Saturday, May 07, 2011

Old ideas dusted off as being new. The USS America as a sea control ship.

Sea Control Ship
I am amazed at how the flexibility of amphibious ships is now being touted as an idea to scrap another part of the US Navy. This time aircraft carriers.  What we have is another false choice being proposed by a group of thinkers that supposes the ability of the enemy to quickly and efficiently nullify a warfighting capability, while ignoring the fact that they are attempting to gain the very capability that they would have us relinquish!

But I digress.  This Proceedings article is all the buzz and all it is, is a rehash of the '70's control ship idea.

The thought that the defense community would be all a-twitter over this is ... AMAZING.  Here is a tidbit but read the entire thing.
In the meantime, the America-class big-deck amphibious ship has the potential to be a new generation of light aircraft carrier. At 45,000 tons’ displacement, she will slide into the water larger than her World War II predecessors, and larger even than the modern French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Designed without an amphibious well-deck, she will put to sea with a Marine Air Combat Element and key elements of a Marine Expeditionary Unit.
However, to view this purely as an amphibious-assault ship would be to miss her potential as a strike platform. Stripped of her rotorcraft, the America class could comfortably hold two squadrons of F-35B short take-off vertical-landing (STOVL) stealth fighter/attack aircraft. Such an arrangement would allow the naval services to dramatically increase presence and strike potential throughout the maritime domain. In addition, if the requirements were instituted in the near term, the new unmanned carrier-launched airborne-surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft could be designed to operate from America-class decks with greater potential utility and distribution than what could be expected when operating from super carriers.
 That boys and girls is nothing more than a Sea Control Ship.  Nothing fancy.  Nothing revolutionary.  Simply an old idea dressed up.


USS America Class LHA
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5 comments :

  1. shugyoshaSaturday, May 07, 2011 3:47:00 AM

    Someone ran with the idea in the 80s... :) It was supposed to be mainly an ASW escort.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_aircraft_carrier_Principe_de_Asturias

    Check the Wiki Commons pics. Or other pics out there. Better than the ones at the article page.

    Sadly, her mid-life upgrade has been postponed. Apparently, also, her turbines guzzle like a black hole. She was the inspiration for the Thai one --still shorter--. Just this week, Juan Carlos I LPD landed her first Harrier. She's supposed to sub for R11 while she's in the yard..

    Take care.

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  2. Drake1Saturday, May 07, 2011 7:55:00 AM

    Given the pressure on the Navy budget I think it makes sense to consider the question of whether we need to continue building super carriers in the numbers we are building them in.

    We would still be making super carriers, just not as many.

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  3. SolomonSaturday, May 07, 2011 8:10:00 AM

    good but lets make genuine sea control ships. lose the berthing for embarked Marines....turn over the space to aviation spares and fuel and lets call them what they are...and lets make sure we don't take away amphibious shipping from an already limited source.

    additionally lets remember that amphibs are the busiest ships in the fleet.

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  4. leeseaSaturday, May 07, 2011 9:05:00 AM

    There is a vast difference in the engineering and other system built into LHA6 and those in a small carrier aka Sea Control Ship.

    A truck analogy:

    Folks have got to stop thinking they can take their big damn moving van and turn it into a Class A motor home cheaply or quickly. Sure they are both trucks but the similariy is only in "looks".

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  5. SolomonSaturday, May 07, 2011 9:13:00 AM

    so true. the last real sea control type ship was the british invincible class thru deck carriers.

    ReplyDelete

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