Aircraft carrier is a large warship with carrier-based aircraft as the main weapon and as the base of maritime activities of carrier-based aircraft formation, and it is the largest ship type among naval surface combat ships. Aircraft carriers can undertake a variety of combat tasks, the most important of which is to attack surface ships, submarines and transport ships, attack offshore facilities and land targets, and seize the air and sea control rights in combat waters.
What is the biggest weapon on earth? It is an American Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It has a total length of 332 meters and a displacement of more than 90,000 tons. The flight deck is almost as big as three football fields, and it takes nearly 6,000 people to fight together in Qi Xin.
Such a sea behemoth was built to make full use of the 90 high-performance fighters carried on it. However, as a weapon, its volume is close to the limit, and its technology is complex, its construction cost is expensive and its use cost is very high, which can be said to be the embodiment of a country's comprehensive scientific and technological ability and industrial level.
The US Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is like a skyscraper built entirely of steel. From the lowest point of the ship to the top of the mast, it is about 76 meters, which is equivalent to the height of 20 floors. There are 5600 people living on the ship. Not to mention the weapons above, it just serves the living facilities of nearly 6,000 people like a modern small city. Believe it or not, look-the ship's service industry is very complete: the post office with the US Postal logo sends and receives all kinds of letters, parcels and telegrams for the crew. Department stores sell all kinds of daily necessities, as big as gold and silver jewelry. There are hundreds of TV sets in the whole ship, and you can watch TV programs on several channels, as well as radio stations, cinemas and recording studios.
The laundry room can wash thousands of pounds of clothes every day. The shower room is open all day. Dental clinics, pharmacies and small hospitals are manned day and night. Barber shops are free, as well as tailor shops and clothing stores. There are more than 100 cooks on board, serving more than 17000 meals a day and consuming 15 tons of food. The gym is for the crew to exercise.
There is a chapel on the ship for the crew to worship and conduct religious activities with the priest on board. There are also printing houses, photo studios and libraries.
There are too many cabins to count. Statistics show that there are 64 10 beds, 544 desks, 8 13 wardrobes, 924 bookshelves, 543 filing cabinets, 5,803 chairs and stools, and 298 14 fixed lighting.
Of course, as an aircraft carrier, the most important thing is not its living facilities, but its combat system and facilities for combat services.
Now let's "visit" the structure and facilities of this "skyscraper" from the flight deck and bridge.
One of the basic principles of aircraft carrier design is to obtain the largest possible flight deck area. If the design is improper, it will bring bad consequences. Therefore, every time a new aircraft carrier is designed, it must be improved according to the experience of the active aircraft carrier. For example, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" being built by the French Navy, in the design stage, not only nuclear power was considered, but also the shortcomings of the shuttle-class aircraft carrier flight deck of Cremon, which is about to be retired. For example, the shuttle-class aircraft carrier in Cremon has a full displacement of 32,800 tons, and its flight deck configuration is not ideal, so it is impossible to ensure enough parking space for aircraft to take off and land. Therefore, when designing the "De Gaulle", the flight deck was greatly modified.
Generally speaking, the larger the aircraft carrier, the more it can extend the flight deck left and right to obtain a larger area. However, the extension of the flight deck is limited, because the stability of the aircraft carrier during navigation and the berthing of the port need to be considered.
Another problem on the flight deck is the bridge. On an aircraft carrier, the flight deck is regarded as the sea surface, while the protruding bridge is called the "island". The existence of the "island" is a huge obstacle for the plane to take off or land, stop or move. It's like a water tower standing beside the runway.
In the early days of the aircraft carrier, there were many disputes between "want" and "don't want" for the bridge. In fact, many methods have been tried in the past. For example, completely abandon the bridge on the flight deck, or change it to lift, expand, contract, put it on the right, put it on the left, put it in front, put it behind, and so on. All conceivable schemes have been tried. There has been a record that the same aircraft carrier has been rebuilt many times during its service. For example, the USS America (CVB-58), a large aircraft carrier of the US Navy, has been designed from 1946 to 1948, and is ready to install a small lift bridge.
