The big stick of the American fleet
The American aircraft carrier is a warship, weapons which are more than 70 aircraft and helicopters, combined into one aviation wing. 10 multi-purpose aircraft carriers equipped with a nuclear power plant (AVMA), and 9 aircraft wings (Acres) of aircraft carrier aircraft represent the main striking force of the US Navy in combat using non-nuclear weapons. The first of 10 AVMAs of the new series of type “J.” will soon join the 68 NIMIC type AVMAs (CVN 11). Ford ”(CVN 78).OCEAN OWNERS LOVE HEAT
The main tasks of aircraft carriers are to gain dominance at sea and air superiority, to strike at coastal targets, and to provide direct air support to ground forces. With the end of the Cold War and the loss of the enemy at sea, American aircraft carriers began to be used mainly for operations on ground targets in countries that are at war with the United States and are not at war against the United States. The high mobility of aircraft carriers allows them to quickly arrive in a given area of aviation recovery, moving at a speed of more than 900 km per day. The aircraft carrier’s mobility is ensured by the use of weapons in coastal areas where the vast majority of the world's population lives. The technical resources of aircraft carriers are evidenced by such figures. AVMA type "Nimitz" for 50 years in the composition fleet it is designed for a maximum of 6 thousand days at sea, 3 million nautical miles, 500 thousand sorties / landings of aircraft and helicopters.
The performance of an aircraft carrier is the ability of its wing for a certain time to perform such a number of sorties, which is necessary in combat conditions to perform the full range of tasks (offensive and defensive, combat and rear support), and in normal times to maintain proper training of flight personnel. The final performance of an aircraft carrier is the number of destroyed, or neutralized, air, sea, and ground objects with the guaranteed survival of this ship.
The intensity of the use of aircraft of its aircraft (LA) depends on many factors, including its design, combat capability of the ship and its wing, weather conditions, the quality of weapons, the composition of the aircraft carrier strike group (AUG), the opposition of the enemy.
How is ship design related to its performance? The greater the length and width of the ship, the greater its displacement (in Nimitz, the total displacement is 88 thousand tons, the J. Ford has 90,7 thousand tons) and the smaller side and keel pitches (with side rolling more than five degrees and more than one degree flights are not conducted). The larger the area of the flight and hangar decks, the more space there is for parking and repairing airplanes and helicopters (about half can be accommodated in a closed hangar deck, the other has to find a place in the parking spaces open to all the wind and precipitation of the flight deck) to accommodate aircraft lifts (there are four of them), aerofinishers (there are four of them, landing at the speed of one aircraft in 45 – 60 seconds), catapults for take-off from the nose and corner sections of the flight deck (for the Nimitz-type AVMA there are four steam cataps ty provide off three to four aircraft per minute at the AVMA type ". J. Ford" three electromagnetic catapults).
The greater the displacement, the more the aircraft carrier will place fuels and lubricants, ammunition, food, spare parts (AVMA can carry up to 8,1 thousand tons of fuels and lubricants and up to 2,7 thousand tons of ammunition and replenishes their stocks every six to seven days) and the less will depend on relatively low-speed universal transport supply. Practice has shown that aircraft carriers with a displacement of 80 – 90 thousand tons can use their aircraft on the Atlantic, on the Pacific Ocean, in the Indian Ocean 90% of the whole time (the remaining 10% comes from strong wind, visibility, precipitation, sea waves, air temperature). American aircraft carriers are heat-loving creatures, prefer to go as far as possible beyond the Arctic Circle. They avoid strong waves of the sea due to the large metacentric height. They move away from strong winds because the take-off and landing of the F / A-18C aircraft is limited by the wind speed over the deck at 18 and 10 m / s, respectively.
