Supercarrier


 * This is about the warships. For the television program, see Supercarrier (TV series).



Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 65,000 long tons. David Miller and Lindsay Peacock, Carriers: The Men and the Machines (London and New York: Salamander, 1991), p. 7: "There are four main types of carrier in service today. Largest of these are the super-carriers displacing over 70,000 tons; the U.S. Navy currently has fourteen, the Soviet Navy one." The U.S. Navy currently has 10 such ships.USS Enterprise carrier taken out of active service In comparison, a few countries operate what are, by today's standards, medium carriers (fleet carrier) of around 42,000 tons, such as the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91). The size and configuration of the Charles de Gaulle corresponds closely with the 45,000-ton Midway-class aircraft carrier the United States built at the end of World War II as a successor class to the much more numerous 27,000-ton Essex-class aircraft carrier, mainstay vessels of WWII after 1943 when they entered service. Internationally, light carriers closer to 20,000 tons (such as HMS Illustrious) are more typical. The United Kingdom has two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers currently under construction, the first of which is expected to be delivered in 2016. They will displace 70,600 metric tons (up from an original estimate of 65,000) and, when built, will be the third largest Supercarrier class in service. Supercarriers are the largest warships ever built, eclipsing even the largest battleship class laid down by any country.

History
The first ship to be described by The New York Times as a supercarrier was HMS Ark Royal (91) 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 aircraft carrier as a step-up from the 27,000-ton Essex-class aircraft carrier. The post-war standard for supercarriers was set by the proposed USS United States (CVA-58) and USS Forrestal (CV-59).

Forrestal displaced 60,000 tons standard and 78,000 tons in deep load 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 during post-Cold War funding cuts.

The United States is no longer alone in building supercarriers, with the United Kingdom building two 70,600-ton carriers Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier, 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 aircraft carrier vessels will provide the Royal Navy with capabilities much closer to United States Navy carriers than its current Invincible-class aircraft carrier 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:

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

Alternatives
The United States maintains ten of these ships. Given their vulnerability to conventional and asymmetrical threats, more and smaller carriers have been suggested over the years, such as Elmo Zumwalt's Sea Control Ship, and carriers the size of USS America (LHA-6) carrying STOVL and UCAV aircraft. However, supercarriers' advocates consider them to be more cost-effective than smaller carriers. An American carrier strike group costs $25 million per week for routine operations, rising to $40 million during combat operations.

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.

Classes

 * 🇺🇸 United States class (1950s): Single-unit laid down, cancelled along with four others
 * 🇺🇸 Forrestal class (1955): Four-unit class, all decommissioned
 * 🇺🇸 Kitty Hawk class (1961): Four-unit class, all decommissioned
 * 🇺🇸 Enterprise class (1961): Six-unit class, five cancelled, one deactivated
 * CVA-01 (1960s): Two-unit class, both cancelled
 * Project 1153 Orel (1970s): Cancelled
 * 🇺🇸 Nimitz class (1975): 10 unit class, all active.
 * Kuznetsov class (1990s): Two-unit class, all active. Displacement max 68 000
 * Ulyanovsk class (1990s): Two units cancelled after partial completion
 * 🇺🇸 Gerald R. Ford class (2015): Two units in construction, one ordered, further seven planned
 * Queen Elizabeth class (2016–2018): Two units under construction
 * 🇫🇷 Porte-Avions 2 (20xx): One unit cancelled