Difference between revisions of "Community Vessel Aircraft Carrier"

Latest revision as of 12:28, 23 August 2006

The powerful Carrier Task Force is the cornerstone of the CDF Naval Service and CDF naval aviation in the Community Defence Forces of Sober Thought. The carrier group, which always operates as part of a larger flotilla or fleet, projects tri-service power to distant shores. For smaller roles or tactical, rather than strategic purposes, the Naval Service uses escort carriers with roughly a third of the size and power of a fleet carrier.

The air component has the most personnel and is most important on the ship. Considering its gigantic size, its naval anti-aircraft defences are slight because it -- not to mention its escorts -- relies on its own air power to intercept aerial threats before they arrive.

The purely naval component of the carrier is armed with anti-submarine warfare helicopters, anti-submarine mortars and anti-ship missiles; however, it relies on its escorts which are armed with broader spectrum of other weapons systems. Its escorts consist of at least some and frequently all of the following vessel classes: hybrid cruiser-helicopter carriers, destroyers, frigates and submarines.

The land component has the fewest personnel and is, by itself, the least important force on the carrier. It always consists of at least a battalion of marines, but the formation often includes additional troops embarked on landing and troop ships

Building

These conventionally powered carriers are roughly comparable to the United States Navy’s Forrestal and Kitty Hawk classes of fleet carriers but with a far more predicable building programme. Sober Thought commissions one aircraft carrier for every population wave one hundred million citizens.

The carriers' hulls are sequentially numbered from A-1 in the first wave, A-2 in the second, A-3 in the third, etc. Concurrently the warships bear the names of current or former provinces listed by order of population or nations belonging to the International Democratic Union. Individual ships would be identified on the models CV Thuvia and CV Mikitivity. For clarity, when the name is similar to another vessel or to cite its full designation, individual ships would be identified on the models CV Hochelaga Province (A-2), CV Ville de Hochelaga (C-2), CV Potato Island Province (A-9) and CV Potato Island (C-82).

Below is the building programme until defence spending was curtailed in the twenty-first wave:

Such a modest but reliable building programme means that there is steady employment for a smaller number of shipbuilders rather than unreliable employment for a larger number. This method of shipbuilding has three important implications for the nation's political economy: the navy gets better quality ships and can implement incremental design changes; the shipyards have lower overtime, training and drydock costs; and the Sober Thought government discourages the creation of a military-industrial complex and all the potential for waste and corruption that implies.

Naval component

The overall mission commanding officer and executive officer are a Vice Marshal and a Chief Commander, respectively. The two senior officers of the carrier group are as likely to have trained as aviators they have as mariners. The most senior officer guaranteed to be from the navy is the Chief Commander responsible for the naval component.

The Bridge Section on the carrier includes the ranking officers and about 200 all ranks. Among the naval trades represented here are navigators, signalers and sensor operators. Although separate from the section, the Carrier Air Group's command and electronics squadron is closely integrated on the bridge because the island where the bridge is located makes an ideal control tower.

The largest section on the ship by both personnel and area occupied is the Naval Engineering Section under a Commander. Its 1 200 or so officers and other ranks maintain the physical capital, viz. engines, hull and interior. The Naval Support Section, consisting of about 500 all ranks under a Vice Commander, do the same for human capital by feeding, clothing, housing, medicating and administering all personnel.

Paradoxically for such a large ship, the Naval Weapons Section has only about 200 sailors serving under a Chief Lieutenant. However, the most potent weapon on this ship is actually the embarked aircraft, so by that standard there are more like 2 600.

Similarly, its anti-submarine capabilities are quite modest because it relies on its escorts to keep the U-Boote from booting it. Nevertheless, the carrier has six submarine mortars spread evenly around the perimeter of the ship. Each mortar battery is housed in its own weapons pit stocked with 120 depth charges and 90 mini-mines.