The saturation of an aircraft carrier with many types of equipment entails the need for frequent factory repairs. This circumstance significantly affects the performance of the aircraft carrier Acre throughout the entire life of the ship (the entire period of the ship’s stay in the fleet): to achieve trouble-free, the Nimitz type aircraft carrier turns out at the plant for various types of repair and maintenance on average every 1,5 of the year. Repair and factory maintenance lasts for 30 – 59 days (CIA), for 120 – 130 (SRA), for 135 – 190 (PIA), 245 – 610 days (DPIA), for 975 – 1280 days (ROH), for which accounts for 25 – 30% of the entire life of an aircraft carrier, and because of which only 33% is left to remain at sea - 6 thousand days.
CAPACITY
The combat capability of an aircraft carrier is the manning of the ship and its wing with material means, the manning of the ship and its wing with personnel, preparedness of the personnel of the ship and its wing. There are several categories of aircraft carrier combat capability according to these indicators (highest С1, acceptable С3, lower С5). The completeness of the wing of material means also including maintaining them in the appropriate technical condition. For example, during the US military operation against Iraq in 2003, the number of technically sound (MS) aircraft and aircraft carrier helicopters exceeded 75% and was at the level of 78,8 – 92,1 for all types of aircraft involved in the operation. Probably, it is appropriate to remind about the time between repairs in the US Navy for the aircraft hull (airframe) and aircraft engines. In the 2015 – 2017 fiscal years, with an annual raid in the US Navy and Marine Corps around 1 million hours on more than 4000 aircraft that have aircraft engines up to 8000, it was planned to ship annually up to 1800 aircraft engines and 400 gliders.
Crew preparedness is determined by a number of requirements. With a crew of 1,54 tactical aviation for each aircraft and an average monthly flight time of each crew in 18 hours, the average annual flight time can be 216 hours per crew and 333 hours per aircraft. The crew of the fighter-attack aircraft must be able to perform the following tasks: take-off from an aircraft carrier, piloting in any meteorological conditions, refueling in the air, landing on an aircraft carrier; Prohibition (that is, preventing the enemy from entering an aircraft carrier at sea and isolating a combat area on land and at sea); combat operations in the war at sea; escorting (escorting other aircraft); combat patrols in the air; interception from position of duty on the deck; maneuvering in air combat; suppression of enemy defenses; direct aviation support; the duties of the advanced aviation gunner; the use of aircraft to detect ground targets; the use of air-to-ground weapons; the use of aircraft to detect air targets; the use of air-to-air weapons; survival; management (i.e., execution of commands, issuing commands, sending and receiving reports on command execution) and maintaining communication; setting min; ability to act jointly (that is, in cooperation with ground forces and with aircraft of the Air Force, Marines and Ground Forces). Obviously, the pilots of Acre AVMA differ from others in their ability to take off using catapults and land using aerofinishers. With regard to combat training, it is worth noting that, with an annual expenditure on it in the Navy about 100 thousand aerial bombs, aircraft carrier aircraft accounted for the vast majority of this expenditure. Regarding the working out of the functions of the aircraft carrier’s anti-aircraft and anti-missile defenses, it is difficult to say whether the tendency to reduce the importance of maneuvering in battle is taken into account (in one 2015 study, it was argued that in the 1965 – 2014 years in most fights, long-range missiles were used with minimal maneuvering of their carriers.
The combat readiness of the aircraft carrier is also related to its combat readiness.
The combat readiness of an aircraft carrier is the duty of a combat-ready ship to begin hostilities after a certain time after the order is given to these actions. During the cold war, an aircraft carrier was considered capable of launching the sea and commencing combat operations within one day after receiving an order and continuously being at sea for up to three weeks, or an aircraft carrier capable of launching seas and commencing combat operations up to four days after receive the order and be at sea (to be "deployed") for at least 56 days. At the beginning of our century, it was prescribed that the 12 aircraft carriers in the period up to 30 days should go to sea or be at sea six, and up to 90 days - eight aircraft carriers. The presence of 10 – 11 aircraft carriers and the problems that have recently emerged (an increase in the duration of aircraft carrier repair, a delay in setting up for repair) can make it difficult to fulfill such standards.
