Burden of sea power
The continuing increase in the cost of military programs hurts one of the most expensive sectors of the military-industrial complex - shipbuilding. The first aircraft carriers were hit.
Last September, it became known that the naval departments of Great Britain and France were negotiating on the creation of a joint group of “floating airfields” for permanent combat duty at sea. It should have entered the British ships Ark Royal and Illustries, as well as the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. However, the current state of the fleets of the English Channel neighbors, the world economic crisis, as well as some decisions made later, put a thick cross on these plans.
CHEAP IMPERIAL POLICY
The United Kingdom Department of Defense recently announced an immediate withdrawal. fleet one of two Invincible class aircraft carriers - the Royal Arc. This decision, which was included in a large package of other measures to reduce the British military programs, caused a serious resonance: in the ranks of the Navy of Her Majesty, there is actually only one aircraft carrier Illastries, and its fate also hangs in the balance.
What is the reason for the accelerated write-off of Ark Royal? Budget savings have never been a sufficient basis in and of themselves, although now, as far as can be judged, the position of the British military budget is comparable to the catastrophic failure of the early 20-s of the XX century. Then, under the "dismissal", covered by the Washington agreements on the limitation of naval armaments, dozens of ships were satisfied, which had nothing to maintain, and the construction of new ones almost completely ceased.
True, in London it is claimed that the Ark Royal is being "retired" for the sake of two new aircraft carriers laid down in Britain: Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wells. However, this is a clear attempt to make a good face on a bad game. Actually, both of these ships of the CV Future class were planned during development and installation as a replacement for the exhausted resource “Arc Royal” and its sistership “Illastries”. The hasty write-off of one of the two aircraft carriers remaining in the possession of the retired "mistress of the seas," indicates the serious difficulties faced by the British military departments.
"Illastries", by the way, also cannot feel in the privileged position of Her Majesty's only aircraft carrier. If the “Arc Royal” is written off “immediately” and without any conditions, then “Illastries” can also leave the ranks of the Royal Navy - in case of a negative answer to the question of possible conversion into an amphibious assault carrier or a control ship.
If you look closely at the design characteristics of "Elizabeth" and "Prince", it becomes clear that this kind of survivability. These ships are three times superior in displacement "aircraft carrying cruisers" type "Invinsible" and are able to become the base for 36 full-fledged carrier-based fighters, in contrast to the 12-18 vertically taking off "Harriers" from their predecessors. The cost of one new aircraft carrier, according to the most modest preliminary estimates, will reach four billion pounds. As a result, Queen Elizabeth has been carefully scheduled to be commissioned in the 2020 area of the year, and the schedule for sistership has not yet been determined.
In principle, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the pledged Prince of Wells is now listed as “mothballed at a low stage of readiness” (by calling a spade a spade, they actually did not start building it). This situation again brings us back to the beginning of the 20-s, when the UK defiantly issued orders for four high-speed battleships of the G-3 class, without having in the empty treasury any means for their construction. But then these four "future corps" were to play the role of bargaining chip in bargaining with the United States when concluding the Washington agreements. With whom the United Kingdom intends to bargain now, laying the ships for which he has no money is harder to understand.
PERSPECTIVE DOLGOSTROY
If Britain still has, albeit formally, two aircraft carriers, then in the French fleet this class is represented only by the atomic Charles de Gaulle. Relatively new ship (introduced into the fleet in 2000 year), "De Gaulle" was built long 11 years, cost the treasury 3,2 billion dollars without taking into account the cost of the air group, his whole life does not get out of repairs, accidents and long-lasting retrofit.
On tests, there were incidents with reactors, and in the fall of the 2000 of the year in the Atlantic, an altogether stunning failure occurred: because of the technological defect that led to the formation of cavities in the integral metal ingot, the left screw broke. In 2001, the aircraft carrier was again under repair, where he met 11 in September and started the “war on terror”. Former French President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing quipped that the country had built a “semi-avian carrier” for itself.
By the way, it should be noted that the Charles de Gaulle electronic cartographic complex was created in Russia. But just to his work, there were no complaints and no: analogues of this system have proven themselves in operation by private shipowners.
In 2007, “de Gaulle” was again put on a major overhaul. Finished it was calculated in 2012-m, but missed the 2009-th. On the ship, they replaced the catapults and aircraft lifters, replaced the turbines.
And recently, “De Gaulle” left Toulon, having the goal of leading the fight against piracy in the waters of the Horn of Africa. The campaign lasted exactly 24 hours: a failure in the electrical systems of the propulsion system was found on the aircraft carrier. The ship returned back to Toulon, where he again and habitually got up for repair.
France is planning to launch the second aircraft carrier not earlier than 2017 of the year, and it should be an aircraft carrier built according to the adapted British project CV Future, like Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wells. But the financial crisis is making adjustments: at the moment, the construction, which is additionally burdened by complicated coordination of technical solutions used in the British project, has been postponed. "Charles de Gaulle" with all its problems remains the only French aircraft carrier, not counting the helicopter carrier "Jeanne d'Arc." And the "Zhanna" plan to withdraw from the fleet in the near future due to high maintenance costs.
WHAT IS OUT?
How to form a joint Franco-British squadron of combat-ready aircraft carriers under such conditions is not entirely clear. Of the three potential units of such a compound, one is withdrawn from the fleet, another one is suspended, and the remaining relatively new ship does not crawl out of the ship repair. At the same time, in order to save, obsolete units are being mercilessly reduced, which could be used at least to work out the principles of interaction in a multinational aircraft carrier group.
However, some experts express objections of a political nature. One of the planned features of the Franco-British grouping was to be the action of ships in the interests of both countries on the principle of interchangeability. What will happen, the British are interested, if at the moment of the French "duty" there will be a crisis like the Falklands war of the 1982 of the year? Will Paris sanction the use of Charles de Gaulle in foreign waters?
In any case, it seems that we will not have the opportunity to test this thesis in practice. Reducing the current British aircraft carriers and tightening the CV Future program (on both sides) will lead to the fact that both great (in the past) sea powers will remain for some time without the most vivid symbol of modern sea power - aircraft carriers that have a heavy burden on taxpayers.
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