There was once a British Royal Navy

This blogger came across this bit of cheery news on the cdr salamander blog. He posted this picture of two of Great Britain's two S/VTOL aircraft carriers.

And its sad that the UK will not be preserving HMS Invincible as a mermorial ship. This warship took part in the Falklands War in 1982. In the background of the picture, was the HMS Ark Royal at her Portsmouth berth - waiting for a new owner or the scrapyard.

Twenty Sea Harriers of the Fleet Air Arm and backed up by some RAF Harriers was the only means for the Royal Navy to provide air cover against what the Argentian's Air Force and Navy Air Armanda could throw at the British.

It's sad to see the Invincible in the shape it was in -being towed by tugs, paint on the island flaking off. The bold black waterline marking all but gone. In the picture, one can see both ship's famous ski-jump ramp.

Its just a sad picture of a former Navy power going into the dustbill of history. Her citizens have decided that they need more government programs and give aways than actual national defense. And this blogger is waiting for the same thing to start happening here in the US of A..

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Ref.

1. cdr salamander. "Royal Navy's decline in a picture" March 28, 2011. (http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2011/03/royal-navys-decline-in-picture.html). Picture by Mike Walker.

2. Naval-History.net. "BATTLE ATLAS of the FALKLANDS WAR 1982 by Land, Sea and Air"by Gordon Smith (http://www.naval-history.net/NAVAL1982FALKLANDS.htm).

3. History of War Online.com. Falklands. (http://www.historyofwaronline.com/Falklands.html).

India's Home Grown Aircraft Carrier Project

I came across this blog (Live Fist) by accident and it made for a great read. Since I wrote a article about Japan getting back into the aircraft carrier business(they call them Helicopter Destroyers). Please use the links below in the Ref section to read the entire article, and or my previous article on the Japanese Helicopter Carriers.

The Indian Indiangenous Aircraft Carrier Program is in the finalization phase of the design and equipment purchases have already begun for it. The new ship will be built by Cochin Shipyards.

The photograph with this article is of a model of the proposed ship that is based upon the Russian model of naval aircraft operations. In fact, look closely and you will see the models on the flight deck are Mig-29s.

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Ref. Livefist blog. February 10, 2010 by Shiv Aroor. (photo by Shiv Aroor also).(http://livefist.blogspot.com/2010/02/exclusive-naval-design-heads-paper-on.html).

Aerospace, Technology, Paranormal and UFOs. by Don W. Shanks. September 6, 2009.

(http://aerospacedreams.blogspot.com/2009/09/japan-is-gettin-back-into-carriers.html)

Japan is Getting Back into Carriers Again - Just Call Them Helicopter Destroyers.

Its ironic that I came across this information recently.

Back in college, My friend Tony (aka Anthony Tully), and I would discuss history and current world events. Well Tony, who is really into World War Two Japanese Navy history, and now has one book of his own under his belt (Battle of Surigao Strait); and a co-authorship on another one (Shattered Sword-The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway with Jonathan Parshall). Well, like I said before, we would talk about future military projections of power when we were going to Texas Tech University back in the early 1980s.

Back then, we still had to deal with the (in hindsight now) the tail end of the cold war. But our discussions would end up with Japan having to take on more responsibility for its defense against a more aggressive Red China of the future. The Japanese constitution forbids it to have Aircraft Carriers, a means of projecting power. That is one of the reasons why it is referred to as a Helicopter Destroyer.

So Japan would have to have Aircraft Carriers again is what we thought. Well, sure enough - that trend is taking place now. The Japanese Ministry of Defense released on Sept 7, 2009 its 4.85-trillion yen budget plan for the net fiscal year. The most notable items in that budget was an upgrade to the nation's missile defense system. The second item was the purchase of another helicopter carrier- correction, Helicopter Destroyer.

Based on the current Hyuga-calls helicopter destroyer class, the new helicopter carrier is expected to be 25% longer that the Hyugas and capable of carrying 9 helicopters that can conduct limited naval resupply as well as antisubmarine operations.

This is in light of the Chinese Navy's recent submarine construction. But, China is bulding its own flattops too now.

Currently, the 18,000-ton, 610 foot long, Hyuga (DDH 181) is jointed by sister ship Ise. A third ship of this class is still planned. The next carrier will be longer with a flight deck of 763 feet long. It will weigh in at about 25,000 tons. Currently these ships will operate the SH-60s of which 10 to 11 can be carried by the Hyuga class. Crew size is in the 350 personnel range.

Checking out Wikipedia, DDH-181(Hyuga) and sister DDH-182 (Ise), will be able to operate Harriers and F-35 Lightning IIs when they become operational. The ships will then be equipped with a 12 degree ski-jump.

As for weapons for self-protection; (16) Mk41 VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells for anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles. (2)20mm Phalanx cannons. (2)triple 12.75-inch torpedo mounts.

Hyuga and Ise are of special interest to me. As a younger man, I was into building 1/700ths scale ship models from Tamiya and similar model companies. On of the first models I ever bought in this scale was of the Japanese WW2 hybrid battleship/carrier Ise. Both the Ise and the Hyuga were sunk in the same week(July 25) in World War 2.

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Ref.

(http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htnavai/articles/20090904.aspx)

(http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090901p2a00m0na012000c.html)

Janes articles (http://www.janes.com/news/defence/naval/jni/jni090424_1_n.shtml)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyūga_class_helicopter_destroyer)