Modern Escort Carrier Hypothetical

[Reddington777]

Reading the F/A-XX thread recently and the subject of fleet air wing mix came up. The navy wants the fleet air wing to be 60% unmanned aircraft for 2030. Existing fleet carriers are crammed as is and should primarily be for large sized UCAVs and manned fighters. Small to medium sized CCAs could be carried by something else - like a small escort carrier. With the advent of unmanned ships like the MUSV, and cargo ships with automated navigation systems, it's not too hard to imagine what a WWII escort carrier sized ship could be today. An escort carrier can operate alongside fleet carriers or perhaps in convoys alongside frigates.

So going off that train of thought, I tried to come up with a modern take on an independence class escort carrier.

Ship wise, I did some tinkering in delftship with a basic container ship hull and got to a 15k ton container ship hull with a deck slapped on top. The hanger space is enough to probably handle 15 - 20 CCAs with an aft deck section for small drones and/or helicopters. Almost all the current CCAs today are actually smaller than WWII fighters though a little heavier. So I opted for a singular steam catapult (no thanks to Donald) to toss them. There can be two elevators - one on the rear aft and one in the center just behind the catapult. I have no idea whether there's enough space or not to actually recover them, but that may just require a larger cargo ship hull - maybe up to 20k tons displacement. As it stands, the deck length measures a meager 430 ft.

Armaments and sensors wise, I'm not sure what can be added. I think any sensors and defense systems added ought to be derived from self contained, off the shelf sensor systems. I put a small array on top of the island. Besides that, just two CIWS systems.

Another possibility is that the ship could also carry and refuel UUVs. Recently the navy refueld a UUV from a destroyer and the same idea could be applied here. Who builds it? No idea. Probably Hanwha because no one else can build cheap and on time. Ideally, someone could build the hulls and then the deck and island can get tacked on separately. The goal is to be as bare bones as possible.





Comparison to the Ford class carrier:

 

[Sferrin]

No. The politicians will insist they are "real" carriers and swap out CVNs for these. (Basically what you've got there is a Type 76.)

 

[Reddington777]

A type 76 is quite a bit larger. 800+ ft and much heavier sensors and armaments.

You dont need that much if you're just slinging small to medium CCAs.

 

[lastdingo]

Ship wise, I did some tinkering in delftship with a basic container ship hull and got to a 15k ton container ship hull with a deck slapped on top.

I recommend to look up the costs of new and MUCH larger container ships.
You probably wouldn't believe me the figures.
https://www.hongkongmaritimehub.com/ooil-orders-a-dozen-dual-fuel-boxships/

There's absolutely no reason to stick to such a feeder ship hull as base.

 

[Desertfox]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTMS_Chakri_Naruebet

 

[Reddington777]

I recommend to look up the costs of new and MUCH larger container ships.
You probably wouldn't believe me the figures.
https://www.hongkongmaritimehub.com/ooil-orders-a-dozen-dual-fuel-boxships/

There's absolutely no reason to stick to such a feeder ship hull as base.

Will do. My thinking was though that you can have more yards making these little guys. that ofcourse also depends on what the specs of the CCAs it wants to launch are

 

[H_K]

I would look at some of the NASSCO designs as starting points.

I particularly like a Con-Ro like the Tote Alaska class as a starting point as they have the right spatial distribution of vehicle hangars and flat decks that could be easily converted. Big and fast ships at 45,000t / 25 knots.

https://aapa.files.cms-plus.com/Sem...Seminars/13TerminalTraining/Morrell, Phil.pdf

 

[lastdingo]

Will do. My thinking was though that you can have more yards making these little guys. that ofcourse also depends on what the specs of the CCAs it wants to launch are

You buy the empty hull with diesel engines from South Korea or Japan, park it next to a crane pierside in your country, weld in the rest of the interior structure and install the equipment.

The U.S. has negligible shipyard production capacity. No warship design can get around that.

 

[Not James Stockdale]

Will do. My thinking was though that you can have more yards making these little guys. that ofcourse also depends on what the specs of the CCAs it wants to launch are

The only yards in the US that do new construction of commercial ships this size are Philly and NASSCO, which can both build much larger ships. The Gulf Coast shipbuilders are mostly oriented towards the Offshore sector, so most aren't capable of much over 100 m.

You buy the empty hull with diesel engines from South Korea or Japan, park it next to a crane pierside in your country, weld in the rest of the interior structure and install the equipment.

The U.S. has negligible shipyard production capacity. No warship design can get around that.

The Aloha class container ships for Matson are roughly $350 million each, while a comparable ship from a South Korean yard would probably be around $75 million.