraft carriers, such as USS Bogue, were sometimes purpose-built but most were converted from merchant ships as a stop-gap measure to provide anti-submarine air support for convoys and amphibious invasions.
A ski-jump ramp works by converting some of the forward rolling movement of the aircraft into vertical velocity and is sometimes combined with the aiming of jet thrust partly downward.
Without a ski-jump, launching fully-loaded and fueled aircraft such as the Harrier would not be possible on a smaller flat deck ship before either stalling out or crashing directly into the sea.
Although STOVL aircraft are capable of taking off vertically from a spot on the deck, using the ramp and a running start is far more fuel efficient and permits a heavier launch weight.
Additionally there are nineteen small carriers which only operate helicopters serving the navies of Australia (2), Brazil (1), China (2), Egypt (2), France (3), Japan (4), South Korea (2), Thailand (1) and Turkey (1) , Iran (1) .
[77] China is also planning a modified class of the same concept, the Type 076 landing helicopter dock, that will be equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system[81] and will likely support launching unmanned combat aerial vehicles.
The ship carries a complement of Dassault Rafale M and E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, EC725 Caracal and AS532 Cougar helicopters for combat search and rescue, as well as modern electronics and Aster missiles.
[citation needed] In December 2018, the Japanese Cabinet gave approval to convert both Izumo-class destroyers into aircraft carriers for F-35B STOVL operations.
[109][105] On 3 October 2021, two USMC F-35Bs performed the first vertical landings and horizontal take-offs from JS Izumo, marking 75 years since fixed-wing aircraft operated from a Japanese carrier.
Without catapults she can launch and recover lightly fueled naval fighters for air defense or anti-ship missions but not heavy conventional bombing strikes.
Juan Carlos I has full facilities for both functions including a ski jump for STOVL operations, is equipped with the AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft.
[141] The maiden flight of TAI Anka-3 (also part of Project MIUS), a jet-powered, flying wing type UCAV with stealth technology, was successfully completed on 28 December 2023.
[158] 11 CATOBAR carriers, all nuclear-powered: Nine amphibious assault ships carrying vehicles, Marine fighters, attack and transport helicopters, and landing craft with STOVL fighters for Close Air Support (CAS) and Combat Air Patrol (CAP): The current US fleet of Nimitz-class carriers will be followed into service (and in some cases replaced) by the Gerald R. Ford class.
