Lost Freeway
Banned
IOTL, the United States government briefly considered replacing the USAAF with an independent air force after WWII, but ultimately decided against it. What if they had decided otherwise?
That's a good question - but with only five supercarriers, the USN was never able to do all that much with them. The backbone of the fleet is still the medium-sized carrier, I don't see how the USAAF getting its independence would affect that.
I wouldn't call the Gettysburg class "medium"-they're actually roughly the same size as the old Midway class. Hell the so-called "light carriers", the Ranger class, are as big as the WW2 Yorktown class.
Medium relative to what the USN wanted. The proposed NIMITZ class carriers were freaking monsters.
And they only got a few of those, too - nuclear power forced them to be unaffordably large. The MIDWAY/GETTYSBURG sized ships are far more economical.The design that was actually built was only slightly smaller-it's basically a nuclear-powered version of the abandoned Forrestal-class design from the 1950s.
Hm, entirely possible - you'd effectively be looking at the Strategic Air Forces breaking away and setting up their own shop. It would look something like the Soviet setup in that case. Especially since I imagine the Air Defense Forces would make their own independence. Then you'd wind up withI'm wondering if a independant air force would be some how split, the way naval aviation is split between the Marines & Navy. That is both are part of the Dept of the Navy but there are different sub sets administering & training them. A independant air force might have a stratigic command for predominatly air operations, such as stratigic bombing and its support echelon, and a ground support command that is oriented towards and integrated with the Army Ground Forces at mission critical points.
And they only got a few of those, too - nuclear power forced them to be unaffordably large. The MIDWAY/GETTYSBURG sized ships are far more economical.
Indeed she is. At 60,000 tonnes, she's right on the cusp of getting away with nuclear power, thanks to the inexorable growth of ships over time. Whether they'll be a success remains to be seen.But the Gettysburg class is nuclear-powered too.
OOC: Mostly a prestige project. Her planned sister ship was abandoned as too expensive and subsequent discussions for PA2 reverted to conventional power - even when it was much larger than CHARLES DE GAULLE. That ought to tell you something. Multiple USN design studies over about 30 years IOTL found that nuclear power didn't really make sense on ships much smaller than a FORRESTAL. They actually took it to the extreme and found that a 25,000-ton nuclear carrier wouldn't be able to fit any aircraft.OOC:The Charles de Gaulle disproves your idea.
Then we probably wouldn't have gone to a single US Defense Force (USDF) akin to what Canada did. After all, the efficiency arguments that were used to defeat a separate AF led almost inexorably to the conclusion that it would make more sense to have one USDF.
Indeed she is. At 60,000 tonnes, she's right on the cusp of getting away with nuclear power, thanks to the inexorable growth of ships over time. Whether they'll be a success remains to be seen.
OOC: Dude, there's nothing in the previous posts to support this idea.
I'm not suggesting there is. I'm suggesting that if the idea of an independent AF was quashed, it might have led to a further integration of the other services.
OTL Sec Def Louis Johnson was trying to have it both ways. He supported a independant Air force, but was working hard co consolidated everything else. ie: the Navy was to hand the Marines over to the Army and the designation Marine would be eliminated. There was a idea for a consolidated medical service, national logistics/support service, communications, ect... had all those proposals for efficiency been carried out there would have been three seperate services in name only.