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To: Yo-Yo
"To date only the US and Japan have managed to field true offensive aircraft carriers, supercarriers capable of projecting national power."

That is going to come as quite a shock both to the British and the French.

I doubt it. The two remaining British Invincible class carriers have a 20,000 ton displacement, carry about a dozed aircraft each, and were originally built for anti-submarine duty. The British conducted a defense review in 2001 and decided to replace their carriers with two new 65,000 ton carriers. The report specifically cites a current lack of ability to project power.

The French aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaul, is 38,00 tons displacement and carries about 40 aircraft. The de Gaul has been a disaster from day one. The flight deck wasn't long enough to accommodate the planes they intended to operate and this wasn't discovered until sea trials (Mon Dieu!). The de Gaul broke a propeller on its way to a port call in Virginia and had to return to France where it was discovered that the other propeller and both spares had the same fault. The company that had made the propellers was bankrupt and the navy had actually lost the designs (Mon Dieu!) so they had to rob propellers from an old decommissioned carrier. Also, due to poor operating procedures, a fire broke out in the reactor space during a reactor test and radioactive smoke was released contaminating parts of the interior of the ship. The French are considering building/buying a third ship of the new British (mon dieu!) Queen Elizabeth class.

36 posted on 02/14/2010 8:49:07 AM PST by SeeSharp
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To: SeeSharp
You said "[t]o date only the US and Japan have managed..."

What carrier is Japan operating today? A single helicopter carrier displacing 18,000 tons.

Therefore, to include Japan in your list, you included all past carriers. When you include all past carriers, your argument falls apart.

The UK has in the past have operated large steam-catapult equipped carriers equipped for jet aircraft operations If you bothered to visit the link I provided, you'd see that the British carroer HMS Ark Royal displaced 54,000 tons, more than any Japanese carrier. In fact, as I'm sure you are aware, the steam catapult, the angled flight deck, and the optical landing system were all British innovations.

For all of their problems, the French are today operating a nuclear powered, steam catapult equipped carrier displacing 42,000 tons.

Both the British and the French have built larger carriers than the Japanese, deflating your argument.

42 posted on 02/14/2010 1:20:11 PM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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