Future of Aircraft Carriers

[marlin 4]

Saw this article today.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/us-aircraft-carriers-may-be-moved-from-middle-east-2015-6

 

Curious if anyone else is off the opinion that railguns and point defence lasers based on Warships will shift the balance of naval power back to Battleships/Cruisers?

 

Ultimately currenct stealth aircraft technolgy is going to be defeated/rendered less effective as a method of avoiding radar detection at longer and longer ranges.

 

Not to mention this from Lockheed Martin. 

http://www.lockheedmartin.com.au/us/products/compact-fusion.html

If it was from anyone else I would say bullshit.  But effectively we will have aircraft with unlimited ranges, apparently they are expecting a truck sized unit to power a town, so it won't be hard to hook one up to a jet engine, should this happen I have no doubt we will see hypersonic aircraft.

 

Fusion reactors may also allow super cavitating submarines/underwater aircraft as well.

 

Regardless of what happens the next 20 years are going to very interesting!!

 

[+Typhoid 231]

Aviation will always be with us, although changing. 

 

As long as aviation is with us, ships will take aviation to sea. 

 

The aircraft carrier will change, of course, but something like it will always be needed. 

[marlin 4]

I agree completely, but will Carriers be the premier Warships in the future?

[+pcpilot 181]

   Carriers ability to be a floating, moving airbase is what gives them their current edge. In addition, the firepower of their massed aircraft doomed ships without aircraft of their own to protect them. Carriers are a way to project conventional power to any point on the earth so they have become the major surface combatant of choice for the military and politicians. More nations are building carriers now than at any point in world history for that reason. They can hit surface ships, attack sub-surface threats, provide CAP and ground support far in excess of ship based guns, even the railgun, which still has a somewhat limited range at present of around 100 miles. Additionally, with point defense being vastly improved with laser and railgun weapons, I don't see carriers becoming obsolete in the near future. Railguns and lasers are mainly just that, point defense weapons with a limited power projection ability for railguns.

 

   A possible game changer for the Navy, and militaries in general, might be hyper speed aircraft powered by fusion that have an unlimited range and travel very fast. They could potentially be a threat to anyone anywhere. There could then conceivably be no further use for carriers if aircraft launched from, say, the U.S. itself, were able to fly anywhere in a reasonably short time to deliver an attack. Yes, we presently have in-flight refueling, but the aircraft are very limited by their speed. A B-52 can fly anywhere in the world with refueling but the logistics are difficult, politics interfere, and crew are stretched to the limit with flight times of 12, 20, or more hours. Imagine an aircraft that could attack a ship at sea, or a Taliban cave, 12,000 miles away in a 3 or 4 hours!

[gbnavy61 1]

Interesting thoughts. The cruise missile threat is real, and present. However, even if you manage to overwhelm a carrier with that firepower (if you're lucky, you might sink it, most likely you will damage it to the point it has to withdraw), you've now shot your wad and what do you have left for the next aircraft carrier that pulls up off your coast in a few weeks?

 

I think it's about time we also took a hard look at airborne ASW. Submarines are still the number one threat to carriers and surface ships of any kind. During the latter half of WWII and for a while after, ASW aircraft dominated submarines. Now, aircraft are lucky to even find a sub they have a general location for. Surely, there must be some new or developing technology that could swing the advantage back towards airborne ASW? If that happens, then I think carriers are back to being top-dog for a while longer. Otherwise, I think submerging, drone aircraft carriers are the way to go.