Aircraft Carriers

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations. They have evolved from wooden vessels, used to deploy balloons, into nuclear-powered warships that carry dozens of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Aircraft carriers are typically treated as the capital ship of a fleet and are extremely expensive to build and important to protect: of the nine nations which possess an aircraft carrier, seven of these navies only possess one such ship. There are 20 active aircraft carriers in the world as of June 2011.

The 1903 advent of heavier-than-air, fixed-wing aircraft was closely followed in 1910 by the first experimental take-off of such an airplane from the deck of a US Navy vessel (cruiser USS Birmingham), and the first experimental landings in 1911. Seaplane tender support ships came next; in September 1914, the Imperial Japanese Navy Wakamiya conducted the world's first successful naval-launched air raids. It lowered four Maurice Farman seaplanes into the water using its crane, which were taking off to bombard German forces and could be retrieved back from surface afterwards.

The development of flat top vessels produced the first large fleet ships. In 1918, HMS Argus became "the world's first carrier capable of launching and landing naval aircraft". Carrier evolution was well underway in the mid-1920s, resulting in ships such as HMS Hermes and HMshM. Most early aircraft carriers were conversions of ships that were laid down (or had served) as different ship types: cargo ships, cruisers, battlecruisers, or battleships.

The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 affected aircraft carrier plans. The US and UK were permitted up to 135,000 tons of carriers each while specific exemptions on the upper tonnage of individual ships permitted conversion of capital ship hulls to carriers such as the Lexington-class aircraft carriers.

During the 1920s, several navies started ordering and building aircraft carriers that were specifically designed as such. This allowed the design to be specialized to their future role, and resulted in superior ships.

During the Second World War, these ships would become the backbone of the carrier forces of the US, British, and Japanese navies, known as fleet carriers.

World War II saw the first large-scale use and further refinement of the aircraft carrier, spawning several types. Escort aircraft carriers, such as USS Bogue, were built only during World War II. Although some were purpose-built, most were converted from merchant ships as a stop-gap measure to provide air support for convoys and amphibious invasions.

Light aircraft carriers, such as USS Independence, represented a larger, more "militarized" version of the escort carrier concept. Although the light carriers usually carried the same size air groups as escort carriers, they had the advantage of higher speed as they had been converted from cruisers under construction.

Modern navies that operate such ships treat aircraft carriers as the capital ship of the fleet, a role previously played by the battleship. The change, part of the growth of air power as a significant factor in warfare, took place during World War II. This change was driven by the superior range, flexibility and effectiveness of carrier-launched aircraft. Following the war, carrier operations continued to increase in size and importance. Supercarriers, the latest aircraft carriers, typically displacing 75,000 tonnes or greater, have become the pinnacle of carrier development. Most are powered by nuclear reactors and form the core of a fleet designed to operate far from home. Amphibious assault ships, such as USS Tarawa and HMS Ocean, serve the purpose of carrying and landing Marines, and operate a large contingent of helicopters for that purpose. Also known as "commando carriers" or "helicopter carriers", many have a secondary capability to operate VSTOL aircraft.

Lacking the firepower of other warships, carriers by themselves are considered vulnerable to attack by other ships, aircraft, submarines, or missiles. Therefore, aircraft carriers are generally accompanied by a number of other ships, to provide protection for the relatively unwieldy carrier, to carry supplies, and to provide additional offensive capabilities. This is often termed a battle group or carrier group, sometimes a carrier battle group.

Before World War II international naval treaties of 1922, 1930 and 1936 limited the size of capital ships including carriers. Aircraft carrier designs since World War II have been effectively unlimited by any consideration save budgetary, and the ships have increased in size to handle the larger aircraft. The large, modern Nimitz class of United States Navy carriers has a displacement nearly four times that of the World War II–era USS Enterprise, yet its complement of aircraft is roughly the same—a consequence of the steadily increasing size and weight of military aircraft over the years.

Wartime emergencies also saw the creation or conversion of unconventional aircraft carriers. CAM ships, like SS Michael E, were cargo-carrying merchant ships which could launch but not retrieve fighter aircraft from a catapult. These vessels were an emergency measure during World War II as were Merchant aircraft carriers (MACs), such as MV Empire MacAlpine, another emergency measure which saw cargo-carrying merchant ships equipped with flight decks. Battle carriers were created by the Imperial Japanese Navy to partially compensate for the loss of carrier strength at Midway.