HOME SHOCKING POWER OF FLOATING AERODROMESAircraft carrier is more than 1100 airplanes and helicopters, which are reduced to homogeneous air wings. On the basis of the squadrons in their composition, nine numbered joint-wing aircraft wings of carrier-based aircraft (CVW) were formed in regular forces. This wing is heterogeneous in composition and multipurpose in essence, since it includes four squadrons of fighter-attack aircraft (up to 12 units F / A-18C / E / F each), one squadron of EW planes (4 units EA-18G), one a squadron of DRLO airplanes and control units (4 units E-2D), two squadrons of helicopters (up to 15 anti-submarine MH-60R and multipurpose MH-60S), one transport aviation unit (2 of C-2 aircraft), more than 70 aircraft. Each wing is assigned to a specific aircraft carrier, aircraft and helicopter wing flying from coastal air bases to an aircraft carrier when it goes to sea, and fly away from it before returning the aircraft carrier to the port of registry.
Carrier aviation is not a one-time, but a reusable ship weapon. For example, F / A-18E / F is designed for 6 thousand hours of use in the air (with repairs and upgrades to 9 thousand) with an average estimated annual flight time of 350. The F / A-18C aircraft carried out 4,5 departures per day at the exercises and two sorties per day in combat conditions, and its pilot made two sorties per day in the training and in combat operations. During the military operation in 2003, the 12 of the F / A-18E / F aircraft from the 115 th fighter-assault squadron of the ABMA Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) made 16 sorties in 560 days. This aircraft, with a maximum take-off mass of 30 t (empty 14 t weighs) and a landing mass of no more than 19,5 t (including up to 4 t of weapons) can carry up to 8 t of bombs, missiles and shells, can hold 6,5 t of fuel inside and 7 t in five tanks on five external suspension nodes, has a maximum speed of 1915 km / h. Possessing 11 suspension units, it can carry a select number of bombs and missiles at a distance of up to 1250 km without refueling in the air, determined by the mass of weapons and fuel on board.
The performance of the AVMA carrier-based aviation by the number of sorties can be divided into four types: calculated, maximum, daily, and operational.
Estimated performance Acre of an aircraft carrier is measured by the number of takeoffs / landings that will be performed from an aircraft carrier / aircraft carrier during the entire time that this ship was in the fleet. Since each AVMA is designed for 50 years of life and for performing 500 thousands of take-offs / landings for 6 for thousands of days at sea, for an aircraft carrier of the Nimitz type the estimated average number of departures per year of the ship’s life - 10 and a day in the sea - 27,4 departure of aircraft and helicopters. Of the 83,3, thousands of departures slightly more than 500% (over 22 thousand) will fall on helicopters and a little less than 110% (up to 78 thousand) - on airplanes, by the way, this percentage ratio coincides with the ratio of the number of helicopters and aircraft on the aircraft carrier.
Maximum performance is the ability of an aircraft carrier Acre to fly as many flights as possible in the course of one to six days in order to accomplish the assigned tasks, operating at about twice the load on 120 – 130 sorties. Not yet broken record AVMA "Nimitz", set to teach 1997 year. Its wing, reinforced by the flight-technical and support personnel, carried out 250 sorties per day for four days, of which 200 carried out fighters-attack aircraft, fighters and EW planes.
Daily performance is the intensity of the flights of Acre while on an aircraft carrier at sea (excluding flights of Acre while basing its aircraft and helicopters at US coastal airfields) under the conditions of regular combat training and participation in systematic combat operations and military operations. In 2014, AVMA “Carl Vinson” (CVN 70) celebrated the 230-thousandth landing using aerofinishers for 32,5 during the year they were part of the fleet. Consequently, the average number of sorties made up for the year of life of the 7077 ship (with calculated 7800) and for the day of life - 19,4 of departure (with calculated 21,4), which means that for 50 years, its aircraft can 360 thousand sorties (with estimated 390 thousand). In the same year, 2014 with AVMA “George Bush” (CVN 77) for 273 24 days of its deployment with a visit to six foreign ports and passing 73 400 miles 12 524 departure, of which 9689 aircraft (77,4%) and 2835 helicopters (22,6%) ). With an average number of departures per day at sea more than 49, its Acre per 6 thousand days at sea could perform up to 300 thousand departures (with the estimated 500 thousand).
