Posted on 10/07/2009 7:16:55 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Italy's newest aircraft carrier like a son-captain
By Jo Winterbottom
LA SPEZIA, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Italy's newest aircraft carrier is a pretty big baby. But the Cavour's captain sees his ship as exactly that: a son growing up before his eyes.
"I saw the ship growing day by day. So I feel it's like a son," Captain Gianluigi Reversi told Reuters in a recent interview aboard the 27,500 tonne ship.
The Cavour is docked at La Spezia while it undergoes maintenance following a year of tests, before it goes into full service probably some time in 2010.
Reversi became captain in 2005, when the ship started to be built, and will hand over to a successor next year.
"I have followed each step and I know every part, all the hidden angles," he said. He also had the 545 strong crew to train on the new ship.
"I will give the captain who follows me not only a body but a body with a heart and a brain," Reversi said.
Last week, that body was flexing its muscles to move journalists on board for the launch of Fiat's Punto Evo model.
The press conference was raised en bloc from the hangar to the 220 meter (yards) long runway deck by the massive lifting platform that normally hoists aircraft or helicopters.
The Punto Evos then showed off their turning circles on the deck, which is 34 meters wide, and came to a halt facing journalists with headlights on under a star-struck sky.
Dinner in a marquee pitched on the deck was followed by an overnight stay in one of the carrier's cabins, which usually sleep four crew but hosted just one reporter each.
The slimmed down staffing -- Italy's only other aircraft carrier, the 30-year-old Garibaldi, has up to 800
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The offensive power of any carrier is its air wing. The more jets, the more flexibility. Strike packages are set up according to the assignment, whether it’s to rain down a world of hurt, or a surgical strike.
The more aircraft on board, the more flexibility.
The Marines have no ships. The LHA and LHD amphibious assault ships are Navy vessels. Further, they have a completely different mission than the CVN.
The LHA/LHD is a transport vehicle for a MEU/MEB. They get the guys to the AOR, dump them off and wait for their return.
They generally carry only four Harriers which can provide CAS for the MEU/MEB in the group. They have no tanker support on board, so their combat radius is extremely limited, as is their time on station. They have no real strike capability like a CVN.
It’s not just for Harriers-The Russians use it to launch the Mig-29K and SU-33. High performance jets.
wow. That just seems wrong somehow.
Well something is better than nothing.
Those poor embarrassed airplanes.
lol.
But they can embark many more as the situation requires as we witnessed during both Desert Storm and OIF. Look at the decks of the Bonhomme Richard and the Bataan in this photo.
In a world of limited budgets, it's expensive to keep a supercarrier on station for a mission that it's overkill for. All I'm saying is that IN ADDITION TO our supercarriers, it might be useful to have some smaller carriers that can put aircraft on station for a fraction of the cost of sending a supercarrier.
For some missions, sending a supercarrier is like renting a tractor-trailer to bring home a few bags of groceries.
Er, good catch, thanks (though I didn't need the "crapola" insult)...I meant Nimitz class...the "usper" was a typo for "super." BTW I was in the submarine service where there are only two class of ships: sub boats and "targets." Evidently you were a target.
Regardless of whether or not Bravaria opposed Bismarck, Prussians were always Germans. By definition Romans are Italians. The process you are describing is the Romanization of Italy, not the Italization of Rome. I get your point, but I knew that anyway.
By an even tighter definition, Franks are Germans in origin. To say that, however, would be so misleading as to negate history from the time of Charlemagne at least.
Location in Italy does not make everybody "Italian," just like location on the Balkans does not make disparate people their all "Balkans."
My definition of an Italian is fairly straightforward: a person native to Italy. Whether or not the Tyrol is Italy might be open to question. Whether or not Rome is, is not. I agree that the north western part of what we now call Italy was then Cisalpine Gaul and southern Italy and Sicily was Magna Grecia, but Rome was always Italian. What occured from about 300 BC to 500 AD was the Romanization of much of Europe including all of what today is Italy. Roman wasn’t italianized, Italy was romanized.
“But they can embark many more as the situation requires as we witnessed during both Desert Storm and OIF.”
True, you can clobber a deck with Harriers all day. But without grapes in the air, they have a severely limited combat radius and can carry very limited ordnance. You will still need a CVN or a secure airfield in the area to make these guys truly effective - just like Desert Storm and OIF.
From a logistics standpoint, it is just as costly to keep a smaller carrier on station as a big one. A carrier requires several supports ships to keep it on station - tankers, supply ships, AAW screen, ASW screen etc.
Most of them are using non catapult launched aircraft like the harrier.Other than that maybe they haven’t figured out how to operate or install a catapult system yet.
Boeing is talking about a future tanker variant of their V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor. How useful that might be, I don't know.
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