#1993
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por Marino » Sáb Abr 07, 2012 8:22 pm
Ainda ouvimos os mantras contra a existência de PA na MB.
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Navies Worldwide Invest In Sea-Based Airpower
Apr 4, 2012
By Andy Nativi, Jay Menon, Bill Sweetman
Genoa, New Delhi, Washington
Not that long ago, the number of nations wielding sea-based airpower
seemed to be headed inexorably downward. Today, the reverse is true.
China is a brand-new member of the club. Brazil is sustaining its
membership, a decade after retiring a carrier that the U.K. completed
in 1945. India is expanding its aircraft carrier fleet, and the
nations that acquired or maintained sea-based airpower with the short-
take-off-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) Harrier may renew that
capability with the Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.
However, a common factor for almost all these nations is that they are
just starting, or have yet to start, down a long and expensive road.
It is not just that carrier-based aircraft are expensive, but that
buying fighters and ships is only half the story.
Although public attention is always focused on the construction cost
of carriers, its aircraft are a bigger investment. In 2013, the U.S.
Navy wants $967 million for its aircraft carrier program and about $6
billion for procurement of carrier-based aircraft (not including
Marine Corps F-35Bs). The operating costs involved in training and
supporting the carrier’s personnel, fuel and aircraft spares and
refits are higher still. And the basic math says that you need three
carrier groups for every full-time station.
Nations see the cost as justified, as sea trade and offshore resources
gain importance and as as the use of insurgency-type attacks for
national ends turns land-based deployed forces into targets. The
question is whether all would-be carrier club members recognize that
building the ship is the initiation fee and that the annual dues are a
killer.
Money has already sparked a conflict within the British defense
establishment over the aircraft type for the Royal Navy’s new carriers
(see p. 27). It may not be the last such discussion. With Britain
still officially committed to the catapult-arrest F-35C—at least as of
late March—Italy is leading the way among sea-based Harrier operators.
The carrier Cavour has been designed around the Stovl F-35B.
Italy, Spain and India remain the sole operators of first or second-
generation Harrier Stovl fighter-bombers, with Thailand having no
longer a real operational capability.
Italy’s Cavour is a hybrid vessel. It does not have a well deck but is
designed to support amphibious operations. It has a full load
displacement of 27,000 tons and is 244 meters (800 ft.) long. Its
hangar can accommodate up to 10 F-35Bs, with flight-deck parking for
another six F-35Bs and two helicopters.
Cavour illustrates the fact that small carriers must be bigger than
they used to be, to sustain real air operations. Compared with Italy’s
“Harrier carrier,” the Garibaldi, Cavour is 64 meters longer and the
flight deck has a total surface of 6,800 square meters (73,200 sq.
ft.), with 4,450 square meters devoted to flight operations, versus
1,870 square meters on the Garibaldi.
The Italian navy plans to buy 22 F-35Bs to replace 16 remaining
Harriers. Its long-term planning includes acquisition of two large JSF-
capable LHDs and an LHA (similar but with no well deck) to replace the
Garibaldi and three smaller LHDs. This will allow Italy to have at
least one carrier operational at any time.
The Spanish navy is moving from its carrier Principe de Asturias to
the large LHD Juan Carlos. It is currently operating 16 EAV-8B Plus
aircraft, but would like to buy as many as 20 F-35Bs, budget
permitting. The Juan Carlos is estimated to be able to operate no more
than a dozen F-35Bs, because of its size and the fact that it has a
well deck.
Multiple nations are acquiring large LHDs that could carry F-35Bs.
Australia is to commission the LHDs Canberra and Adelaide in 2014 and
2015 respectively, which are based on the Juan Carlos design, even
including the ski-jump bow—which is valuable for Stovl operations, but
a penalty the rest of the time, since the sloping deck space is
unavailable for anything else.
Japan has in service the Hyuga-class destroyer—a 200- meter-long,
20,000-ton vessel that can host 11 rotorcraft, and could lead to an
F-35B-capable design. Japan, like Australia, is to acquire the F-35A
for the air force. South Korea has yet another Asian navy that is
considering building a large LHD, beyond the 18,000-ton Dokdo LPH.
China and India could start a “carrier race” in the Pacific Rim. A
dual-role ship class—a large LHA/LHD capable of operating jets—is a
cheaper, less politically and strategically sensitive naval vessel
that can provide substantial capabilities if fitted with a supersonic,
stealth fighter bomber.
The question is how many countries will buy F-35Bs to operate from
LHDs. The LHD is a multimission ship that has to carry landing craft,
helicopters, troops and vehicles and a command center and staff. Even
in a ship of close to 30,000 tons, space is at a premium.
The F-35B is a complex aircraft, as heavy and powerful as a Super
Hornet, and will have similar demands for maintenance personnel and
space, test equipment, spares and fuel. The U.S. Marines, working with
50,000-ton ships, tried trading the well deck on the LHA-6 and LHA-7
for extra fuel and aviation space, but will not repeat that with LHA-8
and beyond.
Compared with true carriers LHDs have narrower flight decks, which
limit the pace of flight operations. Another important factor will be
the acquisition and operating cost of the F-35B, which has yet to be
defined.
India is taking a different approach to expanding its carrier
operations—although it is one that tends to underline India’s
reputation for a scattershot approach to acquisitions.
Sea trials of the carrier INS Vikramaditya, formerly the Russian Kiev-
class Admiral Gorshkov, are scheduled to begin in the Barents Sea on
May 29 and last two to three weeks. Its much-delayed handover to the
Indian navy is due on Dec. 4.
Major changes to the ship include the removal of cruise missile tube
and surface-to-air missile vertical launchers and the installation of
a forward flight deck and ski-jump for short-takeoff-but-assisted-
recovery (Stobar) operations. The ship can carry 24 MiG-29K/KUBs—
developed specially for India—and six to eight Kamov Ka-31 airborne
early warning helicopters.
The first MiG-29K/KUB fighter jets are already operating at the naval
aviation base at Goa. These are from an initial batch of 11 aircraft
ordered at the same time that the carrier deal was signed. India and
Russia inked an additional $1.5 billion deal for 29 more MiG-29K/KUBs
in March 2010. Delivery of the second batch of MiG fighters will start
this year. The contracts include pilot training and aircraft
maintenance, including the delivery of flight simulators and
interactive ground and sea-based training systems.
"A reconquista da soberania perdida não restabelece o status quo."
Barão do Rio Branco