As can be seen from the above examples, at least some aircraft carriers are still lagging behind the calculated ones (in terms of the number of all departures, only sorties), giving the impression that there is a “saving” on the service life of aircraft carriers in anticipation of a more turbulent future. With the daily activities, the aircraft carrier Acre performed over 70% departures during daylight hours and up to 30% during dark hours. With an average level of accidents in the US Navy aviation for 2004 – 2014 years in 0,88 on 100 thousand hours of flight, the loss of flight vehicles by aircraft carriers while at sea as a result of emergencies was several times lower than this level.
Operational performance is the intensity of use of aircraft carrier aircraft during the active period of a military operation. During the Cold War, it was believed that an aircraft carrier wing during combat operations could take flight days at 12 hours of flight and 12 hours of recovery with a flight cycle of 1 hours 40 minutes in eight groups at 15 – 17 planes in a group on 120 – 130 departures (with five or six flight days and one or two days of rest and recovery of combat capability per week). In military operations from 1991, it was confirmed that during combat operations during 15 – 16 hours a day the aircraft carrier sometimes makes up to 140 departures per day maximally (up to 90 departures of strike aircraft), according to 120 – 130 departures a day several days in a row during the week (maximum in 12 groups for 8 – 20 airplanes in the group), for 100 – 110 flights per day during the month. Here are the AVMA figures for Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). In a military operation against Iraq in 1991, its air wing for 39 flying days made 4149 sorties, of which 1624 (39%) to strike, 1240 (30%) to gain air superiority and 1285 (31%) to combat and rear support. The average flight day departures amounted to 106, and the maximum - 140 departures. The military operation against Yugoslavia in 1999, his wing, having 72-74 aircrafts for 56 flight day committed 4270 missions, including the impact 1580 (37%), applying more than 800 tons of ammunition on 535 objects (88 stationary, 447 tactical). The average flight rate was 76 flight hours.
One of the reasons for the decrease in operational performance was the increase in the arsenal of an aircraft carrier in the number of high-precision weapons (WTO). For the destruction of objects began to require less ammunition and, therefore, departures. The proportion of high-precision munitions used in military operations by the United States and its allies in relation to all used munitions increased from 8% in 1991 to 35, 57 and 68% in 1999, 2001 and 2003, respectively. The number of aircraft carriers used by the WTO increased from a fraction of a percent in 1991 to 37, 93 and 95%, respectively, in 1999, 2001 and 2003. The paradox turned out to be the fact that for the WTO with the probability of hitting the target at that time 0,7 – 0,75 (now no more than 0,98 with reliability above 0,95) there simply was a shortage of targets.
IN ANY CONDITION AND UNDER ANY WEATHER
Aircraft carrier aviators fly equally well under any lighting conditions. The high preparedness of the flight personnel of the aircraft carrier's wing for operations at night allowed it to operate during the duration of the flight period 15 – 16 hours per day up to gaining superiority in the air mainly at night, and then switch either to only night or day flight mode, or to mixed departure schedule. The operational performance is also influenced by the load on the technical and service personnel, since it is difficult to overlap the existing standards for both maintenance for each hour of an airplane’s flight, and ammunition suspension on airplanes and helicopters. During systematic combat, aircraft carrier aircraft carried out up to 97% of planned combat missions.
