The aircraft carrier - an iconic symbol of naval might for the last 75 years.
In essence a mobile airfield, aircraft carriers can bring to bear the firepower of a small
air force onto any enemy with, or near a coastline.
Yet with new weapons such as hypersonic missiles being developed by nations around the world,
is the aircraft carrier being made obsolete?
That’s what we’ll find out today, in this episode of The Infographics Show- Do we still
need aircraft carriers?
A modern aircraft carrier is equipped with up to 90 aircraft, ranging from fighters,
strike aircraft, air tankers, airborne early warning and control aircraft, anti-submarine
helicopters, and electronic warfare aircraft.
This represents a formidable amount of firepower in just one platform, but also a potentially
crippling liability- with crews of up to 6,000 personnel, the loss of just a single aircraft
carrier would represent double the casualties of the entire American war in Afghanistan.
But how did carriers get their start, and how exactly did they come to trump Battleships
as the flagships of a modern navy?
The first prototype aircraft carrier was developed by today's carrier-superpower: the United
States of America.
During its Civil War of 1861-1865, both the Union and the rebel Confederates used observation
balloons to conduct reconnaissance of enemy positions.
The Chief aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps, Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, oversaw
the conversion of a coal barge into a floating dock for hot-air balloons.
From this barge, the professor launched the first water-borne aerial sortie in history
by ascending, and then returning, on his hot air balloon.
His success would go on to see the development of balloon carriers around the world, with
ten of these vessels seeing service across the militaries of Great Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Russia and Sweden.
Tasked with aerial reconnaissance, the balloon carriers had practically no offensive capabilities.
World War I would see the first use of airplanes launched from ships in combat; with the development
of the seaplane in 1910, navies around the world converted their balloon carriers to
seaplane carriers.
Lowered to the water via a crane, the seaplane would then take off and land back in open
water, be scooped back up via crane and stored aboard its home ship.
Initially these aircraft were also used for reconnaissance and for spotting fire for other
ships, helping guide the guns of battleships and destroyers closer on-target.
In september 1914 though, during the Battle of Tsingtao, the Imperial Japanese Navy became
the first military in the world to conduct a successful naval-launched air raid.
Launching four seaplanes from the Wakamiya, the planes bombarded German forces and returned
to be retrieved.
Two months later, the tactic was copied by the British, who had been present at the Battle
of Tsingtao, when they launched twelve seaplanes against the German Zeppelin base at Cuxhaven.
While not as numerous as seaplane carriers, the first flat-decks, true forerunners of
today's iconic supercarriers, also saw service during World War I.
The United States was the first nation to launch and land an airplane directly from
a naval ship.
These first true aircraft carriers were limited to small, light aircraft with few armaments,
and as such were mostly used for scouting, spotting fire for allied ships, and attacks
on vulnerable zeppelins which were in wide use throughout the war.
It was World War II however, that would see the carrier usurp the large-gun Battleship
as the premier naval combatant.
After the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, American officials feared that the
Pacific fleet had been hopelessly crippled, with all of America's Pacific-based battleships
sunk or damaged.
Yet the Japanese attack had neither destroyed nor damaged a single American carrier, and
six months later, the Battle of Midway showed the world that the battleship was in essence,
obsolete, and the Americans quickly reversed course on reconstructing their battleship
fleet to creating new aircraft carriers.
With their complement of air power, the aircraft carrier has unmatched firepower, situational
awareness, and accuracy, and for over 75 years, has reigned supreme in navies around the world.
Yet today many defense industry analysts and military leaders are questioning the wisdom
of continuing to operate these behemoth ships- why?
The biggest nail in the carrier's coffin is the steady march of technology, most notably
in the realm of anti-ship hypersonic and ballistic missiles.
AEGIS-equipped escort ships such as the American Arleigh-Burke destroyers are the first line
of defense against both these threats.
An Arleigh-Burke destroyer is equipped with AN/SPY-1 search and tracking radar and AN/SPG-62
fire control radar, used to identify, track, and hone defensive missiles on-target.
An attacker would fire missiles programmed to fly low to the water, and use the curvature
of the earth to avoid AEGIS' radar, though they would have to occasionally pop up and
activate their own radars to locate their targets and fix their trajectory.
These occasional pop-ups would give plenty of warning to AEGIS of an incoming attack,
but by keeping their flight path low and close to the water, AEGIS' AN/SPY-1 radar would
not be able to achieve an intercept lock until the incoming missiles crossed the radar horizon
15 miles away (25 km).
At this time, the AEGIS vessel would launch its first wave of interceptors.
The hypersonic anti-ship missiles moving at Mach 2-3 would reach their target in about
33 seconds, but as most attack missiles are programmed to conduct erratic maneuvers to
try and shake off interceptors, this would add a few seconds to interception time.
American Arleigh-Burke destroyers are equipped with the MK-41 vertical launch cell system,
allowing them a firing rate of 10 missiles every 10 seconds; with each incoming missile
being assigned two interceptors, each AEGIS vessel could at best try to intercept 15 missiles.
This represents a serious problem for aircraft carriers, as an enemy air attack of 16-20
strike aircraft could very quickly overwhelm a carrier group's AEGIS defense network with
volleys of 4 missiles per aircraft for a total of 64-80 missiles.
Ballistic missiles provide a different, but equally deadly threat.
While a carrier could protect itself from anti-ship hypersonic missile attack by ensuring
air superiority and sending its own strike aircraft against enemy ships, ballistic missiles
can be launched from hundreds or even thousands of miles away, safely out of reach of any
carrier-based aircraft and typically from platforms deep in well-defended enemy territory.
While technically easier to defend against than anti-ship missiles due to their mostly
predictable trajectories and sheer size, nations such as China have turned ballistic missiles
into a deadly threat to American carriers via sheer numbers alone.
With thousands of missiles in its inventory, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force
could easily oversaturate an American carrier's defensive measures operating in the Pacific
all the way from deep inside China itself.
The loss of even just a single supercarrier would mean a loss of life not seen in one
day's worth of combat since the end of World War II, and dwarf the total casualties of
most conflicts since.
Billions of dollars of hardware and thousands of lives could be snuffed out in a single
attack, severely testing the resolve of any nation's will to continue fighting.
While most anti-carrier weapons require a complex 'kill-chain' of assets such as satellites,
radar tracking stations, and command and control hubs that can all be neutralized and upset
to prevent a successful attack, it is clear that improvements in missile technologies
is very quickly making carriers a potential liability.
Many defense insiders and military officials have begun calling for a change in naval doctrine
and a move to smaller, more dispersed and thus more survivable light aircraft carriers,
pointing out that the loss of a single light carrier would mean only the loss of a fraction
of a fleet's total air power.
In the end, only time will tell, though we can only hope that it will not take a military
tragedy to dictate naval doctrine for the next 75 years.
So, do you think aircraft carriers are still a useful tool, or are they too much of a liability?
How would the US react to the loss of 6,000 lives in a single attack?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Smallest Aircraft Carrier In The World!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!