The Juan Carlos
Posted on 02/09/2014 6:35:33 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
The Juan Carlos
The new fad in the 21st century. Everyone wants a carrier! Everyone wants to force project and show how big their peen is...
So with the ski slope, are the Turks planning to purchase F-35Bs?
It may be a beautiful well designed ship but it would be a leap to rate it an effective warship even if deployed. Foreign navies especially the Chinese all want carriers. However while they may be able to build them or procure them, what they can not readily have are experienced competent crews. The American Navy has over ninety years of carrier experience including much combat. The value of that experience and the constant passing of knowledge cannot be easily created. You can steal plans, buy or produce materials but you cannot easily create competent personnel. It will be a very long time if ever before these foreign navies have effective carriers that can function far from their shores.
Easy to dismiss a single LHA/LHD as an insignificant bit of power compared to US standards. But in the Eastern Med it could indeed change the regional power game. I trust Turkey knows there’s a long learning period before they can employ it effectively. And as a point-centric power platform, it’s a high-value target.
TC
Sub bait.
Carriers are indeed sub bait. Many years ago, there was an argument between two Soviet admirals; one favored greater development of submarines, the other favored aircraft carriers and large capital ships.
The latter admiral won the argument at that time; the losing admiral was, if I recall correctly, shot. This was during Stalin’s reign.
That was exactly my thought.
The real story isn't Turkey's quest for power projection, it's the graft involved in building that ridiculous thing.
Funny.
If Billy Mitchell had been born a Russian, he would have been shot for advocating air power.
There isn’t any place in the eastern Med that isn’t within striking distance of a country with 1st class land-based strike aircraft. If this thing isn’t targeted by a sub it will spend all it’s limited deck space hauling interceptors to protect itself.
Really effective carriers have to ship a balanced air wing that can perform ASW, strike & air defense. Smaller carriers sacrifice capability in 1 or more areas.
Spaniards build beautiful warships. Always have. Put a Spanish ship into the hands of the English Royal Navy and you have something!
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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“Always have. Put a Spanish ship into the hands of the English Royal Navy and you have something!”
During Nelson’s time the Spaniards did that quite a lot.
Yup, that was the era I was referencing. The Spaniard is a lover, not a fighter!
ping...
The Kalinin K-7. "The K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The very brief first flight showed instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating with the engine frequency. The solution to this was thought to be to shorten and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. The aircraft completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of the tail booms on 21 November 1933." Seeing as how resonance wasn't really understood back in the early 1930s, I'll give 'em a pass on that one.
That’s my take on it to. Where do the Turks intend to project power? This won’t help them against their immediate neighbors, where they have real interests and conflicts, and some prospect of exerting real power. And I don’t see them sending this thing to somewhere like the Persian Gulf.
Alternately its a bargaining piece to use to trade services with some other power. Something for the Saudis to rent, as part of some Sunni coalition effort far from Turkey. And far from Israel.
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