Corsair1963 wrote:Future 6th Generation Fighters may actually be bigger than current types. So, wouldn't we need to know the actual size and shape of the forthcoming NGAD (F/A-XX) Fighter. Before we assume they could effectively operate from a CVL? (Light Aircraft Carrier)
Remember, the F-14 Tomcat was to big for the older Essex and Midway Class Aircraft Carriers. Which, were hardly small....(especially the latter)
Theyre going to approach the limit of carrier design. I've said it before and I'll beat that horse one more time, but there simply might be a limit on how much airplane one can have that still needs to fit the space, environmental, basic operation (plane goes "shoot" off the front! it goes "crash" to the wires on the back!) requirements of operating off a CVN.
Imagine if the notional 6th generation fighter was simply twice the size of an F-35. and thats just how big 6th gen fighters are to meet the requirements. the navy is basically out of the game if that's the case. There's no Navy equivalent to an F-22. They punted. a Super Hornet weighs more than an F-15, and its still 6000 kilos lighter than the F-14 it replaced. At one point the ship can only shoot so much weight off the front. the elevators carry so much size, and the wires catch so much mass. Anyone working on a ship based airplane instantly works in a smaller, less permissive box. and lastly, the navy is not an air force. they won't trade subs for the F-22 style reincarnation of the F-14. it just won't happen. They have a more limited budget and airplanes aren't the ultimate animal which brings me to: it has to operate from a ship. as in, the navy can't politically buy a fighter that's land based. The air force doesn't have to worry about making a fighter that is "stuck" on land. They don't have to compete with themselves like that.
so the 2 rules of CVN fight club so far are:
1. It has to operate from a ship
and
2. It has to operate from a ship Its not that carriers are "obsolete" per se. its that they just become 3rd options instead of the "kick in the door" 1st responder hype we have. And a lot of it is
hype. Without big wing AAR the navy would be watching Afghanistan get rocked by the USAF and ground based Marine aircraft from the comfort of the mighty CVN. The distance was too great for Carrier fighters to make without a lot of tanker help (and no, contrary to popular belief "buddy tanking" fighters don't produce additional range worth noting)
So its a different kind of problem. Can the navy solve it?... history says no. The last "new idea" navy fighter was the Hornet. Which leads to Super Hornet. F-35 is joint. The only reason the Navy is not making due with Hornets of various marks and types is because the mean old joint program saw fit to bless them with a highly advanced aircraft theyve never been able to do by themselves.