Two of them were made from Ise-class battleships during late 1943. The aft turrets were removed and replaced with a hangar, deck and catapult. The heavy cruiser Mogami concurrently received a similar conversion.

This "half and half" design was an unsuccessful compromise, being neither one thing nor the other. Submarine aircraft carriers, such as the French Surcouf and the Japanese I-400 class submarine, which was capable of carrying three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft, were first built in the 1920s, but were generally unsuccessful at war.

Today's aircraft carriers are so expensive that many countries risk significant political and economic, as well as military, ramifications if they were ever to lose one during any kind of operation. Also, observers have opined that modern anti-ship weapons systems, such as torpedoes and missiles, have made aircraft carriers obsolete as too vulnerable for modern combat.

Countries appear, however, willing to take the risks in building and fielding aircraft carriers because of the geo-political and military prestige they give by being able to project power at some distance from their national land boundaries. Furthermore, aircraft carriers facilitate quicker projections of military power into local and regional conflicts.

 

A fleet carrier is intended to operate with the main fleet and usually provides an offensive capability. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds. By comparison escort carriers were developed to provide defence for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried. Most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were carriers that were fast enough to operate with the fleet but of smaller size with reduced aircraft capacity.

Anti-submarine warfare carrier

 

An ASW carrier (Anti-Submarine Warfare carrier) is a type of small aircraft carrier whose primary role is to hunt and destroy submarines. This type of ship came into existence during the Cold War as a development of the escort carriers used in the ASW role in the North Atlantic during World War II.

After World War II, the main naval threat to most western nations was confrontation with the Soviet Union. The Soviets ended the war with a small navy and took the route of asymmetric confrontation against western surface ship superiority by investing heavily in submarines both for attack and later fielding submarine launched missiles. Several nations who purchased British and US surplus light carriers were most easily able to accommodate slow moving, less expensive, and easy to land antisubmarine aircraft from the 1960s forward such as the S-2 Tracker which flew from the decks of US, Canadian, Australian, Dutch, Argentine, and Brazilian carriers or Alizé which flew from French and Indian ships and still remain useful especially in the framework of NATO even as newer fighter and strike aircraft were becoming too heavy for the equipment designed for WW-II aircraft.

Improvement in long range shore based patrol and conventional ship based ASW helicopter capability combined with the increasing difficulty maintaining surplus WW-II carriers lead to most of these ships to be retired or docked by smaller nations from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. This trend in ASW force draw down only accelerated with the massive reduction in the operational Soviet/Russian submarine fleet which rarely went to sea in large numbers in the 1990s.

Ships that could be called dedicated ASW carriers are now only found with the Japanese navy which operates helicopters and no fixed wing carrier based aircraft of any kind. Even the United States Navy, the last nation to regularly operate a dedicated fixed wing carrier based ASW aircraft, the S-3 Viking, on its mixed role super carriers had already removed most ASW equipment in the 1990s from this aircraft and has now removed this type from service as of January 2009 without replacement. Interestingly the Argentine Navy currently without much hope of a replacement CATOBAR carrier its own still trains several times a year landing S-2 Turbo Trackers aboard the Brazilian carrier São Paulo.

Much easier to operate from small decks than fixed-wing aircraft were ASW helicopters which flew from the decks of nearly all allied conventional carriers to this day and most LPH or STOVL carriers operated by the Soviet, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, British, and Thai navies. Since the only navy currently building new ASW though-deck helicopter-only ships is Japan, who terms their vessels as helicopter destroyers instead of ASW carriers, it is disputable if a ASW helicopter only vessel is best defined as a ASW carrier or perhaps a new designation.

Helicopter carrier

 

Helicopter carrier is a term for an aircraft carrier whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters. The term is sometimes used for both ASW carriers and amphibious assault ships.

Helicopter carriers can either have a full-length aircraft deck like HMS Ocean, or have a large helicopter deck, usually aft, as in the Soviet Navy's Moskva class or RFA Argus.

The large aft deck design is becoming less common, as the configuration represents a compromise. A full-length deck maximises deck space for helicopter landing spots. Such a design also allows for a hangar deck. Pure helicopter carriers are difficult to define in the 21st century. The advent of STOVL aircraft such as the Harrier Jump Jet have complicated the classification; the United States Navy's Wasp class, for instance, carries six to eight Harriers as well as 30 helicopters. Only smaller carriers unable to operate the Harrier and older pre-Harrier-era carriers can be regarded as true helicopter carriers. In many cases, other carriers, able to operate STOVL aircraft, are classified as "light aircraft carriers". Other vessels, such as the Wasp class, are also capable of embarking troops such as Marines and landing them ashore; they are typically classified as amphibious assault ships. HMS Hermes and two of her sisters were 22,000 ton fleet carriers converted to operate helicopters only as "commando carriers". Hermes was later converted to a STOVL carrier.

