Random8145
Registered User
Interesting points from all, but isn't this thread supposed to be Europe-focused?
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Europe under extreme duress
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
At the distances the air wing will fight? Certainly. Without organic AEW any flavor of carrier with fixed-wing aircraft is going to be at a serious disadvantage in a conflict.
I think this image adequately communicates the limitations of the STOVL variant. TL : DR The Bravo goes shorter with less stuff compared to the Alpha and Charlie. This is true in Europe too (to bring us back to topic).
The Brits do have organic AEW now in their carrier air complement. It’s the AW101/Merlin HC-4 with Crowsnest. And the French have flown the E-2C Hawkeye on their CVN (the CDG) since 1998 or so.
Russia ostensibly has maritime AEW capability in the Ka-31 Helix, but who knows how degraded that capability is today, or whether they actually use it for C2 or merely a big dumb flying radar.
Russia ostensibly has maritime AEW capability in the Ka-31 Helix, but who knows how degraded that capability is today, or whether they actually use it for C2 or merely a big dumb flying radar.
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I haven't seen an EM diagram between an HC-4 and an E-2C/D but I'd gather the E-2 has it beat in altitude(important for radar horizon) and range (important for...everything blue water). E-2 also has one more controller in the back. Again, I know it sounds a lot like nit picking but all these limitations add up or require significant other resource investments to mitigate.
French carrier is CATOBAR (and soon EMALS) which has none of the issues that STOVL-only carriers have. We haven't even touched on organic tanking yet.
Edit: Remove Russia completely from the conversation on principle. You can add them back in when we start talking about Botswna's organic maritime power projection capabilities.
It’s a name of a former province, like the other three operational JMSDF “helicopter destroyers.”
Interestingly, the predecessors of all four were sunk by American carrier aircraft during WWII.
Concur with all. Rotary wing AEW < fixed wing AEWC/AWACS.
Also, Russia is for sure out of the conversation, but still tracking the Ka-31 as it’s been exported to some other navies.
Even with the shorter legs to have a viable carrier air wing with an independent blue water capability, organic AEW is pretty much a 'must have'.
The RN has had organic AEW capability since the summer of 1982, when they bolted Searchwater radars on Sea Kings in the wake of the Falklands War. The Searchwater was originally a surface search radar used on Nimrods and modified to be an AEW radar, I'm pretty sure the Crowsnest radar is just an updated version of Searchwater and has had issues.
India and China both have carrier-capable helicopter-borne AEW capability, just how operational they are I don't know.
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I guess this is the Russian version of " standing on the yellow footprints", prior to a couple days of boot camp and off to the front...looks like a crack group.
Random8145
Registered User
Lots of Nepalese mercenaries are deserting.