Stupid question about the German Navy...

[Grant]

Does anybody know if the German Navy currently has aircraft carriers? I tried looking all over the internet, but the only sites I find deal with WWII and some carrier that they started building but got scrapped. I tried checking the Deutsche Marine webpage, but its all in German, go figure. :dunce_125 Does anybody know, and if so, any pics? Thanks yall.

 

[Fly Navy]

http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/europe/germany.htm

According to Haze Gray, information dated to 2002, the German Navy is just a destroyer Navy (destroyers, frigates, patrol boats).

 

[Grant]

Thank you, thats exactly what I was looking for. Much obliged.

 

[wink]

Anyone want to try listing the current CV deploying countries?

 

[rubicon]

US, UK, France, Spain, Russia, India, Italy, Thialand(although the rarely use it) Brazil, and Japan has a carrier like ship butgeted although they call it a helocopter destroyer, but this is off the top of my head so correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Grant]

Anyone want to try listing the current CV deploying countries?

Thanks to the website "Fly Navy" provided earlier, I did some looking and will give it a shot (assuming that VSTOL carriers count also)... US, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Russia, India, Thailand, Brazil. Is that all of them?

*EDIT* Looks like "Rubicon" beat me to it.

 

[Flash]

Only the US (12), Russia (1), Brazil (1) and France (1 1/2, they will retire an old one son if they have not already) have conventional carriers. All the other countries have only carriers that can carry Harriers, as pointed out before. Japan has ony a small helicopter capable destroyer that looks like a V/STOL carrier but is much smaller than that, it can only carry a few helos, 4-8 I think, they have no Harriers.

As for the German Navy, they will be retiring the last of their Tornados soon. They used to have 2 wings but that was cut down to one at the end of the Cold War and the remaining one is being cut very soon. There was a German Navy exchange offivcer at the Prowler RAG and he was switching to the Air Force. That is what you get when you share power with the Greens .

 

[wink]

My list looks like rubicon's.

 

[zab1001]

I drove past the Thai carrier once, I had no idea they had one, and was stupid enough to ask my RTN liason "who else is in town?" Nothing like making an ass of yourself in a foreign country, sober, the first day there...

 

[Markham]

India bought off at least one carrier off Canada, the Bonaventure, which
iirc had F-5's fly off of it. Small, non-nuke, but it wasn't just harriers or
helicopters. It was an old Royal Navy tub, so it was third-hand. Last I
heard, six years ago, it was still in service.

Only the US (12), Russia (1), Brazil (1) and France (1 1/2, they will retire an old one son if they have not already) have conventional carriers. All the other countries have only carriers that can carry Harriers, as pointed out before. Japan has ony a small helicopter capable destroyer that looks like a V/STOL carrier but is much smaller than that, it can only carry a few helos, 4-8 I think, they have no Harriers.

 

[Dunedan]

No wonder the world is afraid of us...
What about the old Soviet Navy? Did they have any big flattops?

 

[Flash]

India bought off at least one carrier off Canada, the Bonaventure, which
iirc had F-5's fly off of it. Small, non-nuke, but it wasn't just harriers or
helicopters. It was an old Royal Navy tub, so it was third-hand. Last I
heard, six years ago, it was still in service.

The Indians only have one carrier in commision right now called the INS Viraat. It can handle only Harriers and helos. Here is a link:

http://www.janes.com/defence/naval_forces/gallery/india_naval_review/india_nav_review_0101230.shtml

It had another carrier called the INS Vikrant from 1961 to 1997. The HMCS Bonaventure was a sister ship. India used the Vikrant carrier to good effect in the 1971 war, using it to blockade Pakistani ports. A Pakistani sub tried to sink it but got sunk itself, the only instance that I know of since WW II a submarine has been sunk in combat. Here are some links:

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Ships/Hercules.html

http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/i/in/ins_vikrant.html

It flew a plane called the Hawker Sea Hawk from 1961 to 1983 when it switched to Harriers. Here are some links:

http://indiannavy.nic.in/aviation.htm

http://indiannavy.nic.in/picture_gallery/3_Sea_Hawk_Aircraft.jpg

http://www.vectorsite.net/avsehawk.html

 

[rubicon]

France's Foch was transfered to Brazil where she serves as the San Paulo. The French Navy will be back at full strength carrier wise by 2014. THey orginally where to build a second De Gaulle, but when oporations in the Balkans and deconscripting their army went way over budget it was postponed, and now they are likely to build something along the lines of a Francais version of CVF. France's countiued comitment to a capable defence force is a rarity in modern Europe.

 

[Jolly Roger]

No wonder the world is afraid of us...
What about the old Soviet Navy? Did they have any big flattops?

No wonder the world is afraid of us...
What about the old Soviet Navy? Did they have any big flattops?

Here are the Russian "Aviation Crusiers" as they call them:

Kiev Class: Kiev, Minsk, Novorossiysk, Admiral Gorshkov were 40,000 ton VTOL carriers, like our Gator Frieghters. Carrying Yak-39 "Forgers" and helicopters.

Moskva Class: Moskva, Leningrad were just crusiers with a large helicopter compliment. They only displaced 17,500 tons.

Kuznetsov: Admiral Kuznetsov, Varyag are Russia's largest carriers to date displacing 67,500 tons. The Varyag was never completed, leaving only the Kuznetsov. They were the first and only Russian carriers to launch and recover aircraft conventionally.

The Russians started a super carrier the Ul'yanovsk in 1988, but it was cancelled after the coup in 1991 and in 1992 she was scrapped.

The Varyag was sold to Chinluck (Holding) Co. Ltd in 1998 for $20 million to be turned into a Casino. It seems that once the Varyag made it to China it was moored at PLA naval base. (http://www.varyagworld.com/) The Chinese also bought the HMAS Melbourne, Kiev, and the Minsk. (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/03/08/1015365740258.html?oneclick=true) The PLA have taken the flight deck off the Melbourne and are using it for carrier training.
http://www.varyagworld.com/

The Indian Navy in March 2004 bought the Admiral Gorshkov, an enlarged Kiev class helicopter carrier, 16 Mig-29Ks fighters, 8 Ka-27, and Ka-31 helocopters. The Admiral Gorshkov will reenter service in 2008 under the name of INS Vikramaditya in the Indian navy.
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/kuznetsov/