 

Light aircraft carrier

 

A light aircraft carrier is an aircraft carrier that is smaller than the standard carriers of a navy. The precise definition of the type varies by country; light carriers typically have a complement of aircraft only ½ to T the size of a full-sized or "fleet" carrier.

In World War II, the United States Navy produced a number of light carriers by converting cruiser hulls.

The Independence-class aircraft carriers, converted from Cleveland-class light cruisers, were unsatisfactory ships for aviation with their narrow, short decks and slender, high-sheer hulls; in virtually all respects the escort carriers were superior aviation vessels.

The Independence-class ships, however, had the virtue of being available at a time when available carrier decks had been reduced to Enterprise and Saratoga in the Pacific and Ranger in the Atlantic.

In addition, unlike escort carriers, they had enough speed to take part in fleet actions with the larger carriers.

 

Late in the war, a follow on design to the Independence-class, the Saipan-class, was designed.

Two vessels in this class—Saipan and Wright—were completed after the war's end.

After very brief lives as carriers, the Saipans were converted to command and communication ships.

The British 1942 design light fleet carrier was a scaled-down version of their Illustrious-class fleet carrier.

The design could be built in a yard with little or no experience of warship construction. Although built to merchant standards, the design incoporated better water-tight subdivision.

Expected to have a lifetime of about three years, the last of the design was taken out of service in 2001.

In the post-war period, the Royal Navy operated a force of ten Colossus class carriers including the two maintenance carriers.

In all, fifteen ships were completed from the 1942 design, of which most of the Colossus class and all the eventually completed Majestics were variously sold to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India and The Netherlands.

Currently 7 light aircraft carriers are in service. The newest light carriers are the Italian Cavour and the Spanish Juan Carlos I, which were commissioned in 2009 respectively in 2010.

Amphibious assault ship

 

An amphibious assault ship (also referred to as a commando carrier or an amphibious assault carrier) is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from the helicopter carrier, but includes support for amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck.

The role of the amphibious assault ship is fundamentally different from a standard aircraft carrier: its aviation facilities have the primary role of hosting helicopters to support forces ashore rather than to support strike aircraft. However, they are capable of serving in the sea-control role, embarking aircraft like Harrier fighters and ASW helicopters. Most of these ships can also carry or support landing craft, such as air-cushioned landing craft (hovercraft) or LCUs.

The largest fleet of these types is operated by the United States Navy, including the Tarawa class dating back to the 1970s and the larger Wasp class ships that debuted in 1989. Amphibious assault ships are also operated by the British Royal Navy, the French Navy, the Italian Navy, the Republic of Korea Navy, and the Spanish Navy.

Although the term amphibious assault ship is often used interchangeably with the more-general term amphibious warfare ship, it specifically applies only to the large-deck amphibious ships within the US Navy, the LPH, LHA, and LHD types.

This does not include the amphibious transport dock (LPD), and dock landing ship (LSD).

In the Pacific theater of World War II, escort carriers would often escort the landing ships and troop carriers during the island-hopping campaign. In this role, they would provide air cover for the troopships as well as fly the first wave of attacks on the beach fortifications in amphibious landing operations.

On occasion they would even escort the large carriers, serving as emergency airstrips and providing fighter cover for their larger sisters while these were busy readying or refueling their own planes. In addition to this, they would also transport aircraft and spare parts from the US to the remote island airstrips.

Despite all the progress that was seen during World War II, there were still fundamental limitations in the types of coastline that were suitable for assault.

Beaches had to be relatively free of obstacles, and have the right tidal conditions and the correct slope. However, the development of the helicopter fundamentally changed the equation.

The first use of helicopters in an amphibious assault came during the invasion of Egypt during the Suez War in 1956. In this engagement two British light fleet carriers, Ocean and Theseus, were converted to perform a battalion-size airborne assault with helicopters.

The techniques were developed further by American forces during the Vietnam War and refined during training exercises. The modern amphibious assault can take place at virtually any point of the coast, making defending against them extremely difficult.

