84 FLIGHT International, 12 January I98C

V/Stol shapes tomorrow's ships BY GRAHAM WARWICK

Soviet Navy antisubmarine cruiser Kiev is probably the world's most heavily armed warship. Tht complement of 10 Forger Vtol aircraft is only part of the ship's offensive and defensive capability

ONLY NINE NATIONS operate aircraft carriers: Argentina,

Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, India, Spain, the Soviet Union and the United States. Strange bedfellows, perhaps, but each country has strong reasons for joining this elite club—a club in which lifetime membership is far from assured. As Britain has been forced to realise, V/Stol is the only way many of these nations will main­tain seaborne airpower past the end of this decade.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India and Spain rely on carriers built during the Second World War and unlikely to last into the 1990s. Britain has already retired its last attack carrier, HMS Ark Royal, and the Royal Navy awaits d e l i v e r y of Invincible—the West's first V/Stol carrier. France operates two carriers —Clemenceau and Foch—introduced in the early 1960s and expected to last into the early 1990s.

While aircraft carriers fulfil fairly nationalistic roles for the above coun­tries, it is the international impact of the vessel which most appeals to the Soviet Union and United States. The supercarrier with its brood of attack aircraft can be an effective weapon of peace all over the world. Any sane nation should be able to read the message written in the self-contained air force floating on its doorstep. It is probably this unsurpassed ability to show the flag that attracts the Soviet Union.

Fly the flag US Intelligence reports that Russia

is building at least one Forrestal-sized (78,000 tons) nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The Soviet Navy already operates two 40,000-ton V/ Stol carriers—Kiev and Minsk—and has at least two more under construc­tion. This does not yet rival the US Navy's 13 attack carriers but may have much to do with US Defence Secretary Harold Brown's announce­ment that the Navy would maintain 12 carriers into the 21st century.

Over the past few years V/Stol versus the large carrier has been a continuous debate in the US. With the inclusion in the 1980 budget of $2,000 million for a new carrier, steam catapults and arrester wires seem to have won. But has V/Stol lost? As oil and other minerals assume importance inversely propor­tional to their dwindling reserves, the need to protect raw materials at their source becomes1, imperative. Even small, relatively backward coun­tries can effectively disrupt supplies of vital commodities. The long-range punch provided by carriers is, there­fore, important to both the US and USSR which depend on the huge in­flux of raw materials.

As long as the superpowers remain vulnerable to the whims of extreme regimes, aircraft carriers will exist. The carrier has disadvantages, not least the entourage of ships required for its protection. Carriers are seldom heavily armed and its fighters are pledged to protect the attack aircraft. For defence the vessel relies on the other ships in the carrier task force. Should the carrier be knocked out, its court of ships are virtually use­less, lacking the weapons with which to continue the carrier's strike role.

In any East-West war, the Soviet Union will be willing to risk consider­able forces to knock out a carrier. Two of the heavily armed Kiev-class antisubmarine cruisers could make things difficult for a US Navy carrier task force. This expenditure of forces may make 12 carriers seem a large number—and it is unlikely that all could be knocked out—but, when compared with the number of con­voys requiring protection, it becomes a handful.

With the world's largest navy, the Soviet Union could make the Atlantic or Pacific dangerous waters for cargo ships carrying reinforcing material. Sea control is something that today's aircraft carriers cannot perform effi­ciently. Not only are there too few vessels but each brings with it a mas­

sive investment in defensive ships. AE attack carrier would be more effec­tive at attracting than discouraging attention.

Modern aircraft require a 30kl wind over deck to take-off and land In certain wind directions, the carriei may have to steam away from the convoy it is escorting in order tc generate the required wind over deck The speed of advance of the carriei task force may, therefore, seriouslj hinder progress of the convoy. It pay! to make haste in shark-infestec waters.

Wind of change Enter V/Stol, which, by definition

does not require the wind over deck A new family of ships emerge, frorr V/Stol-equipped carriers down to air capable container ships. The essentia factor in sea control—which will b< limited to the area around the con voy—is the number of air-capabk platforms available. Ideally each vul nerable convoy would be assigned ai escort carrier. A V/Stol carrier car be very much smaller than the con ventional vessel. British Aerospace estimates that a 16,000-ton ship witl a 600ft flight deck could operate effectively 18 to 20 Sea Harriers ant would cost less than half that of i