The SteelNavy.Com Message Board: Re: what about a, smaller but modern CVL-N?

theUSN has repeatedly refused to consider "small" carriers, though USS AMERICA is a small carrier, without angled deck so it isnt a carrier🤪🤪🤪,but carries helo and f35b stovl
a better idea may be 65,000 ton RN QE class,which is big enough for fighters asw helo and an AEW flight,

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So, three squadrons of what? One's Growlers. The other two are? F-35? F/A-18...E or F? What about Hawkeyes? And Stingrays? There will also be helicopters.

The Navy learned a long time back that smaller carriers can't really carry a "useful load." One would have to gather multiples of them together for any sort of serious strikes. So, it fields the existing large carriers. 80 to 90 planes generates reasonable striking power. For a large global war like WWII, smaller escort carriers proved useful in auxiliary roles (the light carriers were a wartime emergency measure to quickly add numbers when we had suffered loses, and the Essex program looked too slow.) We don't especially need lots of ASW convoy escorts at the moment. We need the strike carriers we have.

As far as this paragraph: "You build them on the West/East and Gulf coast, which alleviates the room required for the larger fleet CVN's that we build every 8 years?"..."Alleviates?"... Odd word choice. We have one yard that builds carriers (and the work is deliberately spread out in time to keep the yard employed. They can actually build them faster, be done with the order, then close up shop. That's not what we want. That work pace is deliberate. It is meant for "the long haul.") We have a couple other yards that build surface ships, two that built the LCSs (and one yard is now occupied with the 2 Constelation frigates, while the other has received an offer from a Korean company to buy it.) We've two more yards that build subs. That's it. That is the sum total of our warship making ability. Adding these light carriers doesn't alleviate anything. It actually overloads the existing yards' capacities. To execute your plan,you will need to first create these yards that you speak of. The existing yards are having trouble hiring enough labor. You must also find enough labor for your extra yards.

It is good that people think creatively about the issue. The devil is in the details, though.

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You take the the EMALS/CATOBAR sytem, shrink it the size of an angled deck Essex class SCB-27's

It carries a smaller airwing(3 squadrons including growlers), has nuclear propulsion but focuses on point defense against drones. Arm it to the teeth with CWIS(ammo is way cheaper), RIM-116 and smaller SAM's.

With a sleeker hull shape, they can go faster than than the Ford Class(CVN-65 had more of a of a cruiser like hull).

You build them on the West/East and Gulf coast, which alleviates the room required for the larger fleet CVN's that we build every 8 years?

Oh and make Nimitz a dedicated training carrier based in Pensacola.