New life into older flat tops: while the ballistic missile-armed nuclear-powered submarine (SSBN) may have displaced the battleship, the aircraft carrier remains a capital ship: the deployment of six US Navy carriers in support of Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' confirms this assertion.

Armada International › Vol. 27 Nbr. 4, August 2003

Author: Hanson, Anatole

Position:: Upgrade Approach

Linked as:

< Previous

Next >

Summary

Upgrade Approach

See the full content of this document

Extract

New life into older flat tops: while the ballistic missile-armed nuclear-powered submarine (SSBN) may have displaced the battleship, the aircraft carrier remains a capital ship: the deployment of six US Navy carriers in support of Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' confirms this assertion.

Today the aircraft carrier comes in all sizes--from the US Navy super carriers of 102.000 tonnes (full load displacement--FLD). with an air group of 80 + aircraft down to Thailand's Chakri Naruebet of 11.485 tonnes FLD with its air group of half-a-dozen former Spanish EAV-8A Harriers. Upgrades tend to come in the form of major subsystems: such as radars, command syst...

See the full content of this document