US Navy Ultracarrier

[LloydTasiD]

Mega float.
Offical japanese government page on megafloat and aircraft
A Stamp of Approval to Mega-Float Airport Feasibility
More information
Megafloat -- Floating Runway Built on the Ocean in Japan

Megafloat being used to help clean up nuclear waste.
Mega-Float readies for service at Fukushima

So building a runway of 1000mx121m has already been done, and now they are looking at 4km runways. However these are strictly for protected bays etc not open oceans.

So it really doesn't get around the problem of government permission etc to operate as you would be operating in territorial waters. But I would imagine a 4kmx200m runway would proberly be big enough to allow C17 to operate, certainly hercs.

Are you talking about that Mega-Float design or are talking about the theoretical massive floating airfield, in not being able to operate? Because a carrier can sail anywhere. Carriers are considered sovereign territory, they have no operational restriction. So I don't see why the same would not be applied to one of these "sea bases". Permission to operate is not an issue.

 

[t68]

Are you talking about that Mega-Float design or are talking about the theoretical massive floating airfield, in not being able to operate? Because a carrier can sail anywhere. Carriers are considered sovereign territory, they have no operational restriction. So I don't see why the same would not be applied to one of these "sea bases". Permission to operate is not an issue.

Permission to operate is not the issue, but operating it in unprotected waters is.

I think the intent for the floating runway is it will operate inside protected sovereign territorial water (calm waters), I would not like to be the pilot of a C17 or Galaxy landing on one of those outside of calm waters, how would the pilot compensate for the different pitch that will happen, as the aircraft will be slamming into the runway till it slows enough.

 

[swerve]

The point I'm making is that the UAVs can get shot down. The blackbird couldn't. Not discussing anything on recon ability.

Err - it could get shot down. It wasn't easy (very difficult, in fact), but it was possible. It could be seen coming from a long way off, giving time to get MiG-25s into firing position ahead of it.

An interceptor doesn't have to be faster than the thing it's intercepting if that thing & its route can be identified early enough, & the interceptor is in the right position. This means interception from the front quarter, of course.

It has been suggested that a MiG-25 radar & fire control system couldn't cope with the closing speed of an SR-71 head on, necessitating launch from under & behind at short (several km) range. Any further away & the missiles would run out of fuel before catching the SR-71. IR missiles could be used from that distance - the SR-71 was big & very hot, thus an easy IR target.

There was also the SA-5 missile, which certainly had the range, speed, & altitude performance needed - though the SR-71 supposedly had excellent ECM, & would have had to have flown within the lethal envelope of an SA-5 battery.

 

[My2Cents]

i recently found this report on a 1970s proposal for a larger aircraft to be built after the first couple nimitz's.

its a very interesting read, i came away from it with the thought "Wow armored supercarrier". here are the basic specs:-

Length: 1250 feet (381m)
Beam wl: 280 feet (85.3m)
Draught:-
Max - 75 feet (22.8m)
Light - 61 feet (18.5m)
Flight deck width: 400 feet (121.92m)
Displacement Lt :-
Light-400,000
Full-500,000
Aircraft: 100

with 25,000 tons aviation fuel it can easily outlast a nimitz at ~10,000 tons.

id like to hear people's opinions on if this ship would of been more effective than buying additional Nimitzs. My opinion is that its sheer size would limit its combat effectiveness by limiting the ports which it can visit and vastly limiting it to which drydocks it can fit into for repairs/maintainance.

The concept seems to be an attempt to create a carrier that is nearly impossible to sink with conventional weapons. 37% of the full displacement is dedicated to passive protection measure, mostly massive compartmentalization.

The following is purely my speculation, but some of the features might include.

• Quadruple hull construction. The outer hull would be the same as current carriers, probably an inch or more in thickness, the next 2 would be thin, and the inner hull twice as thick as the outer. The distance between the hulls would be at least 2 meters to allow easy access for repair crews. The central compartments, between the 2nd and 3rd hulls, would be flooded with as little airspace as possible. 2 meters of water should provide at least as much protection as 8” of steel armor, and be capable of stopping any current cruise missile. If the warhead explodes inside the water armor it should will trap any fragments and dissipate the explosion by rupturing the walls of the 2nd and 3rd hulls, smothering any fire from remaining fuel, and draining the water into the dry space on either side where it can easily be drained/pumped out, allowing access for repair crews to close the breaches and restore the protection. If damage does cause flooding portions of the armor can be pumped out to supply a huge amount of extra buoyancy, at the price of reduced protection.
  Note that all the elevators are located in the center of the ship. This means that the protection can extend all the way to the armored flight deck!
• Strength deck well up in the ship, probably just above the hanger deck which would be several decks below the flight deck to protect against bombs, so that there is no ‘keel’ to be broken with torpedoes. Again the multiple hulls will function to dissipate the effects of torpedoes.
• The propellers are located in tunnels (per the text), have direct electrical drives, and doors that can close to block the entrance of acoustic homing torpedoes. The propulsion machinery would be designed so it could be drawn up into the hull for repairs underway.
  The engine room would be ‘rafted’ to protect against shock effects from explosions. The vessel is also (per the text) a CONAG design, so there should be at least 2 entirely separate engine rooms.
• Extensive repair capability.

Put simply, this vessel is a missile magnet. Too dangerous to ignore, but nearly impossible to kill without using a nuke. Try to sink her with conventional weapons and she just keeps on coming, and smiles all the way because every missile you fire at her is one less that can be fired at the vulnerable vessels that make up the rest of the fleet. It would take over a dozen missiles penetrating the fleet’s defenses to put this vessel temporarily out of action, and probably several times more to sink her, possibly every missile in an opposing fleet.