Aircraft Carriers II (Closed to posting)

As I said before, pay attention to which unit of measure is being used. The Russians tend to use metric tons, while the Americans tend to use short tons, both very different scale of measurement.

Pointblank said:

As I said before, pay attention to which unit of measure is being used. The Russians tend to use metric tons, while the Americans tend to use short tons, both very different scale of measurement.

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Agreed.

Italian "carriers" at sea..Excellent pics..

















Photos from the Italian Navy

great photos there

Apparently, the Cavour is built to mercantile standards... dangerous thing with all that volatile aviation fuel onboard. That's a instant hull loss in the event of a fire.

Pointblank said:

Apparently, the Cavour is built to mercantile standards... dangerous thing with all that volatile aviation fuel onboard. That's a instant hull loss in the event of a fire.

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are you sure about that and are not talking about the Spanish BPE. because everything i have read says that its built to mil standards

harryRIEDL said:

are you sure about that and are not talking about the Spanish BPE. because everything i have read says that its built to mil standards

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Yep, I have confirmation on that. The Cavour is built to mercantile standards...

Well, that's a little unsettling. But even with a merchant hull it's supposed to make ~27 knots? I understand the loading and space advantages of the merchantman hull, but still, this is supposed to be a (light) fleet unit, not even a LHD per se; the old WWII light-fleets were a wartime compromise, and this is "peacetime". What's going on with this?

Norfolk said:

Well, that's a little unsettling. But even with a merchant hull it's supposed to make ~27 knots? I understand the loading and space advantages of the merchantman hull, but still, this is supposed to be a (light) fleet unit, not even a LHD per se; the old WWII light-fleets were a wartime compromise, and this is "peacetime". What's going on with this?

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What I meant by mercantile standards is in regards to survivability; it means fewer watertight bulkheads, less hose stations, less capability to withstand battle damage, less likelihood of escape hatches in all spaces, etc.

Pointblank said:

What I meant by mercantile standards is in regards to survivability; it means fewer watertight bulkheads, less hose stations, less capability to withstand battle damage, less likelihood of escape hatches in all spaces, etc.

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Sorry, I was sloppy and should have been more clear. That is exactly my concern (besides lack of true Fleet speed) in using merchant hulls; many of the Second World War Light Fleets didn't take too much to take the Big Dive to Davy Jone's Locker. It was a good thing for them that the Brit-built light fleets that flooded Western Navies after WWII never had to really go into battle, more or less.

My complain is, why, knowing this, are some Navies willing to take a wartime short-cut to get more hulls out when it's not wartime and when they know full well the critical differences between a warship hull and a merchant hull. It just doesn't make sense.