USS America Looks To Aircraft Carriers For Inspiration

>Capt. Rome Ruiz, commander of Amphibious Squadron 3, who took command partway through the pre-deployment workup, said the aviation-centric nature of the ship, as well as the advanced command, control, computers, communication and intelligence (C4I) capabilities on the ship, create a lot of flexibility for the operators. He said there was still much to learn about operating this type of amphib and that he and his team were looking to the Navy’s aircraft carriers for inspiration.

>“Given the robust communications and intelligence capability of this ship, and being able to be networked, this ship – when you think about dominating the maritime battlespace, you start looking at projecting power, maritime security, those type of things, very similar types of stuff when you look at our aircraft carrier capability – so there’s some things we can learn from how they do operations that we can even leverage to be, whether it be more effective or more efficient, and one of those is the composite warfare command concept,” Ruiz said, referring to the command and control relationship between the at-sea force and the landing force within an Amphibious Ready Group.
>“What really comes to concern is the defense of the amphibious task force, given that the threat environment is starting to get a lot more capable and a lot more bold. So how do we defend ourselves to ensure we can continue to project power and continue to do maritime security operations and to continue to maintain maritime dominance in the battlespace?

>“What we’ve been doing, or what we’ve been learning, is how do we work better together, even when we’re disaggregated; how do we maintain our combat power when we’re miles and miles away. And a lot of that has to do with the capability of the aircraft, being able to have long legs to be able to do deep strikes if that’s necessary, to communicate; there’s all kinds of packages we can do from an aviation-centric standpoint,” Ruiz continued.

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>“So I guess what I’m getting at is, we’re at really a journey of discovery here with opening up and kind of uncorking what we can really maximize with this capability, and it’s also making us think differently about how we use the ships, whether it’s the LSD and using her in a different way, with helicopters or aircraft or whatnot. So it really again goes back to maximizing flexibility to get us where we want to be.”

>That the leadership team is focused on maximizing the new potential this ship brings, instead of looking at how to compensate for the lack of a well deck, is important given the conversations around the future of the Navy fleet. America will be just one of two amphibious assault ships of its configuration – Tripoli (LHA-7) will be built with the same design, but Bougainville (LHA-8) will have a small well deck reinserted into the design, with some aviation capability and some medical spaces sacrificed to reach a compromise design.

>However, there are many supporters of the idea of using America as a launching point for a “light carrier” idea. The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis included the America-based concept in its Future Fleet Architecture study delivered to the Navy earlier this year, and the Senate Armed Services Committee in its Fiscal Year 2018 defense bill sets aside $30 million for the Navy to conduct a preliminary design effort. The light carrier would add a catapult or two to the America-class’s straight flight deck to allow for larger fixed-wing aircraft, such as the Navy’s E2-D Advanced Hawkeye command and control plane, to operate as part of the ARG/MEU.

So mini-carriers when?

>>34565869

When EMALS is a matured and affordable technology. Adding steam catapults to an existing LHA design isn't going to happen.

>>34566166

Adding EMALS to a LHA design is ridiculous, honestly if they were serious about maximizing the potential of a already existing design without extensive modifications and risk they'd be looking to getting the most out of the STOVL fleet - meaning putting a ramp on the front.

>>34566327
Cats allow for larger aircraft to get launched though

>>34566348

Right, but that's entirely besides the point. I don't think giving a LHA the capability to do so is as simplistic as ripping a hole in the deck and laying the track down.

You're doing something that was likely never provisioned into the design and I'd be surprised if it doesn't come with some serious caveats.

>>34566327
I'm not sure the Hawkeye can take off from a ramp.

>>34567197

This discussion has already been had. Check the archives.

>>34565830
My eyes glazed over the abundant corporate-speak. What happened to the stereotypical military straight talk?

>nigger
>negress
>2 white women
>some sort of asian based off his rear profile

This is the modern US Navy

>>34566399
It's just capacitors and a magnetic rail

Obviously it doesn't fit on LHA's who will rarely be launching fixed wing aircraft, but if they were building smaller conventional powered carriers it would fit fine.

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>>34568708
>It's just capacitors and a magnetic rail

The machinery to generate pulsed power is bulky and has a great deal of cooling requirements and a large power bus to keep it running. It is not a bolt-on addition if the ship isn't provisioned for the future addition of high power consumption systems. Consider the huge, two deck machine space wings in the back of the USS Gerald R Ford, which is just such a provision.

>>34568902
Yea it would involve cutting open the ship and adding these things to it. Filling several rooms with capacitors, running the major power cables/water cooling lines... thats probably about it.

It's something they could easily do in 6 months if they decided spending 500 million each adding EMALS to the America class ships was worthwhile.

>>34569241
Increasing the unit cost of LHA-6 by 15%. It's a fairly expensive addition to be proposing when the system's proven difficult to implement.

>>34568685

Go back to /pol/.