Interesting points from all, but isn't this thread supposed to be Europe-focused?
Interesting perspective. The vast majority of allied Navies refer to STOVL variant ships as aircraft carriers. We obviously make a distinction. Do you think AICs are going to be controlling the next fight at the distances required in the Pacific? What is your opinion on what makes a maritime strike capability?
I think this image adequately communicates the limitations of the STOVL variant. TL : DR The Bravo goes shorter with less stuff compared to the Alpha and Charlie. This is true in Europe too (to bring us back to topic).At the distances the air wing will fight? Certainly. Without organic AEW any flavor of carrier with fixed-wing aircraft is going to be at a serious disadvantage in a conflict.
I haven't seen an EM diagram between an HC-4 and an E-2C/D but I'd gather the E-2 has it beat in altitude(important for radar horizon) and range (important for...everything blue water). E-2 also has one more controller in the back. Again, I know it sounds a lot like nit picking but all these limitations add up or require significant other resource investments to mitigate.The Brits do have organic AEW now in their carrier air complement. It’s the AW101/Merlin HC-4 with Crowsnest. And the French have flown the E-2C Hawkeye on their CVN (the CDG) since 1998 or so.
Russia ostensibly has maritime AEW capability in the Ka-31 Helix, but who knows how degraded that capability is today, or whether they actually use it for C2 or merely a big dumb flying radar.
It’s a name of a former province, like the other three operational JMSDF “helicopter destroyers.”Kaga was an interesting choice of name. If the next one is Akagi.............time to beef up the air defenses at Pearl.
Concur with all. Rotary wing AEW < fixed wing AEWC/AWACS.I haven't seen an EM diagram between an HC-4 and an E-2C/D but I'd gather the E-2 has it beat in altitude(important for radar horizon) and range (important for...everything blue water). E-2 also has one more controller in the back. Again, I know it sounds a lot like nit picking but all these limitations add up or require significant other resource investments to mitigate.
French carrier is CATOBAR (and soon EMALS) which has none of the issues that STOVL-only carriers have. We haven't even touched on organic tanking yet.
Edit: Remove Russia completely from the conversation on principle. You can add them back in when we start talking about Botswna's organic maritime power projection capabilities.
I think this image adequately communicates the limitations of the STOVL variant. TL : DR The Bravo goes shorter with less stuff compared to the Alpha and Charlie. This is true in Europe too (to bring us back to topic). View attachment 40432
The Brits do have organic AEW now in their carrier air complement. It’s the AW101/Merlin HC-4 with Crowsnest.
Also, Russia is for sure out of the conversation, but still tracking the Ka-31 as it’s been exported to some other navies.
Lots of Nepalese mercenaries are deserting.I guess this is the Russian version of " standing on the yellow footprints", prior to a couple days of boot camp and off to the front...looks like a crack group.
LINK - U.S. and German authorities foil a Russian plot to kill the CEO of Germany's Rheinmetall, the biggest German arms manufacturer and major producer of the 155 mm shells crucial to Ukraine in fighting Russia. Apparently the Russians have targeted other defense industry executives as well.
Hopefully, we're going ham on all these fuckers...physically and financially. The saber-rattling from Putin wears thin...IMO, we should call his bluff, and fully arm UKR to a further extent.I wonder if we are doing the same, with "CEOs" of russian companies?