And those 3-4 ships will cost 2-3 as much as a proper Supercarrier and require 2-3x as many crewmembers, and will require more frequent resupplyTo the critics claimingthat small aircraft carriers don't fit into the USN concept, cause the assorted power projection wouldn't be sufficient:
You could put 3-4 of these ships into a group to have the necessary power projection. 1 ship for ASuW/nukes, 1 for ASW, 1 for AEW/EW and 1 ship for heavy AAW, with all ships carrying 6 fighters additioaly each. This way you could project the same power as a modern CVN. One major benefit would be that you could be more flexible in the size of the group, according to what kind of power projection you want to perform and who your enemy is. Furthermore the survivability of 3-4 small carriers is better than one big carrier, especially in the case of nukes, which the Soviets deployed both on subs and ASuW aircraft.
One lucky hit may obliterate your entire carrier force if you use a big CVN, losing just one of the small carriers would be less of an issue.
Problem is that you need at least 40,000 tons just to play the game (de Gaulle being the best example). You need nuclear power (the Kennedy used to lose 5-6 knots when she diverted steam to her cats). de Gaulle cost $4B, the Ford will cost twice that, but she will at least four times as capable. Smaller =\= cheaper.To the critics claimingthat small aircraft carriers don't fit into the USN concept, cause the assorted power projection wouldn't be sufficient:
You could put 3-4 of these ships into a group to have the necessary power projection. 1 ship for ASuW/nukes, 1 for ASW, 1 for AEW/EW and 1 ship for heavy AAW, with all ships carrying 6 fighters additioaly each. This way you could project the same power as a modern CVN. One major benefit would be that you could be more flexible in the size of the group, according to what kind of power projection you want to perform and who your enemy is. Furthermore the survivability of 3-4 small carriers is better than one big carrier, especially in the case of nukes, which the Soviets deployed both on subs and ASuW aircraft.
One lucky hit may obliterate your entire carrier force if you use a big CVN, losing just one of the small carriers would be less of an issue.
Why didn't anyone tell me about Skyhook!?!
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And here is a more practical version someone designed that is also more modern.
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It would weigh around 7k tons and ads a new 'tier' to my original post. Obviously its not practical for the US navy compared to super-carriers, but I wonder if it could fill some sort of niche. Perhaps see private use against pirates? Maybe make it out of a converted merchant ship if it were for private use.
Who cam up with? Whoever it was should have all the CAD programs taken away, immediately. It would carry what, 1-2 aircraft? To do so it would lose all the interior hull volume need to carry a usful VLS, a properly situated CIC and to gain what? A single fighter, maybe two, at the cost of AAW, ASuW, and ASW capacity?
Can we convince the PLAN to build an entire fleet of these?