Could you modify an America class to have catapults? The F-35b is a nice aircraft, but if you could figure out a way to jury-rig a catapult system the America class with minimum modification that would be a true "Assault Carrier".
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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Could you modify an America class to have catapults? The F-35b is a nice aircraft, but if you could figure out a way to jury-rig a catapult system the America class with minimum modification that would be a true "Assault Carrier".
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
In theory but why? The cats could be done but that’s a one way trip without the traps. Farther what you get is a very short deck carrier that can cat on one side but can’t trap in cycle as you lack an angled deck. Farther the deck is still small so your trying to generate sorties sending and storing birds below to make up.
Frankly the easier solution is a rolling assist take off at the front and a rolling recovery at the rear with F35B.
There is some dumb shit in that document!
For example, in the Preface Dr. Kevin Roberts mentions, "Less effort should be placed on critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in favor of increasing readiness." LMAO!
Is the Hertitage Foundation trying to tell us that CRT, investment in renewable technologies and diversity is driving poor maintenance, systemic project delays and budget overruns that have been going on for fucking decades?! Makes the whole document very suspect when you mention that stupid MAGA Republican talking point in the outset of your scorecard on US Military readiness.
"Mr. President, we can longer maintain our ships because of diversity and inclusion programs! Not because we have continually failed to modernize our shipbuilding infrastructure or maintain a commercial shipbuilding industry so we maintain a wide number of skilled workers over the last 70 years. No sir, not at all!"
Or better yet, maybe both those destroyers that crashed into civilian ships happened because the crews were too concerned about inclusion and equity, not because of systemic failures in training and poorly designed control systems.
Certainly the Bonnhome Richard burned because we spent too much money on green technology... etc, etc, etc
Aircraft Carriers (CVN). The Navy has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers: 10 Nimitz-class and one Ford-class. The Navy has been making progress in overcoming nagging issues with several advanced systems, notably advanced weapons elevators, and the Ford’s first operational deployment is on track for the fall of 2022.
The second ship in the class, Kennedy (CVN 79), was christened on December 7, 2019, and remains on schedule for delivery in 2024, followed by Enterprise (CVN 80), which is in early construction.
The U.S. lead in this category of naval power may be waning as China completes construction of its first super carrier. As the U.S. Navy struggles to build, maintain, and crew a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, China is rapidly catching up both in numbers and platform capability. Its newest carrier, the Type-003, like the Ford-class, will utilize electromagnetic catapults that will give its air wing greater range and sortie rates, thus greatly narrowing the capability gap.
The Type-003 is China’s second indigenously built carrier, marking a significant engineering milestone, and there has been renewed emphasis on having the ship delivered before the next Chinese Communist Party congress, which is scheduled for the fall of 2022.
China’s growing naval aviation and aircraft carrier capabilities place added stress on U.S. naval aviation and air defenses.
Large Surface Combatants. The Navy’s large surface combatants consist of the Ticonderoga-class cruiser, the Zumwalt-class destroyer, and the Arleigh Burke–class destroyer. If the President’s FY 2023 budget is executed, the Navy will decommission five aged cruisers. This will decrement the Navy’s sea-launched firepower by 316 vertical launch tubes when measured against FY 2023 delivery of new strike-capable ships and submarines. Attempts to extend the life of the aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers have yielded mixed results as deferred upgrades and past incomplete maintenance are now driving up operating costs.
In FY 2022, the Navy procured two Arleigh Burke–class DDG 51 destroyers, bringing the total on active duty in the fleet to 70. Fourteen more have been ordered. The Zumwalt class was envisioned as bringing advanced capabilities to the fleet, but the program has suffered technological problems and cost overruns, and the Navy has not indicated that it intends to acquire more than the three that have already been purchased and are being built out: the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), which was delivered on April 24, 2020; USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), which was commissioned on January 26, 2019; and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), which is completing checks before delivery to the Navy in 2024.
The Zumwalt was to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) by September 2021, which the Navy pushed back to December 2021.
As of May 2022, a revised timeline for achieving IOC had not been made public.
To reach 355 ships by 2034, the Navy plans several class-wide service life extensions, notably extension of the DDG-51-class service life from 35 to 40 years and modernization of older hulls. The FY 2020 budget included $4 billion for modernization of 19 destroyers from FY 2021 through FY 2024.
The previously noted planned decommissioning of five cruisers in FY 2023 makes this more critical.
Nuclear Attack Submarines (SSN). SSNs are multi-mission platforms whose stealth enables clandestine intelligence collection; surveillance; anti-submarine warfare (ASW); anti-surface warfare (ASuW); special operations forces insertion and extraction; land attack strikes; and offensive mine warfare. The newest class of SSN, the Block V Virginia with the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) enhancement, is important to the Navy’s overall strike capacity, enabling the employment of an additional 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles over earlier SSN variants.
Construction of Block V submarines began in September 2019 with the Oklahoma (SSN 802) to be delivered May 2027 and three more boats to be delivered before the end of the decade.
The FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act included additional funds for advanced procurement that preserves a future option to buy as many as 10 Virginia-class submarines through FY 2023. As indicated previously, increasing Virginia-class production has raised concerns regarding strain on the industrial base, and the FY 2023 budget would put $1.6 billion toward expansion of the submarine industrial base “to support the Navy plan of serial production of 1 COLUMBIA plus 2 VIRGINIAs starting in FY25/26.”
Quality control of the supply chain is a key factor in submarine construction, and if it is not done well, the consequences can be catastrophic. That is why the premature replacement of critical submarine parts in 2021—parts that are intended to last the life of the boat—remains a concern.
Added vigilance will be required as the Navy finds new suppliers to meet future increased submarine production as well as the potential need to provide support to AUKUS.
Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBN). The Columbia-class will relieve the aging Ohio-class SSBN fleet. Because of the implications of this change for the nation’s strategic nuclear deterrence, the Columbia-class SSBN remains the Navy’s top acquisition priority. To ensure the continuity of this leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, the first Columbia-class SSBN must be delivered on time for its first deterrent patrol in 2031.
To achieve this goal, the Navy signed a $9.47 billion contract in November 2020 with General Dynamics Electric Boat for the first in-class boat and advanced procurement for long-lead-time components of the second hull.
At a May 18, 2022, hearing, it was noted that the lead ship’s keel-laying ceremony was to be on June 6, 2022.
However, there are concerns in Congress that the Department of Defense (DOD) may not be fully utilizing special authorities granted the Navy to ensure that this critical program is adequately resourced. Specifically, in 2014, the Congress established the National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund, which has saved more than $1.4 billion using flexible funding but “has yet to utilize the core function of the NSBDF—namely, to provide increased flexibility to repurpose funds into it to buy down the fiscal impact of the program on our other shipbuilding priorities.”