But from the point of view of controlling the aircraft carrier, the bridge is essential when entering and leaving the port. When the aircraft is mobilized, a high observation site is needed, so that the whole flight operation can be seen at a glance, and the communication antenna and radar antenna should be placed as high as possible.
From this perspective, the bridge is "an obstacle, but it is necessary." Therefore, in the design, the bridge should be as small as possible and placed on the side as far as possible.
Chimney is a headache in aircraft carrier design. Chimneys are also potential enemies of carrier-based aircraft.
Modern aircraft carriers must have a speed of more than 30 knots and at least several hundred thousand horsepower. The traditional electric transport ship is powered by a steam boiler, which needs to install a coarse intake pipe and a smoke exhaust chimney. How to arrange these pipelines is a headache in the design of aircraft carriers. The chimney of a surface warship is generally arranged at the top of the engine room, and the air inlet is arranged around the chimney. However, the top floor of the aircraft carrier is the flight deck of the whole structure, and the second floor is the hangar deck. The flue cannot pass through, so we have to detour from the engine room to the outside of the ship.
The intake pipe and flue are not obvious, but they occupy a lot of valuable space in the ship. The opening through the bulkhead will reduce the strength of the hull structure. Passing through the flue of hangar and maintenance workshop will leave endless hidden dangers. If the flue is perforated in the battle, it will emit toxic high-temperature exhaust gas, which will paralyze the combat support operation. Usually, high-temperature exhaust gas will also corrode the flue pipe wall and damage it. When the enemy is engaged in atomic, biological and chemical warfare, bacteria, poisonous gas or radioactive polluted air may enter the ship in large quantities through the intake pipe.
The electronic equipment and antenna on modern ships are seriously corroded by chimney smoke, and the maintenance personnel complain about it. On the aircraft carrier, chimney smoke will also cause airflow disorder on the flight deck, endangering the landing safety of carrier aircraft.
How to deal with this chimney is a big problem in aircraft carrier design. After hard work, the designer put forward the "island structure" scheme, which combines the chimney and the bridge and arranges them on the side. Interestingly, the aircraft carriers of all countries are all arranging island structures on the starboard side without exception. In order to reduce the corrosion of exhaust gas to the antenna of electronic equipment, the chimney of the aircraft carrier is tilted outward. This chimney style has been passed down to this day, but the harm of chimney and exhaust gas has not really been solved.
If there is a propulsion system without exhaust, it can solve the potential enemies of aircraft carriers and their carrier aircraft for half a century-chimneys and exhaust. There is no need for exhaust, which means that energy does not need air, which is a major feature of nuclear power system. After the aircraft carrier uses the nuclear power system, it does not need a chimney, which completely solves the problem of chimney and exhaust. This alone is enough to justify the use of nuclear power systems, which will also bring great benefits to aircraft carriers in improving their combat capability and improving the living conditions of crew members.
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can provide more reliable guarantee for the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft, thus improving the combat capability of carrier-based aircraft. Fixed-wing carrier aircraft need to travel at high speed during take-off and landing to increase the necessary relative wind speed. When the ship-borne helicopter takes off and lands, the aircraft carrier should constantly change its speed and maintain a weak synthetic wind speed. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can not only sail at high speed, but also adjust the speed frequently, which can fully meet the take-off and landing needs of various carrier-based aircraft. The steam catapult, elevator and arresting device on the aircraft carrier are very energy-consuming. The nuclear power system can provide enough power for these equipments, which greatly improves the use efficiency of carrier-based aircraft.
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has no chimney, no exhaust gas and no airflow disorder, which improves the safety of carrier-based aircraft landing.
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier itself does not need fuel, and the saved cabin capacity can be used to load more jet fuel, ammunition and aircraft spare parts. At present, the conventional American aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk carries 7820 tons of fuel for its own use. If it is changed to nuclear power, it can increase nearly 8,000 tons of jet fuel, more than double the original jet fuel, which means that in a very fragile state, it can double the combat time and reduce the number of replenishment at sea.