Most early amphibious assault ships were converted from small aircraft carriers. As well as the two Colossus class light aircraft carriers converted for use in the Suez War, the British Royal Navy converted the Centaur class carriers Albion and Bulwark into "commando carriers" during the 1950s. Sister ship HMS Hermes was also converted to a commando carrier in the early 1970s, but was restored to aircraft carrier operations before the end of the 1970s.

The United States Navy used three Essex class aircraft carriers; US Ships Boxer, Princeton, and Valley Forge, and the Casablanca class escort carrier USS Thetis Bay as the basis of their amphibious assault fleet, before constructing the five Iwo Jima class ships specifically for the Landing Platform Helicopter role.

Later amphibious assault craft were constructed for the role. The United States Navy constructed the Tarawa class of five Landing Helicopter Assault ships, which began to enter service from the late 1970s, and the Wasp class of eight Landing Helicopter Dock ships, the first of which was commissioned in 1989. The United States Navy is also designing a new class of assault ships: the first America class ship is predicted to enter service in 2013.

The first British ship to be constructed specifically for the amphibious assault role was HMS Ocean, which was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1998. Other nations have built amphibious assault ships; the French Mistral class, South Korea's ROKS Dokdo, and Spain's Juan Carlos I (L61) are all currently active, while Australia is building two Canberra class ships based on the Spanish design.

Due to their aircraft carrier heritage, all amphibious assault ships resemble aircraft carriers in design. The flight deck is used to operate helicopters for landing troops and supplies and Harrier Jump Jets to provide air support to landing operations. STOL aircraft such as the OV-10 were sometimes deployed on and were able to perform short takeoffs and landings on large deck amphibious assault ships without needing catapults or arresting wires, although for safety and clearance reasons the latter was most often not permitted. Landing craft are also carried, either on deck-mounted davits, or in an internal well deck.

Seaplane tender

 

A seaplane tender (or seaplane carrier) is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.

The first seaplane tender appeared in 1911 with the French Navy La Foudre, following the invention of the seaplane in 1910 with the French Le Canard. La Foudre carried float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on the sea with a crane. La Foudre was further modified in November 1913 with a 10 meter-long flat deck to launch her seaplanes. Another early seaplane carrier was HMS Hermes, an old cruiser converted and commissioned with a flying-off deck in mid 1913.

In the Battle of Tsingtao, from September 5, 1914 the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane carrier Wakamiya conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids from Kiaochow Bay. The four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets (communication centers and command centers) and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September to November 6, 1914 when the Germans surrendered. On Christmas Day 1914 the British carried out the Cuxhaven Raid - seaplanes carried within range of their targets attacked German naval targets in the Heligoland Bight.

These carriers had hangars for storing and maintaining the aircraft, but no flight deck as in a true aircraft carrier. Instead they used cranes to lower the aircraft into the sea for takeoff and to recover them after landing. The ships were normally converted merchant vessels rather than specially constructed for the task. As aircraft improved the problems of using seaplanes became more of a handicap. The aircraft could only be operated in a smooth sea and the ship had to stop for launching or recovery, both of which took around 20 minutes. The tender was often stationed ten miles or so in front of the main battle fleet with the cruiser screen so that it would not fall hopelessly behind when it launched its aircraft. Seaplanes also had poorer performance than other aircraft because of the drag and weight of the floats. Seaplane tenders had largely been superseded by aircraft carriers in the battle fleet by the end of the First World War, although aircraft were still of minor importance compared to the firepower of naval artillery. The British Ark Royal was a seaplane tender with a flying-off deck. Seaplanes could be recovered while the ship was under way through the "Hein Mat" - a sheet towed behind the vessel, once the aircraft was on the mat it was effectively stationary with respect to the ship and could be hoisted aboard.

In the inter-war years, it was common for cruisers and battleships to be equipped with catapult-launched reconnaissance seaplanes.

A few navies, especially those without true aircraft carriers, also acquired catapult-equipped seaplane carriers for fleet reconnaissance. During the Second World War both the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy built a number of seaplane tenders to supplement their aircraft carrier fleets.

However, these ships often had their catapults removed, and were used as support vessels that operated seaplanes from harbours rather than in a seaway. These aircraft were generally for long range reconnaissance patrols. The tenders allowed the aircraft to be rapidly deployed to new bases because their runways did not have to be constructed, and support facilities were mobile much like supply ships for submarines or destroyers. Seaplane tenders became obsolete at the end of the Second World War. A few remained in service after the war but by the late-1950s most had been scrapped or converted to other uses such as helicopter repair ships.

