Aircraft carriers are one of the most important strategic assets of a nation.
These vessels can be used to project power far beyond a country’s coastline.
But because of the very high cost, complicated construction process and elaborate operational
requirements , only few countries posses aircraft carriers and have plans to develop more in
future.
In this video, Defense Updates looks at UPCOMING AIRCRAFT CARRIERS FROM 5 COUNTRIES.
Lets get started.
Article 9 of the Japanese constitution dictates that Tokyo will “forever renounce war as
a sovereign right of the nation … land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war
potential, will never be maintained”.
Under its strictly defense-oriented policy, Japan has maintained that it cannot possess
“attack aircraft carriers,” saying the vessels can be deemed offensive weapons that
exceed the minimum capacity Japan needs for self-defense in light of the Constitution.
But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has altered the nation’s post World War
II security policy over the past few years, most notably through new security laws that
largely expand the range of activities permissible by the Japan's Self-Defense Forces.
Japan is not constructing an aircraft carrier outright but in what could be a major change
in Japan’s policy on aircraft carriers, the Defense Ministry is mulling a plan to
buy F-35B stealth fighter jets for use on its helicopter carriers, which will be modified
to work as full fledged aircraft carrier.
Japan’s Izumo class is official a helicopter carrier class, meant to carry rotary blade
crafts of different types but as some experts have indicated, the Izumi-class has the capability
to work as a traditional aircraft carrier after some upgrades.
Izumo class has two vessels, Izumo and Kaga.
Izumo was commissioned on 25 March 2015 and Kaga, entered service on 22 March 2017.
Izumo class displaces 27000 tons when fully loaded.
The ships have a speed of 30 kn or 56 km/h.
Each ship carries up to 28 aircrafts.
INDIA India currently operates INS Vikramaditya
which is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier that entered into service with the Indian
Navy in 2013.
Originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987, the carrier served with the Soviet
Navy and later with the Russian Navy.
INS Vikrant (IAC-I) is the first aircraft carrier built in India and the first Vikrant-class
aircraft carrier being built for the Indian Navy.
Work on the ship's design began in 1999, and the keel was laid in February 2009.
The carrier was floated out of its dry dock on 29 December 2011 and was launched in 2013.
As of now, the ship is being fitted out, expected to be completed by 2023 according to the Comptroller
& Auditor Genera of Indial, though the Indian Navy still hopes to partially commission the
ship in late 2018.
The deck is designed to enable aircraft such as the MiG-29K to operate from the carrier.
It is expected to carry an air group of up to 30 aircraft, which will include up to 24
to 26 fixed-wing combat aircraft.
INS Vishal (IAC-II) is the follow-on Vikrant-class aircraft carrier and is currently in its
design phase.
It is intended to be the first supercarrier to be built in India.
The proposed plan of the second carrier-class is a new design, featuring significant changes
from INS Vikrant.
It will include an increase in displacement to 65,000 tonnes as well as potential inclusion
of EMALS CATOBAR system.
It will be able to carry 50 to 55 fixed and rotary-wing aircrafts and is planned for commissioning in 2030.
In May 1997, the newly elected Labour government launched the Strategic Defense Review (SDR)
which re-evaluated every weapon system (active or in procurement) with the exception of the
Eurofighter Typhoon and the Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines.
One of the important outcomes of the report was that the government intended to replace
the current carrier force with two larger vessels capable of deploying up to 50 aircraft,
including helicopters.
This decision was taken to augment the strategic capability of Royal Navy and ultimately led
to the development of Queen Elizabeth class carrier.
The Queen Elizabeth class can be described as super carrier as they will displace approximately
70,600 tons.
It’s over three times the displacement of its predecessor, the Invincible class.
Its 280 m in length, which makes it about 2 and half times as large as a football field.
The vessels of this class are largest warships ever built in the United Kingdom.
Lead ship HMS Queen Elizabeth was commissioned in 7 December 2017 and second ship HMS Prince
of Wales is currently under construction with planned commissioning in 2020.
The Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers were the last class of aircraft carriers designed
for the Soviet Navy.
Two hulls were laid down in the Ukrainia before the Soviet Union collapsed.
Kuznetsov serves today in the Russian Navy, the other was bought by China and named as
Liaoning.
After refit it was commissioned on 25 September 2012.
The Type 001A aircraft carrier or CV-17 aircraft carrier was launched on 26 April 2017 for
the People’s Liberation Army Navy of China.
It is the country’s second aircraft carrier after the completion of Liaoning, and the
first built domestically.
It has a length of 315 m and will have a displacement of 70,000 tons when fully load.
It will be able to carry 48 aircraft and is expected to be commissioned in 2019.
The Type 002 aircraft carrier is a second generation Chinese aircraft carrier design.
The Type 002 will feature an integrated electric propulsion system that will allow the operation
of electromagnetic launch catapults similar to the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System
used by Ford class of United States.
It could have displacement of 85,000 tons and has an estimated commissioning in 2023.
Ford class super-carriers are being built to replace some of the United States Navy’s
existing Nimitz-class carriers from 2017.
The new vessels have a hull similar to the Nimitz carriers, but has major technological
upgrades.
Ford class has displacement of 100,000 tonnes and has length of 337 m, making the vessels
of this class largest in the world along with ships of Nimitz class.
The ships of Ford class are expected to be in service with the US Navy till 2065 and
uses state of art technologies.
Ford class uses Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) instead of steam-actuated catapults
of Nimitz.
It has newly designed reactors.
2 Bechtel A1B nuclear reactors producing 300 MW of electricity, triple the 100 MW of each
Nimitz-class.
Lot of automation is in place and potential deployment of Rail Gun and Laser weapons are
planned for future.
The first ship of this class is CVN-78 USS Gerald R. Ford.
It costs around $12.8 billion.The US Navy accepted delivery of the USS Gerald R. Ford
on May 31 2017.
CVN-79 John F. Kennedy and CVN-80 Enterprise are under construction with commissioning
planned in 2024 and 2027 respectively
CVN-81 is still to be named and is planned for commissioning in 2030.