BACK IN THE GAME

BACK IN THE GAME

As HMS Prince of Wales joins her sister ship at Portsmouth, Norman Friedman highlights the unique value carriers offer and why so many major navies have also decided to become members of this exclusive club.

A carrier is mobile air power. That air power can protect a fleet or a convoy at sea, and it can be used against an enemy ashore. Nothing other than a carrier offers the same capacity. The British government of the day learned as much during the strikes against Serbia in 1997. Various NATO countries had contributed large numbers of aircraft based ashore in Italy. Britain made a similar contribution, but in addition, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was operating in the Adriatic. During the strike campaign, bad weather often closed the Italian air bases down. However, Ark Royal was able to seek out areas of acceptable weather. She was also much closer to the targets than the airfields ashore. Even though she carried only a few aircraft, on many days she contributed more attack sorties – more of the point of the NATO air effort – than the entire land-based air force. This experience had a direct effect on UK government planning. The Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which was being conducted at the same time, recommended that the United Kingdom (UK) build two large carriers, of which HMS Prince of Wales is the second.

The Italian navy aircraft carrier Cavour is designed to combine fixed-wing V/STOL and helicopter air operations, command and control operations and the transport of military or civilian personnel and heavy vehicles.

Royal Navy Photo by LPHOT Dave Jekins, Crown Copyright

During the Libyan Revolution a few years later in 2011, the consequences of not having a carrier on the scene became evident. This time, NATO was supporting Libyan rebels fighting Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Without a carrier, the main British air contribution consisted of UK-based strike aircraft. On paper, this seemed like a reasonable option as they could certainly fly to Libya, attack, and then return. However, a long flight from the UK would only have been acceptable if the war in Libya had involved attacks on pre-selected targets. The reality of supporting the Libyan rebels was the need for short-notice attacks on targets that suddenly popped up out of nowhere. The only way of being able to engage them would have been by loitering in the skies above, but to do this, they would have needed to be based quite close by. A fast-jet carrier in the Mediterranean would have solved this challenge, as aircraft could have been held on stand-by, plus they would have had the endurance to loiter as needed. Eventually, UK forces were provided a solution of sorts in the form of Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters launched from the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean. However, these helicopters would not have been a viable option if the Libyan government forces had been able to get their hands on better anti-aircraft weapon systems.

The French navy aircraft carrier Charles deGaulle (R 91) and the Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS Collins (SSG 73) transit the Bay of Bengal during exercise La Perouse.

Royal Navy Photo by LPHOT Dave Jekins, Crown Copyright

The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.

Royal Navy Photo by LPHOT Dave Jekins, Crown Copyright

When the SDR was conducted in 1997, it seemed that international crises might well be unusual and infrequent. At the time, it was hard to imagine situations in which British troops fighting far from home would need air support. Since then, the world has become far less stable, and armed intervention far more common. American experience in Middle Eastern wars has been that local governments are relatively reluctant to welcome foreign combat aircraft.

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning (CV 16), once the Russian Kuznetsov-class carrier Varyag, refitted, upgraded, and commissioned into the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

PLA Daily Photo

However, when US carriers have been deployed, so that combat air support has been available whether or not local governments have offered base rights, often those same governments have found it easier to grant such access. The reason is simple: In many cases a local government may see this level of cooperation as very much in its own interest, but the nuances of local politics can sometimes make it difficult to bring about. That said, those against offering access have to expend substantial political capital opposing it. Mustering this opposition becomes less appealing when it is obvious that air strikes can be delivered off nearby carriers. Thus, even when carriers do not provide the bulk of combat aircraft, they are useful both militarily and politically.

Air Defence at Sea

The other side of carrier capability is the air defence of ships at sea. It takes a carrier to keep fighters aloft near a moving force of ships. The great lesson of the Falklands War, which was the last time that a British naval force found itself under air attack, was that missile-armed surface ships could provide an inner layer of defence, but that it took carrier aircraft to extend that defence out to the limit at which enemy aircraft could launch anti-ship missiles. It was fortunate that the Argentine forces had only a very limited stock of Exocet missiles, and therefore to make each missile count, the attacking aircraft had to come within range of RN shipboard defences. Even then, carrier fighters, in this case operating at the limit of their range, shot down most of the Argentine attackers.

The Spanish navy amphibious assault ship-aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I (L-61) underway in the Baltic Sea during Exercise Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2019.

U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Stephan Edgar

The Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (R 33), formerly the Russian navy’s Admiral Gorshkov, was heavily modified and improved for Indian Navy service.

Indian Navy Photo

In any future opposed operation, the majority, if not all, of the attackers will be armed with stand-off anti-ship missiles. Shipboard missile defences will be predominantly directed at those incoming weapons, not the aircraft delivering them. Unless the attacking airplanes are shot down – by carrier fighters – they will simply fly back to base and return to attack again. Such attacks would exhaust the stocks of shipboard missiles. It takes a carrier and carrier-borne fighters to gain freedom of operation by eliminating the enemy’s anti-ship air arm.

Finally, a large carrier can also accommodate, service, and control anti-submarine helicopters to an extent smaller surface warships cannot. In any future opposed operation against an enemy well-equipped with submarines, the carrier’s anti-submarine capacity would be invaluable.

The Carrier Club is in Constant Action

Since the end of World War II there has been an ongoing presence of US carriers abroad. Until recently, these consisted of both Nimitz-class carriers with F/A-18 Hornet strike/fighters and large-deck amphibious ships – the latter operating short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) AV-8B Harrier II jump jets. However, in 2018 the USMC’s Essex Amphibious Ready Group deployed to the Pacific and Middle East with the F-35B Lightning II, marking the aircraft’s first US combat deployment. Not far behind the B variant, the F-35C achieved initial operational capability in February 2019, and its first seaborne operational deployment is due in 2021 onboard the Nimitz-class USS Carl Vinson. In the Gulf and elsewhere, the Western interests those ships support have been further backed by the Rafale jets from the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, as well as by Italian and Spanish aircraft carriers that both embark AV-8B Harrier II STOVL aircraft.

Closer to home, the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean in 2016 with its complement of Su-33 and MiG-29 fast jets in support of the Syrian Assad regime. Meanwhile, in 2017, the Chinese Liaoning aircraft carrier, which is a sister ship of the Admiral Kuznetsov, steamed around Taiwan to back up Chinese political claims on the break-away republic. Once fully operational, it will host a complement of the J-15 fighter – a close relative of the Russian Su33. Also in that region, India has deployed one MiG-29K-equipped carrier (a rebuilt Russian ship now known as the INS Vikramaditya). India is building more carriers, as is China. Thailand operates a much smaller carrier equipped with S-70 and MH-60 helicopters.

In the Western Hemisphere, Brazil up until spring 2017, operated the aircraft carrier São Paulo, which is an ex-French vessel built in the late 1950s. Brazil’s fleet flagship was home to the venerable A-4 Skyhawk fast jets. In light of prohibitive costs of refurbishment, the Brazilian government retired the carrier on Nov. 22, 2018, after more than half a century at sea – 18 years of which were with the Brazilian Navy.