Supercarrier

 

The first ship to be described by The New York Times as a supercarrier was HMS Ark Royal in 1938; with a length of 685 ft and a displacement of 22,000 tons, it was designed to carry 72 aircraft. In 1943, the superlative was transferred to the 45,000-ton carriers of the Midway class, as a step-up from the 27,000-ton Essex class. The post-war standard for supercarriers was set by the proposed USS United States and USS Forrestal.

Forrestal displaced 60,000 tons standard, and 78,000 tons in deep load, when launched, and is considered the first operational supercarrier in the present-day sense, as dubbed by the American press. The similarly-sized United States would have been in service earlier, had it been completed; its cancellation triggered the "Revolt of the Admirals".

The Soviet Union's 85,000-ton nuclear carrier Ulyanovsk, closely comparable in size to earlier American supercarriers, was 40% complete when it and a follow-on vessel were canceled in 1991, due to post-Cold War funding cuts.

The United States is no longer alone in building supercarriers, with the United Kingdom building two 65,600-ton carriers Queen Elizabeth class, and France considering building one vessel, possibly based on the same design.

These ships are routinely referred to as supercarriers by British legislators and the media. The two Queen Elizabeth class vessels will provide the Royal Navy with capabilities much closer to United States Navy carriers than its current Invincible class vessels. Giving evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee, the then First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West explained that interoperability with the United States Navy was as much a deciding factor of the size of the carriers as the firepower of the carrier's airwing:

    I have talked with the CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) in America. He is very keen for us to get these because he sees us slotting in with his carrier groups.

He really wants us to have these, but he wants us to have the same sort of clout as one of their carriers.

Future plans for supercarriers in the United States involve the construction of the US Navy's next generation of carriers, the Gerald R. Ford class, which will have a 100,000 ton displacement.

The United States maintains eleven of these ships. Given their vulnerability to conventional and asymmetrical threats, more and smaller carriers have been suggested over the years, such as Zumwalt's Sea Control Ship.

However, supercarriers are considered to be more cost effective than smaller carriers.

The mobile offshore base (MOB) is a concept for a modular floating military base as large as 10 aircraft carriers. If realized, it could be moved anywhere throughout the world's oceans, obviating the need to seek permission from allied nations for use of land bases.

The concept was studied in the 1990s by the U.S. government, but was abandoned in 2001 as cost prohibitive.

A fleet carrier is an aircraft carrier that is designed to operate with the main fleet of a nation's navy. The term was coined during the Second World War, to distinguish it from the escort carrier and light carrier types. Unlike those types, that were usually conversions of other ship types (fitting cargo ships, cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships with a flight deck), the fleet carrier is designed from the very beginning as an aircraft carrier, allowing full specialization to its future role. Fleet carriers have grown to become the capital ships of a fleet, replacing battleships in that role.

 

 

Escort aircraft carrier

 

The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the USN or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the British Royal Navy (RN), the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and the United States Navy (USN) in World War II. They were typically half the length and one-third the displacement of the larger fleet carriers.

While they were slower, less armed and armored, and carried fewer planes, they were less expensive and could be built in less time. This was their principal advantage, as escort carriers could be completed in greater numbers as a stop-gap when fleet carriers were scarce.

However, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable and several were sunk with great loss of life. The light carrier (hull classification symbol CVL) was a similar concept to escort carriers in most respects, however they were intended for higher speeds to be deployed alongside fleet carriers.

Escort carriers were too slow to keep up with the main forces consisting of fleet carriers, battleships, and cruisers. Instead, they were used to defend convoys from enemy threats such as submarines and planes. In the invasions of mainland Europe and Pacific islands, escort carriers provided air support to ground forces during amphibious operations. Escort carriers also served as backup aircraft transports for fleet carriers, and ferried aircraft of all military services to points of delivery.

In the Atlantic, the escort carriers were used to protect convoys against U-boats. Initially escort carriers accompanied the merchant ships and fended off attacks from aircraft and submarines. Later in the war, escort carriers were part of hunter-killer groups which sought out submarines instead of being attached to a particular convoy.