Take a look at the operational performance of the carrier strike connection (AUS). In the military operation 1991 of the year against Iraq, five AVMs and one US AVMs for 42 calendar days performed about 18 thousand sorties (42% per strike, 27% for air superiority, 31% for security) with an average number of sorties per day 430 per AUS and 72 for one aircraft carrier (on the last day of the war AUS carried out about 600 sorties). Of the 252 possible days for AUS aircraft carriers, only 201 day (80%) turned out to be flight days. Thus, the average operational performance of one AUS aircraft carrier was 90 sorties per flight and 72 per calendar day. In the military operation 2003 of the year against Iraq, the US Navy airborne grouping, which simultaneously included two AVMs and three AVMAs, for 30 calendar days made 8945 sorties, showing a lower productivity compared to 1991 year.
What is the performance of the aircraft carrier by the number of objects hit, the quantity and quality of the weapons used and its mass? Officially, it was reported that an aircraft carrier could hit 680, then 1080, or 380 objects in one day. The possibility of hitting 1994 objects per day with 680, apparently, required confirmation by conducting the previously mentioned experimental exercise of AVMA “Nimitz” in 1997. The possibility of defeating 2007 objects per day at a distance of 1080 km, which appeared from 370, was probably based on the following calculation: the aircraft carrier makes 250 departures, 180 out of them to use weapons, each of the 40 combat-ready fighter-attack planes delivers six WTO units to the target, making on 4,5 departure per day). The ability of an aircraft carrier to make 2013 departures every day using 95 aerial bombs weighing 380 kg, announced in 900, probably comes from this premise: the aircraft carrier makes 120 departures daily, of which 95 use weapons, each of the 38 combat-ready fighters carries attack aircraft bears four WTO units, departing 2,5). Of course, all these numbers (680, 1080, 380) are correct only under certain conditions, including without taking into account the opposition of the enemy.
In the military operation 1991 of the year AVMA "Theodore Roosevelt" for 39 flight days spent 2450 tons of ammunition (average 63 tons per day), and the consumption of six aircraft carriers for total 201 days flight amounted to 12 thousand tons (on average almost 60 tons per one aircraft carrier per day). In systematic combat operations during a single deployment of six to nine months, the aircraft carrier once spent 700 – 800 t, and, for example, in the 2015, it could use 226 t ammunition (according to published reports, in 2014 – 2016, during systematic combat operations sometimes carried out during the deployment of 2050 – 3250 sorties during deployment on 2014 – 77. The intensity of the use of precision weapons depended on the specific circumstances. In 232, AVMA “George Bush” (CVN 2016) spent only 75 precision bombs and missiles, and in 1598, AVMA “Harry Truman” (CVN 71) used 1074 WTO units, breaking the previous record of AVMA “Theodore Roosevelt” (CVN 2003) ) 30 high-precision ammunition. In the 5297 military operation of the year for 5068 calendar days, five aircraft carriers used 34 bombs and missiles, including 71 high-precision (the average consumption per aircraft carrier is 2001 high-precision ammunition per day). For the first 4 day of the military operation against Afghanistan in 80, two AVMAs on a calendar day with 4 – 150 departures used 63 – 4 bombs and missiles (on average, both used 2250 of such ammunition per day). Taking into account some rounding of the numbers, it turns out that both aircraft carriers of almost 4500 thousands of sorties made 84 sorties for the use of weapons on the 16 target objects, while targeting each aircraft using one to five objects (an average of two objects). It is noteworthy that at 80% of sorties for the use of weapons was achieved destruction / damage of at least one object (in 1500% of sorties there was a miss), and in 2000% on average two objects. At the same time, the mass of weapons used was somewhere between 93 and XNUMX t, with the total number of high-precision weapons in XNUMX%.
As can be seen, the declared capabilities of the aircraft carrier, by the maximum number of sorties, units of weapons used, and the targets hit, for a certain period of time differ from those actually shown in combat operations in regions distant from the USA.