The carrier's organic anti-aircraft abilities rest upon anti-missile missiles located fore and aft of the island. Each battery of an octuple missile launcher has 480 missiles. This seems like a large number of reloads compared to that of the cruisers, upon which the carrier relies for its area air defence, but no so large when you look at the sheer size of the ship. One pair of 20 mm gatling guns is located in each quadrant of the ship below the flight deck for point air defence.

Air component

Main article: CDF naval aviation#Carrier Air Group.

The main flight deck runs 320 m, the length of the entire ship, fitted over the hull while the other flight deck stretches over the port side. The CDF Air Service component aboard the carrier consists of the Carrier Air Group. Its commanding officer is a Chief Commander and executive officer is a Commander. Together they are in charge of the 2 400 aircrew, 17 helicopters and 79 airplanes on board.

Vice Commanders head the two fighter and one utility wings, with Chief Lieutenants heading the twenty flying and non-flying squadrons, and Lieutenants the hundred or so flying and non-flying flights. Most of the supposed squadrons in the utility wing are made up of quasi-independent flights each composed of different aircraft from the others in its squadron. The following fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft are normally embarked as part of the CAG:

• 30 FN-1 Faina fixed-wing fighter airplanes
• 30 F-22 Faith V/STOL fighter airplanes
• 6 FNR-1 Fionnarra tactical reconnaissance airplanes
• 3 RB-78 Robert maritime patrol airplanes
• 12 HUBR-77 Hubert anti-submarine warfare helicopters
• 2 HTN-55 Hortense medium transport helicopters
• 3 FNE-1 Fannie electronic warfare airplanes
• 3 HUS-77 Hudson search-and-rescue helicopters
• 4 TLN-61 Toulon tanker airplanes
• 3 TNE-61 Tennie airborne warning and control airplanes.

Land component

Main article: CDF Naval Service#Marine Division.

The troops and weapons supplied by the CDF Land Service to the Carrier Group are the least important of the arms of service. Nevertheless, they compare favourably to those of the helicopter carrier-cruiser.

Marines are most frequently relegated to sentry, patrol and punishment duties. They can also board potentially hostile warships or merchant vessel, being transported by the naval component's boats or the air component's helicopters. By the same means they can also conduct medium-sized amphibious assaults – with much more air support than their counterparts in the hybrid cruisers.

The normal complement is one marine light infantry battalion of 565 all ranks under a Chief Lieutenant. An additional battalion and a demi-brigade headquarters under a Vice Commander can be accommodated without any special preparation. Larger numbers of land troops can embark if the personnel and equipment from either or both of the other two components is reduced. However, this is a terrible waste of a powerful resource; one may met the goal more effectively with conventional landing and transport ships.

Illustration notes

At the bottom of the infobox is an illustration of CV Potato Island Province on manoeuvres. Unlike other naval ships, the aircraft carrier truly requires three views --sideways, overhead and frontal -- to properly appreciate its layout and features. Note the following features listed from bow to stern, with best view indicated in parentheses:

1. End of primary runway (over)/bow (front)
2. Anchor (front, side)
3. FN-1 landing on primary runway (font, side)
4. Hull number C-11 (side)
5. Starboard aft 20 mm gatling gun pit (side)
6. End of secondary and tertiary runways (over)
7. First submarine mortar/mini-mine pits, three starboard (side)
8. Fore elevator carrying two FN-1s up from hangars (front, side)
9. Helipad occupied by HTN-55 (side)
10. Amidships elevator with two HUBR-77 and one HUS-77 (over)
11. Fore octuple anti-ship missile launchers (side)
12. Bridge, control tower and concave radar (front)
13. Entire island (side)
14. Sensors (side)
15. Sober Thought roundel on the island (side)
16. FNE-1 parked on tertiary runway (over)
17. Communications tower (side)
18. Unladen aft elevator (top)
19. Enclosed Doppler radar (side)
20. Aft anti-ship missile battery (side)
21. RB-78 parked between stern and aft elevator (top, front)
22. Pair of catapults for primary and secondary runways (top)
23. Starboard stern gunpit (side)
24. Start of tertiary runway (top)
25. Rudder and screws (side)
26. Stern and start of primary and secondary runways (side, top)