During the Leyte Campaign, at the Battle off Samar, the Japanese Center Force of cruisers and battleships, including Yamato, the largest battleship ever built, met the US task force of escort carriers and destroyers known as "Taffy 3". The escort carriers and destroyers were not expected to put up much of a fight against major big-gun warships. Nonetheless, the Japanese were turned back by furious defence put up by "Taffy 3", with the Wildcat and Avenger planes playing a key role against the Japanese who had no air cover, as well as the US destroyers who made torpedo runs. The US sunk three Japanese cruisers in that engagement, at the cost of one escort carrier and three destroyers.

Of the 151 aircraft carriers built in the United States during WWII, 122 were escort carriers. Though no examples survive to this day, the Casablanca class holds the distinction of being the most numerous single class of aircraft carrier ever built, with 50 having been launched. The Bogue class escort carrier comes in a close second, with 45 launched.

The Washington Naval Treaty imposed limits on the maximum size and total tonnage of aircraft carriers for the five main naval powers. Later treaties largely kept these provisions. As a result construction between the World Wars had been insufficient to meet operational needs for aircraft carriers as the Second World War expanded from Europe. Too few fleet carriers were available to simultaneously transport aircraft to distant bases, support amphibious invasions, offer carrier landing training for replacement pilots, conduct anti-submarine patrols, and provide defensive air cover for deployed battleships and cruisers. The foregoing mission requirements limited use of fleet carriers' unique offensive strike capability demonstrated at the Battle of Taranto and the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Conversion of existing ships (and hulls under construction for other purposes) provided additional aircraft carriers until new construction became available.

Conversions of cruisers, passenger liners, and fleet oilers with speed similar to fleet carriers were identified by the United States as "light aircraft carriers" (hull classification symbol CVL) able to operate at battle fleet speeds. Slower conversions were classified as "escort carriers" and were considered naval auxiliaries suitable for pilot training and transport of aircraft to distant bases.

The Royal Navy had recognized a need for carriers to defend its trade routes in the 1930s. No construction was undertaken until HMS Audacity (D10) was converted from the captured German merchant ship MV Hannover and commissioned in July 1941. For defence from German aircraft, convoys were supplied first with Fighter catapult ships and CAM Ships which could carry a single (disposable) fighter. In the interim, before escort carriers could be supplied, they also brought in Merchant aircraft carriers which could operate 4 aircraft.

In 1940, Admiral William Halsey recommended construction of naval auxiliaries for pilot training. On 1 February 1941, the United States Chief of Naval Operations gave priority to construction of naval auxiliaries for aircraft transport. United States ships built to meet these needs were initially referred to as auxiliary aircraft escort vessels (AVG) in February 1942 and then auxiliary aircraft carrier (ACV) on 5 August 1942. The first United States example of the type was USS Long Island (AVG-1). Operation Torch and North Atlantic anti-submarine warfare proved these ships capable aircraft carriers for ship formations moving at the speed of trade or amphibious invasion convoys. United States classification revision to escort aircraft carrier (CVE) on 15 July 1943 reflected upgraded status from auxiliary to combatant. They were informally known as "Jeep carriers" or "baby flattops." It was quickly found that the escort carriers had better performance than light carriers, which tended to pitch badly in moderate to high seas. The Commencement Bay class was designed to incorporate the best features of American CVLs on a more stable hull with a less expensive propulsion system.

Amongst their crews, CVE was sarcastically said to stand for "Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable". Magazine protection was minimal in comparison to fleet aircraft carriers. HMS Avenger was sunk within minutes by a single torpedo, and HMS Dasher (D37) exploded from undetermined causes with very heavy loss of life. Three escort carriers—USS St. Lo (CVE-63), Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) and Bismarck Sea (CVE-95)—were destroyed by kamikazes, the largest ships to meet such a fate.

Allied escort carriers were typically around 500 ft (150 m) long, not much more than half the length of the almost 900 ft (300 m) fleet carriers of the same era, but were less than one-third of the weight. A typical escort carrier displaced about 8,000 tons, as compared to almost 30,000 tons for a full-size fleet carrier. The aircraft hangar typically ran only a third of the way under the flight deck and housed a combination of 24 to 30 fighters and bombers organized into one single "composite squadron". By comparison a late Essex-class fleet carrier could carry a total of 103 aircraft organized into separate fighter, bomber and torpedo-bomber squadrons.

The island on these ships was small and cramped, and located well forward of the funnels (unlike on a normal-sized carrier where the funnels were integrated into the island). Although the first escort carriers had only one aircraft elevator, two elevators, one fore and one aft, quickly became standard, so did the one aircraft catapult. The carriers employed the same system of arresting cables and tailhooks as on the big carriers, and procedures for launch and recovery were the same as well.

