Post WWII RN - Centaur and Malta class carriers.

[Archibald]

As the title says. The year is 1945. The Royal navy decides to scrap Tigers, Vanguard, and the collection of small and medium size carriers from WWII - by 1950. Or to sell them to foreign countries. There will be no Audacious-class either.

Instead they will build all six Centaurs plus a pair of Midway-sized Malta carriers. Such fleet will be the backbone of the RN until the end of cold War (the Midways did it, and of course Hermes lasted until 2016).

what do you think ?

 

[Archibald]

Yes to the scrapping of the Tigers, no updates on wartime carriers, shame about Vanguard as she was a pretty ship. Four Maltas were intended, Malta, Gibraltar, Africa and New Zealand, so be a devil and let's have all four? I'll trade you the two from six Centaurs. Also try and get the Aussies and Canadians to get the Centaurs, with the UK keeping the smaller and therefore less crew expensive Magnificents. These are even more ideal for converting into Commando ships than the Centaurs were.

Yup, forget there was four Maltas. So I'll alter the balance: I'd say four maltas and four centaurs, should be enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta-class_aircraft_carrier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur-class_aircraft_carrier

 

[Archibald]

So, by 1950 the royal Navy has the following carrier classes

2 modernized Implacables
4 Centaurs (to be modernized in the 50's, acording to available budgets, they could be cut to two modernized)
4 Maltas being build and slowly entering service (then again, could be cut to two if budgets are slashed)

every other carriers (essentially worn out WWII veterans like Illustrious, plus all the light and small carriers) has been either scrapped or sold to foreign countries.

By 1960 the situation has evolved as follow

As feared, budgets were slashed. So only two Maltas were build, with two modernized Centaurs. The Implacables were to be converted into commando carriers, but two un-modernized Centaurs got the job instead, and the two Implacables were retired in 1959.

The RN is thus now a six carrier forces, two 28 000 tons Centaurs plus two 55 000 tons Maltas attack carriers with Buccaneers, plus two other Centaurs as commando carriers with helicopters.

Whatever funding available in the 60's will go to the Malta first, as they are the only one big enough to handle supersonic interceptors - be them British, French, or Americans.

As for the Centaurs, they will be modernized for Buccaneers but they can't handle supersonic fighters, so they will probably follow their elder sisterships as commando carriers in the late 70's.

 

[Archibald]

In the 60's the Royal Navy was in no hurry vis a vis of its carrier fleet.
In the late 50's the pair of Centaur had been modernized to handle Buccaneer strike aircrafts, in the S2 spey powered variant is was a formidable strike aircraft.
The Malta were less than a decade old, with the RN had managed to catch the angled-deck revolution barely in time, with the two Malta modified during construction.

The real issue however was air cover of the fleet : the Sea Vixen successor was to be supersonic. Soon it apeared that only Maltas could handle such aircraft, which would probably be a Phantom. By 1963 the RN had made its decision: the two Maltas would be "phantomized". The upgrade however was to be expensive at a time when military budget were slashed by Defence white papers.

In the end the axe fell on the four Centaur fleet - of two attack carriers and two commando carriers. It was decided to cut that fleet to the bone. Because they couldn't handle Phantoms, and only a limited number of Buccaneer, the attack Centaurs were retired. The two Centaur commando carriers by contrast were retained. The British government offred the two attack Centaurs for sale, but the retired Buccaneers went either to the Maltas air groups, or (later) to the RAF, which struggled and failed to get its TSR-2 off the ground.

A deal was made between Rolls&Royce and Allison for spey-powered A-7 Corsair II to replace the Buccaneers on the attack Centaurs now for sale. Then Vought noted that the A-7 Corsair II was the son of the F-8 Crusader, the only supersonic fighter able to land on a Centaur.