When flying to the use of weapons affects the dependence of the aircraft carrier Acre from refueling aircraft in the air. During the military operation 2003 of the year against Iraq, the commander of one wing once complained that due to the lack of refueling aircraft (SZA), he could carry out only 20 sorties instead of 72 to the range indicated to him. At the time, such figures testify to the weakness of aircraft carrier refueling aircraft. On the 232 fighter-assault aircraft (ISHA) of all aircraft carriers accounted for 52 SZA; During this operation, ISHA performed 5568 sorties, and refueling aircraft 2058 sorties, transferring all 4200 tons of fuel (excluding emergency refueling of an aircraft carrier when returning airplanes to it). To the rescue of aircraft carrier aircraft always came SZA US Air Force type KS-10 and KS-135. However, just as equipping several F / A-18F aircraft carrier aircraft with removable fueling equipment (a tanker aircraft can transfer no more than 11,3 tons of fuel), so much desired service of the Air Force SZA not only leads to a gain in increase or combat radius (up to 1500 km) , or the time spent on the burglary for operating an ISHA and EW aircraft carrier aircraft (up to four hours), but also to a loss in the form of reducing the number of such flights. Therefore, the test aircraft carrierless unmanned aerial vehicle will only become a tanker aircraft.
VICTORY AND LOSS
The operational performance of an aircraft carrier is influenced not only by the estimated probability of hitting an object with a single aviation ammunition, the estimated amount of ammunition needed to destroy an object, but also the estimated number of ammunition and airplanes in departure to destroy an object taking into account losses from enemy counteraction. The losses of aircraft carrier during the war against Vietnam are no longer remembered. It was also forgotten how, at some periods of the Cold War, it was believed that during actions against the main enemy, the loss of the aircraft carrier attack aircraft would amount to 10 – 20% to take off. In the "colonial" wars from 1991, the combat losses of aircraft carrier aircraft were less than the expected damage to one aircraft per thousand sorties. The availability of spare aircraft on the shore as a fund for changing or compensating for losses (on eight aircraft carriers there can be a maximum of 384 from 584 purchased aircraft F / A-18E / F) provides a fairly quick replenishment of aircraft carrier losses in the flight technique. By completing the 1,5 crew for one aircraft, a quick recovery of losses is achieved in the aircraft crew composition. As for the aircraft carrier itself, while its "immortality" is guaranteed in case of emergency, escort ships (one or two cruisers, two or five destroyers, one or two submarines), their own wing and their own means of self-defense.
Let's compare the effectiveness of aviation of all types of armed forces in military operations of the USA and its allies (all figures are rounded). In 1991, during the short-term war, the United States and its allies against Iraq, with almost 21 thousand bomber, assault and fighter aviation sorties, 29 thousand air munitions (bombs and missiles) weighing about 15 thousand tons in 20 thousand points were used aiming to destroy / damage the same number of objects. Then, for the destruction / damage of one object, an average of 1,5 aviation munitions was required (with their total mass in 750 kg). From August 2014 to August 2016, while fighting in Iraq and Syria against the caliphate forces, the United States and its allies performed 20 thousand sorties on weapons using 55 thousand air munitions to destroy / damage 30 thousand objects. In the active phase of the 2001 military operation of the year in Afghanistan, US carrier aircraft sought to destroy / damage objects with the least amount of weapons spent on the object.
Regarding the prospects for the performance of the new American aircraft carrier, it was reported that the number of sorties of its strike aircraft will increase by one third. Consequently, the aircraft carrier type "J. Ford will be different from the AVMA type "Nimitz" greater maximum and operational performance. If the “Nimitz” with reinforced personnel performed the maximum 250 sorties per day, then “J. Ford "without such an increase with the usual staffing will be able to perform maximum 270 departures. If the Nimitz type aircraft carrier was designed for normal operational performance of 120 – 130 daily departures, then the J. Ford is scheduled for 160 departures per day.
As can be seen, the performance of an American aircraft carrier over a certain period of time in terms of the number of sorties, the number of weapons used and the targets hit depends on many internal and external factors, including the conditions and requirements of the situation.
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