The crew size was less than a third of that of a large carrier, but this was still a bigger complement than most naval vessels. It was large enough to justify the existence of facilities such as a permanent canteen or snack bar, called a gedunk bar, in addition to the mess. The bar was open for longer hours than the mess and sold several flavors of ice cream, along with cigarettes and other consumables. There were also several vending machines, which made a "gedunk" sound when operated.

In all, 130 Allied escort carriers were launched or converted during the war. Of these, six were British conversions of merchant ships: HMS Audacity (D10), Nairana (D05), Campania (D48), Activity (D94), Pretoria Castle F61) and Vindex (D15). The remaining escort carriers were US-built. Like the British, the first US escort carriers were converted merchant vessels (or in the Sangamon class, converted military oilers). The Bogue class carriers were based on the hull of the Type C3 cargo ship. The last 69 escort carriers of the Casablanca and Commencement Bay classes were purpose-designed and purpose-built carriers drawing on the experience gained with the previous classes.

Originally developed at the behest of the United Kingdom to operate as part of a North Atlantic convoy escort rather than as part of a naval strike force, many of the escort carriers produced were assigned to the Royal Navy for the duration of the war under the Lend-lease act. They supplemented and then replaced the converted merchant aircraft carriers which were put into service by the British and Dutch as an emergency measure until the escort carriers became available. As convoy escorts, they were used by the Royal Navy to provide air scouting, to ward off enemy long-range scouting aircraft and, increasingly, to spot and hunt submarines. Often additional escort carriers also joined convoys, not as fighting ships but as transporters, ferrying aircraft from the US to Britain. In this case the aircraft cargo could be doubled by storing aircraft on the flight deck as well as in the hangar.

The ships sent to the Royal Navy were slightly modified, partly to suit the traditions of that service. Among other things the ice cream making machines were removed, since they were considered unnecessary luxuries on ships, which served grog and other alcoholic beverages. The heavy duty washing machines of the laundry room were also removed since "all a British sailor needs to keep clean is a bucket and a bar of soap" (quoted from Warrilow).

Other modifications were due to the need for a completely enclosed hangar when operating in the North Atlantic and in support of the Arctic convoys.

Meanwhile the U.S. discovered their own use for the escort carriers. In the North Atlantic, they supplemented the escorting destroyers by providing air support for anti-submarine warfare. One of these escort carriers, USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), was instrumental in the capture of the German submarine) U-505 off North Africa in 1944.

In the Pacific theatre, escort carriers lacked the speed to sail with fast carrier attack groups, so were often tasked to escort the landing ships and troop carriers during the island-hopping campaign. In this role they provided air cover for the troopships and flew the first wave of attacks on beach fortifications in amphibious landing operations. On occasion they even escorted the large carriers, serving as emergency airstrips and providing fighter cover for their larger sisters while these were busy readying or refueling their own planes. They also transported aircraft and spare parts from the US to remote island airstrips.

Perhaps the finest moment for these escort carriers was the relatively little known Battle off Samar. Aircraft from sixteen escort carriers in three task groups (many unarmed or armed only for harassment), along with their hopelessly outmatched defending destroyers and destroyer escorts, faced a Japanese task force of four battleships, including Yamato, eight cruisers, and eleven detroyers. The American escort carriers not only fended off but turned back the attackers. The slow carriers could not hope to outrun 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h) cruisers. They launched their aircraft and maneuvered to avoid shellfire for over an hour. They endured dozens of hits, mostly from armor piercing rounds which passed right through their thin, unarmored hulls without exploding. USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), lost in this action, was the only U.S. carrier lost to gunfire in the war. The carriers carried only a single 5-inch anti-aircraft gun as a stinger, but to land accurate hits, pursuing Japanese cruisers had to close within range of the carriers' own guns. One of the guns caused critical damage to the burning Japanese cruiser Chokai and a subsequent bomb dropped from one of the task force's aircraft hit the forward machinery room on Chokai, leaving her dead in the water. Several kamikaze aircraft were shot down by carrier gunners, with only St Lo lost to air attack. In the costly victory, the small task force had suffered a number of ships and men lost comparable to the Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway combined.

There are three basic tactics for operating an escort carrier in defence of a convoy:

Within the convoy, which gives it the protection of the convoy's escort but limits the space to turn into the wind to operate aircraft.

