Trampoline Torment
You can't leave it down. The command of the Australian Navy still cannot decide where to put the comma.
The Canberra helicopter carrier is an export version of the Juan Carlos I UDC from the Spanish company Navantia.
In inheritance from “Juan Carlos” the Australian UDC got a bow springboard, which the Spaniards use to facilitate the takeoff of the VTOL “Sea Harrier”. The springboard is a characteristic feature of this type of UDKW. It expands the tactical capabilities of Juan Carlos and allows the ship to be used as a light aircraft carrier.
And here a paradox arose. Deck aviation of the Australian Navy is represented exclusively by rotary-wing aircraft, for the operation of which it is preferable to have a flat deck. Landing a helicopter on a 13-degree springboard is not an easy task.
All plans to modernize "Canberra" for basing promising F-35B remained unfulfilled. The military came to the conclusion that this would require a serious revision of the project, incl. taking measures to increase aviation fuel stocks, increasing the lifting capacity of the elevator and installing a heat-resistant coating with a cooling system on the flight deck.
At the same time, the dismantling of the springboard, which occupies 50 meters of the flight deck, is also considered an overwhelming technical task.
As a result, with its large dimensions and displacement, the Australian "Canberra" does not have any advantages in the composition of the air group over the UDKV of other countries.
A separate issue is the justification for the acquisition of UDKV from the point of view of the small naval forces of Australia. $ 1.5 billion for a low-speed "barge" without any weapons, detection and fire control equipment. Where are the Australians going to land the troops? To deliver soldiers to Afghanistan, it is enough to order a charter flight.
“In the sky the formidable“Yak”-“Yak”flies on the deck…. (shmyak)”
Heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers, project 1143
The Americans were afraid of Soviet submarines, and mocked the TAVKRs, calling them surrogate children of Admiral Gorshkov.
And there was something to laugh about. A hybrid of a missile cruiser and an aircraft carrier turned out to be completely ineffective as a cruiser, and completely non-combatant as an aircraft carrier.
In terms of the composition of the weapons, the formidable TAVKR corresponded to a large anti-submarine ship - despite the sixfold difference in their displacement! With the advent of the Slava RRC, the comparison generally lost all meaning, due to the incomparable capabilities of TAVKRs and "normal" cruisers armed with 16 Basalts and the S-300F long-range anti-aircraft system.
The carrier-based aircraft of the TAVKR is a Yak-38 “top mast guard aircraft” with a 10-minute fuel reserve. A simple fact speaks about the combat capabilities of Soviet "vertical units" - they did not have radars. The detection of the enemy was carried out by a visual method, which in the coming era of the fourth generation of fighters meant sudden death in battle from a medium (long) range airborne missile system.
Moreover, unlike the British Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft, for which a shortened “springboard” take-off was provided in order to increase their combat load, the layout of the domestic TAVKR in principle excluded the presence of any springboard.
In general, the sailors had a lot of fun, throwing into the wind a dozen billion full-weight Soviet rubles. The only positive news was that, despite the overwhelming number of accidents, the loss of flight personnel was counted in units. The forced ejection system of the Yak-38 compensated for all the shortcomings of this stupid attraction.
Super cruiser
It was created as a destroyer of enemy cruisers. Especially for him, 305 mm rapid-fire gun mounts and a completely non-cruising armor protection scheme with 229 mm belts and a system of armored decks, whose total thickness reached 170 mm, were developed!
As a result, “Alaska” turned out to be too large for a cruiser, but not strong enough to compete with battleships. The Americans had to come up with a new classification and write "Alaska" into "large cruisers" (CB).
The admirals came to their senses too late. Construction was stopped at the third building (SV-3 "Hawaii"), when it is 85% complete.
No less sad was the fate of the two built "large cruisers" - "Alaska" and "Guam". Having served less than two years, the giant ships, whose length reached a quarter of a kilometer, were put into reserve. Subsequently, various plans were discussed to turn the "Alaska" into a missile cruiser, but nothing of the proposed was done. Having stood in reserve for 15 years, both giants went to be scrapped.
Sleep of reason gives birth to monsters (Goya)
In addition to the general absurdity of the project, “Alaska” is criticized for unforgivable mistakes in its design. With such a size (34,000 tons), much better security could have been provided (for example, the German Scharnhorst). And, nonsense by the standards of the 40s, the almost complete absence of anti-torpedo protection! The supercruiser had a good chance of capsizing from being hit by just one torpedo.
No, for all its faults, Alaska was not a bad ship. I will say more - under different circumstances, operating under a different flag, "Alaska" would become the flagship and pride of most of the world's fleets. But for the Americans, who had a clear concept of using the Navy and experience in building balanced TKR and LK, the gamble with the construction of such an absurd ship looks like sheer madness.
Cabin carrier "Ural"
The supership, to the creation of which 200 scientific research teams of the USSR were involved, made the only voyage in its career - the transition from the Baltic to the intended place of service, to the Pacific Ocean. Then he was out of order forever.
265 meters long.
Full displacement 36,000 tons.
Combined power plant of two nuclear reactors and two boilers on fuel oil.
Due to the prohibitive complexity of its design, even in the process of construction, "Ural" received a constant roll of 2 ° to the left side.
What was this paranormal ship built for?
The only purpose of the “Ural” was to monitor the missile range on the Kwajalein Atoll. Obtaining reliable information about the warheads of American missiles, their sizes, features and behavior in the final section of the trajectory, using radar and optical means.
The more information is revealed about this project, the more confusion this stillborn child of the dying USSR causes.
In fact, the Ural's capabilities matched the capabilities of the modernized Aegis system (the most famous episode: the interception of a space satellite at an altitude of 247 km). Moreover, the first Aegis was installed on a serial warship seven years before the appearance of the Ural, in 1983. And for the operation of Aegis, neither then nor now, nuclear reactors were required. Also, they are not required to operate the giant SBX marine missile defense radar.
Of course, in our days, the restoration of the large reconnaissance ship "Ural" does not make sense. The Elbrus computers installed on board are inferior in performance to any smartphone. And the radar system has become obsolete with the advent of modern radars with active phased array.
Masterpiece? Undoubtedly! Ural has once again proved what the victory of technology over common sense leads to.
Nuclear cruiser "Virginia"
Most helpful member on this list. And not only because he launched two Tomahawks across Iraq. Unlike the rest of the deranged projects, "Virginia" at the dawn of her career really represented combat value and was considered almost a key element of the air defense of the AUG.
Nevertheless, this story had a standard ending for all monsters.
Four atomic giants, having served less than half of the planned term (“Texas” - only 15 years!), Ended up in a landfill. Why?
In the presence of a developed engine building and excellent ship-based gas turbines, the decision to build cruisers with a nuclear power plant already initially looked, at least, controversial. It is worth noting that this was not the first experience of the Americans in the field of creating nuclear cruisers, despite the fact that all previous experiments did not end well.
The beginning of the end of "Virginias" was the emergence of cruisers equipped with the "Aegis" system and below deck launchers with a wide range of used ammunition.
Calculations made in 1996 showed that the cost of operating a nuclear cruiser ($ 40 million per year) is almost twice as high as that of Aegis cruisers and destroyers, with an incomparable difference in their capabilities. like building a new Ticonderoga. However, even so, the upgraded Virginia would be inferior to the new ship.
"Virginia" for recycling, early 2000s
The list of stupid and absurd inventions in the field of the Navy is not limited to the five ships presented. Albert Einstein said: “There are two infinite things in the world: the Universe and human stupidity. I'm not quite sure about the universe though.”
