Tom Kendall wrote:
Snip!
Paul Lamar wrote:
What we need is a very high speed nuclear powered aircraft carrier that
can launch and recover Lockheed C130 cargo transport aircraft. It is about
350 miles from the Arabian Sea just to the Afghanistan border across
southern Pakistan. Too far for a massive airborne helicopter assault.
What I have in mind is a C130 rapid response shuttle assault where
you could launch ten C130's. One every five minutes. That would
give a much more effective ground force of up to 1000 troops and
light vehicles as well as light artillery.
If the mission were 350 miles away they could all be
recovered in about 3 hours and reloaded for another equally effective
assault launch. In 24 hours with proper logistical support 5000
troops could be put in place. Hard to do from half a world away
as on board fuel requirements would eat heavily into C130 payload.
Further more this ship could be equipped or resupplied over time from
the USA anywhere in the world with C130 air to air refueling technique.
It would not be finished in time for this action of course but it should
come in handy for future actions like this. It would also serve as a
deterrent to terrorist hiding out in remote countries.
A 1000 foot or longer high powered catamaran with no above deck island
ought
to do the job. Powered by "Boomer", AKA Polaris missile submarine, nuclear
power plants. No new engineering required. Perhaps no construction of
new power plants at all. Just pull them out of now useless
boomers.
High fuel capacity, weapons storage and onboard defense
would not be needed as that can be provided by the fleet
in general and specifically other conventional aircraft carriers.
Elevators at front and rear to at least two full length lower hangar
decks should be provided. The upper hangar deck will provide for rapid
recycling of empty 130's with an assembly line technique. Either
JATO and or a very powerful catapult could be used to enhance heavy gross
weight take offs.
Here is my scale sketch of the C130 aircraft carrier. It is not a sub
marine
but it does float on submerged pontoons. Reduces the pitch in a sea way
so it is easier to land and takeoff.
While this carrier is being built a folding vertical tail version
of the C130 should be designed and developed so that lower hanger
deck ceilings can be used.
This would be way cheaper than replacing the World Trade center, loss to
the
economy and fixing the Pentagon not to mention four airliners.
A simple ship like this could be put in moth balls when it
was no longer needed.
Interesting concept Paul. What you are proposing is a "SWATH" hull. Don't
recall what the acronymn stands for, but the submerged "pontoon" hulls do
indeed make a very stable platform, and eliminates much of the hull speed
limitations of classic displacement hulls.
As for the power plants, I can attest that the reactor plants for cold war
"Boomers" are too small to provide the thrust, maneuvering capability, and
catapult power for such a large vessel. But I suspect existing aircraft
carrier reactor plant designs would be easily adaptable to the new hull form.
The Teddy Roosevelt (and other aircraft carriers) are powered by, relatively
speaking, huge naval reactor plants. Makes the submarine plants look puny.
But the submarines can still outrun the carriers! That old displacement
maximum theoretical hull speed limitation again.
I don't have any Navy contacts anymore, but this should probably be
submitted to BUSHIPS (Navy Bureau of Ships) for their think-tankers to kick
around. Who knows? Looks like folks are open to a lot more possibilities
now that war is a real issue again.
Tom Kendall
Too bad about the old Boomer power plants not being large enough. What do they
do with them after they take them out of service?
The hull stuff is encouraging Tom. Perhaps instead of a long skinny part of the
the hull supporting the flight and hangar decks several streamlined
struts would be better? Might be harder to hit with a torpedo that runs near
the surface.
Paul Lamar
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