According to the "Zhan's Ship Yearbook", the jet fuel contained in the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can be used by all carrier aircraft 16 days. At this point, conventional power carriers can only look at the ocean and sigh.
From the strategic use of aircraft carriers, aircraft carriers can sail to any sea area in the world at high speed when necessary. But the fuel supply with high fuel consumption is a big problem. It is necessary to establish fuel supply networks in various places in advance, but overseas bases are a very sensitive issue. A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can sail continuously for 10 years without the support of overseas bases.
The living conditions of the ship affect the morale of the crew to a certain extent. The living conditions of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are more comfortable than those of conventional power carriers, and the cabin air conditioning effect is better. There is no annoying noise from the ship's steam boiler, and there is no hot air from the flue.
The fresh water of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is also desalinated with seawater, but it can be used indefinitely (because there is enough nuclear energy). American sailors call the running shower "Hollywood shower", while the shower with limited water on conventional power boats is called "Navy shower". On the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the crew can enjoy the "Hollywood shower".
Therefore, the use of nuclear power by aircraft carriers has many advantages. However, the construction cost of nuclear-powered ships is very high, which is at least 30% more expensive than conventional power ships. As for nuclear fuel, although it is much cheaper than before, it is not as good as oil. Coupled with the special facilities for nuclear energy systems in bases and repair shops, the construction and use costs of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are still quite expensive.
Mobile maritime airport
In the "Pearl Harbor Incident" that shocked the world in the Second World War, the aircraft carrier won the attention of military strategists by surprise. This makes people realize that aircraft carriers, like tanks on land, have become mobile bunkers and large arsenals at sea, with amazing power.
Although the aircraft carrier is fat and heavy, it can still run very fast, with a speed of 56~93 km/h, which is as fast as a destroyer of more than 1,000 tons.
Modern aircraft carriers are generally divided into three categories according to displacement, that is, large ones with displacement of more than 60,000 tons; And below 20,000 tons is small; People living between 20,000 and 60,000 tons are all medium-sized. If aircraft carriers undertake different combat tasks, they can be divided into three categories: attack aircraft carriers, anti-submarine aircraft carriers and general aircraft carriers.
The attack aircraft carrier has the largest displacement, and a large number of attack aircraft and fighters are parked on its deck, which can carry out large-scale air and sea operations. It can not only attack enemy ships, but also bomb important enemy targets, with strong attack power and wide range of activities.
The main task of anti-submarine carrier is to fight against enemy submarines, but it can also be used to support landing troops because it carries anti-submarine aircraft and vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
The general aircraft carrier has the characteristics of the above two aircraft carriers, because it is an attack aircraft carrier with several anti-submarine helicopters and some anti-submarine equipment. This kind of aircraft carrier has strong independent combat capability.
Usually, an aircraft carrier can park hundreds of aircraft with various combat capabilities. Some of them specialize in bombing, some launch torpedoes or missiles, some conduct reconnaissance, and there are early warning aircraft and vertical take-off and landing aircraft. The ship is also equipped with some artillery and missile launchers to counter incoming enemy planes, missiles and ships. In addition, the aircraft carrier can also carry nuclear weapons. Therefore, the attack power of the aircraft carrier is unmatched by any other ship.
The aircraft carrier can still sail safely in typhoon 12 because of its huge size and strong wind and wave resistance. In addition, the ship carries a lot of fuel and has strong endurance. It can fight independently away from the port and sail continuously for more than 65438+100000 nautical miles. If nuclear power is used, the voyage time is longer and the voyage is longer.
Aircraft carrier George Washington
The main disadvantages of aircraft carriers are large targets, easy to explode and catch fire, and limited combat operations. In the future, ships will be miniaturized. Designers consider applying air cushion technology to aircraft carrier, so that its sailing speed can be increased to 100 knots, which can greatly shorten the taxiing distance during take-off and landing, and cancel catapults and arresting cables. In addition, some people boldly imagine combining aircraft carriers and submarines to improve their concealment ability. If the above scheme is realized, the power of the aircraft carrier will be amazing.