In the end Australia stepped forward and bought the two Centaurs by 1969, one being for spare to support the other. The "Vought deal" was attractive at a time when the RAAN fought along the USN in Vietnam. HMAS Melbourne entered service in 1973, with A-7 strike aircrafts and surplus F-8 Crusaders from the USN stocks.

 

[Archibald]

In the mid-70's amid economic and political chaos a successor of the Malta had to be designed, as the older ships reached the middle of their useful lives.

In 1980 a major review of past, present and future carriers was done.

Option A was Ermo Zumwalt Sea Control Ship, that is, a 20 000 ton ship carying Harriers - a glorified helicopter carrier without catapults.
The French had a similar concept, the PH-75, to replace their Arromanches. Italy and Spain were equally interested. the RN noted that such ship would ideally replace the Centaur commando carriers.

Option B was basically a Clemenceau / Hermes class 30 000 ton carrier.

Option C was an enlarged Clemenceau as studied by the French in 1959, the 45 000 tons Verdun

The varied Option Ds considered Malta-sized carriers, the RN dislike of the smaller options being obvious.

Option D1 was very much another Malta - 55 000 tons but with much updated technology.

Option D2 was the CVV, President Carter supposedly cheap Midway-sized carrier the USN hated so much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Carrier_(Medium)

Option D3 considered buying second-hand American carriers - either a Midway or a Forrestal, Essex being worn-out and too small, while Nimitz was way too expensive.

Economic turmoil and the advent of Margaret Thatcher meant the defense budget was slashed once again. First to leave where the Centaur commando carriers, in 1982. But that wasn't enough, and serious consideration was given to withdrawn one of the Malta.
The only positive thing was that both carriers aged well, as shown in May 1980 when the so called "Mad Atlantic dash" had HMS Malta steaming at full speed to Argentina coastline, with Phantoms thundering above Bueno Aires. It happened that Argentina military junta claimed the Faklands were them and got a little too agitated about it. The Phantom flyby somewhat cooled them.

The end of Cold War finally meant that one of the two Malta was retired, but the other ship remained in service, pending a successor. Before that however, HMS Malta sailed to the Persian Gulf, where its Bucaneer provided laser targeting for RAF Tornados that lacked that capability.

 

[Archibald]

By 1970 France seriously considered buying one of the Hermes commando carrier to replace the Arromanches. While the deal fell through in 1975, the French Navy still though a successor to the cheap and versatile Arromanches, tentatively called the PH-75 with the F67 frigates machinery. Then come Emmo Zumwalt concept ofa Sea Control Ship with Harriers for strike and limited air cover. Spain and Italy were very interested, too. France went as far as flight testing a Harrier prototype on Foch, Arromanches and even Jeanne d'Arc.
The French included the Harrier in their list of strike aircraft to replace the Etendard IVs, a list that included A-7s, A-4s, Jaguar M, and a naval Mirage F1, plus a much upgraded Etendard.

France come so close to buy Hermes that the Harrier was finally chosen over the other options, Dassault eventually bowing to the pressure. The French government threatened to have their public aerospace company, Toulouse Aerospatiale, building Harriers under licence, breaking Dassault monopoly over military combat aircrafts, and Dassault threw the towel. As a reward, Harrier production was split between Dassault and Aerospatiale.

The so-called big Wing Harrier was rescued by the French with modest subcontracting job being handled to Spain and Italy aersopace industries, since these countries navies wanted Harrier carriers, too. The 20 000 tons ship was kickly rebranded "Eurocarrier".
While France finally cancelled their order, Italy and Spain bought one each. The RN wanted a couple of ships to replace their Centaurs, but Thatcher vetoed the idea.

France nonetheless bought 71 Harrier II that flew out of Foch and Clemenceau. The Harrier brought a major advantage: it didn't needed the catapults, which aged badly, breaking down more and more frequently as the French carriers aged in the late 80's. The success of the Harrier had lasting consequence for the French Aeronavale, somewhat derailing their plan of a nuclear powered Clemenceau.