Near the convoy, which gives the carrier freedom of manoeuvre, but puts it outside the screen provided by the convoy's escort, making it necessary for the carrier to have its own separate escort. The carrier is also likely to be spotted by enemy forces approaching the convoy, making it vulnerable to attack.

Some distance away from the convoy. This increases the time required for aircraft to reach the convoy but reduces the risk of being spotted by forces attacking the convoy.

The years following World War II brought many revolutionary new technologies to the navy, most notably the helicopter and the jet fighter, and with this a complete rethinking of its strategies and ships' tasks. Although several of the latest Commencement Bay-class CVE were deployed as floating airfields during the Korean War, the main reasons for the development of the escort carrier had disappeared or could be dealt with better by newer weapons. The emergence of the helicopter meant that helicopter-deck equipped frigates could now take over the CVE's role in a convoy while also performing their own traditional role as submarine hunters. Ship-mounted guided missile launchers took over much of the aircraft protection role, and in-flight refueling abolished the need for floating stopover points for transport or patrol aircraft. As a result, after the Commencement Bay class, no new escort carriers were designed, and with every downsizing of the navy, the CVEs were the first to be mothballed.

Several escort carriers were pressed back into service during the first years of the Vietnam War because of their ability to carry large numbers of aircraft. Redesignated AKV (air transport auxiliary), they were manned by a civilian crew and used to ferry whole aircraft and spare parts from the United States to Army, Air Force and Marine bases in South Vietnam. However, CVEs were only useful in this role for a limited period. Once all major aircraft were equipped with refueling probes, instead of shipping a plane overseas to its pilot, it became much easier to fly the aircraft directly to its base.

The last chapter in the saga of the escort carriers consisted out of two conversions: As an experiment, the USS Thetis Bay  (CVE-90) was converted from an aircraft carrier into a pure helicopter carrier (CVHA-1) and used by the Marine Corps to carry assault helicopters for the first wave of amphibious warfare operations. Later, the Thetis Bay became a full amphibious assault ship (LHP-6). Although in service only from 1955 (the year of her conversion) to 1964, the experience gained in her training exercises greatly influenced the design of today's amphibious assault ships.

In the second conversion, in 1961, the USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) had all her aircraft handling equipment removed and four tall radio antennas installed on her long, flat deck. In lieu of aircraft, the hangar deck now had no less than 24 military radio transmitter trucks bolted to its floor. Rechristened USS Annapolis (AGMR-1), the ship was used as a communication relay ship and served dutifully through the Vietnam War as a floating radio station, relaying transmissions between the forces on the ground and the command centers back home. Like the Thetis Bay, the experience gained before she was stricken in 1976 helped develop today's purpose-built amphibious command ships of the Blue Ridge class.

Unlike almost all other major classes of ships and patrol boats from World War II, most of which can be found in a museum or port, no escort carrier or American light carrier has survived: all were destroyed during the war or broken up in the following decades. The last escort carrier, USS Gilbert Islands, was broken up for scrap starting in 1976. The last American light carrier (the escort carrier's faster sister type) was the USS Cabot (CVL-28), which was broken up in 2002 after a decade-long attempt to preserve the vessel.

The United States designed the Sea Control Ship to serve a similar role, whilst none where actually built the Spanish aircraft carrier Principe de Asturias and HTMS Chakri Naruebet are all based on the concept.

 

 

 

References

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Aversa, R., D. Parcesepe, R.V. Petrescu, G. Chen and F.I.T. Petrescu et al., 2016b. Glassy amorphous metal injection molded induced morphological defects. Am. J. Applied Sci., 13: 1476-1482.

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Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Bucinell, Ronald; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017a Modern Propulsions for Aerospace-A Review, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Bucinell, Ronald; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017b Modern Propulsions for Aerospace-Part II, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

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Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Bucinell, Ronald; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017d Lockheed Martin-A Short Review, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

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Petrescu, Relly Victoria; Aversa, Raffaella; Akash, Bilal; Corchado, Juan; Berto, Filippo; Mirsayar, MirMilad; Apicella, Antonio; Petrescu, Florian Ion Tiberiu; 2017f What is a UFO?, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

Petrescu, RV., Aversa, R., Akash, B., Corchado, J., Berto, F., Mirsayar, MM., Apicella, A., Petrescu, FIT., 2017 About Bell Helicopter FCX-001 Concept Aircraft-A Short Review, Journal of Aircraft and Spacecraft Technology, 1(1).

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