Aircraft Carriers II (Closed to posting)

France deploys aircraft carrier against ISIS in Iraq - ministry

France has deployed its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Iraq, as part of the US-led military campaign, French media report, citing government officials.

"The integration of the Charles de Gaulle in the operation... (in Iraq) begins this morning," a member of Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's staff told AFP.

The agency reports that the first Rafale fighter jet took off from the aircraft carrier on Monday morning. The warship was sailing about 200 kilometres (120 miles) off the coast north of Bahrain in the direction of Iraq.

Jets sent from the carrier reach Iraq twice as fast as those, flying from their base in the United Arab Emirates.

France announced sending the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier for use in military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq in mid-January. The decision was made in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks, when Islamist gunmen killed 17 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

French President Francois Hollande told military personnel back then that the Charlie Hebdo massacre “justifies the presence of our aircraft carrier.”

France joined the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS militants in Iraq in September. It has declined to participate in the aerial campaign against the group in Syria, where the government of President Bashar Assad has condemned the attacks on Syrian territory.

The Charles de Gaulle carrier is the largest Western European warship currently in commission, and is France’s only nuclear-powered surface vessel. The ship can carry 20 to 25 aircraft, including Super Etendard strike fighter jets, Rafale M multirole fighter jets and Aster missiles.

The carrier is currently accompanied by an attack submarine, several frigates, including a British anti-submarine boat and a refueling ship, Reuters reports.

France operates nine fighter jets from its base in the United Arab Emirates and six Mirage fighter jets from Jordan.

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India is trying to fast-track finalization of its long-pending ambitious plan to launch indigenous construction of its largest-ever aircraft carrier. Though the propulsion system for the proposed 65,000-tonne warship is yet to be decided, the plan is veering towards nuclear power for greater operational endurance.

The ongoing "detailed" naval study for this indigenous aircraft carrier-II (IAC-II) project has gained urgency since the ageing 56-year-old INS Viraat -- quite toothless now with just 11 Sea Harrier jump-jets left to operate from its deck -- will be retired next year.

India has to plan ahead since it will take at least 10-12 years to construct IAC-II, which will be christened INS Vishal, if it wants to systematically build military capabilities to counter China's expanding long-range naval deployments in the Indian Ocean Region, say officials.

China, after inducting its first 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier Liaoning in September 2012, already has a second one under construction and two more are in the pipeline to further bolster its expanding maritime power. Aircraft carriers, with their accompanying warships and aircraft, after all, are the ultimate symbols of military power projection around the globe.

"INS Viraat will be decommissioned after the International Fleet Review in Vizag in February 2016. It will not be cost-effective to go in for another major refit of INS Viraat, which was inducted from the UK in May 1987," said an officer.

This will leave the Navy with just one aircraft carrier, the 44,400-tonne INS Vikramaditya, the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov inducted from Russia at a cost of $2.33 billion in November 2013. The 40,000-tonne IAC-I or INS Vikrant being built at Cochin Shipyard will be ready for induction only by 2018-2019 after a long delay.

The construction of INS Vishal will also not be an easy task. It will take a few more months to "finalize the exact tonnage and the type of propulsion, aircraft and other parameters" for IAC-II. "The government will then have to take the final call," said another officer.

But the carrier will definitely have CATOBAR (catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery) configuration for launching fighters as well as heavier aircraft from its deck. Towards this end, India has already asked the US to share technology for EMALS (electromagnetic aircraft launch systems), developed by General Atomics, under the bilateral Defence Trade and Technology Initiative, as reported by TOI earlier.

INS Viraat, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant all have angled ski-jumps for fighters to take off under their own power in STOBAR (short take-off but arrested recovery) operations. "This limits the carrier operations to only fighters like MiG-29Ks. With CATOBAR, IAC-II will also be able handle more as well as heavier aircraft for surveillance, early-warning, electronic warfare and other operations," he said.
The importance of carrier battle-groups can be gauged from the fact that one such task-force can "control" around 200,000 square nautical miles of ocean area, and is capable of moving over 600 nautical miles a day. "The self-contained CBGs are the most versatile platforms of military power available," he said.

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aksha said:

over dramatized article, but where there is smoke there is fire

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Article said:

Nearly 30 of the RD-33MK engines powering the twin-engine MiG-29K aircraft attached to the ‘Black Panther’ squadron have packed up ever since aviation activities got under way from the deck of the refurbished Soviet-era carrier that was inducted into the Indian Navy in Russia in November, 2013.

But its power to take off just in case the arrester wires are missed is suspect. Therefore, the carrier doesn’t operate too far away from the shores.”

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Vikramaditya remains tethered to the region — forced to operate within a 200 nautical mile radius of Karwar with an airfield in the vicinity, said a naval veteran familiar with the development.

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Jeff Head said:

I have not heard of any Mig-29K ditches, and if 30 engines have already failed, then I would expect some of them may have failed in such a fashion...we just do not know. I expect if any had been ditched we would know that.

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Intrepid said:

May be, a "failed" engine is an engine, that has to be replaced before it failed in flight?

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Jeff Head said:

I would not say that this is "over dramatization."

The key question is whether or not it is accurate.

If this is accurate:



Then it represents a vry srious issue.

Is the source credible? Is the source right? We do not know who the source is and can therefore not gauge it.

Here are some key points.

US Naval jet aircraft for aircraft carriers with twin engines are designed to be able to "bolt" on one engine. That's a part of the design criteria (at least it has been in the past).

Was the Mig-29K designed to do this? There should really not be a question of it being "suspect." If it is not known, then that would be a very serious missed design consideration...I mean a really serious one. Either it was designed to do this or it was not.

I have not heard of any Mig-29K ditches, and if 30 engines have already failed, then I would expect some of them may have failed in such a fashion...we just do not know. I expect if any had been ditched we would know that.

Now, the Mig-29K is the Vikramadityas (and later the Vikrant's) principle weapon. If it's engine is showing to be this problematic, it is a HUGE issue that must be resolved soon.

And not by saying that the Mig-29K is capable of bolting on one engine. That should be a given and represents a drastic, safety consideration to save the aircraft and the pilot in the rare event of an engine failing while landing. It cannot be considered a normal way of operating. If they have this severe a problem with those engines, they have to fix them...and I expect they will.

All of this presumes that this source is reporting reliable information.

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Brumby said:

Either this article is so badly written that the actual problems are somewhat confused between engine or landing problem or my understanding of military term is confused.

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Naval Today said:

Australian Navy vessels recently completed Unit Readiness Evaluation (URE) off the New South Wales coast.

During the URE, HMAS Melbourne (05) HMAS Gascoyne (M85) and HMAS Canberra (L02) completed a range of training evaluations across the spectrum of mariner skills which included ships safety, departmental operations, warfare, damage control and flying operations.

After completing the exercises the vessels returned to Sydney Harbour, with HMAS Gascoyne leading the way.

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FORBIN said:

I laugh more me are not these obsolete Romeo which may sunk a CV !!!

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These images taken from Iranian state TV, shows footage of damage to a mock U.S. aircraft carrier during large-scale naval and air defense drills by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. The drill, named Great Prophet 9, was the first to involve a replica of a U.S. carrier. Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, the spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said they were monitoring the drills, but downplayed the simulated attack on the carrier, saying the U.S. military was "not concerned about this exercise."(AP Photo/Iran TV)

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