Evolution without revolutions
The development of the naval forces of the leading world powers now, in general, is not difficult to predict. The revolution is not planned yet. But this impression can be misleading. It is enough to look deep into history and see how often the idea of an "ideal" fleet has changed dramatically. Remember at least the Second World War, when the theory and practice of using the fleet underwent incredible metamorphoses. Of course, they knew about the potential of aircraft carriers before, but only WW II gave clear answers to who is the master of the sea, and giant battleships, such as the Japanese Yamato, went into oblivion. The stake on nuclear submarines during the Cold War also did not fully justify itself. Rather, it has once again shown that submarines by themselves cannot replace a large surface fleet, although they will remain one of the most important elements of the nuclear triad for at least half a century.
The basis of the tactical potential is and will be the aforementioned aircraft-carrying ships, the appearance of which, in general, is well known. Let's consider the issue in more detail. The future of the US Navy is now inextricably tied to the new Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, which are expected to be built by ten and will be replaced by the Nimitz-class carriers. Most likely, even in the middle of the century, ships of the Gerald R. Ford class will be America's main force on the ocean borders.
Aircraft carriers of this type became the development of ships of the "Nimitz" type: there are no super revolutionary ideas in its design. It is necessary, however, to note the choice of the EMALS electromagnetic catapult for launching aircraft and the newest AAG aerofinisher. Recall that a steam catapult was used on the Nimitz, which, in general, also showed itself well. As for EMALS, in short, it allows combat aircraft to accelerate more smoothly, thereby avoiding too heavy loads on their structure. It is important. The fact is that the US Navy is actively putting into operation the latest fifth-generation fighters F-35C, which, although they are relatively simple to fly, have a very high mass for a fighter. The maximum take-off weight of the carrier-based F-35, we recall, exceeds 30 tons. For the F / A-18C / D fighter, which it is supposed to replace, this figure is almost a third less.
The development of stealth technology will invariably affect the appearance of the naval forces. In principle, it is already making itself felt: the F-35 is considered one of the least noticeable aircraft in the world, and according to some experts, they may even surpass the level of radar (however, obviously, not infrared due to the design of the nozzles) stealth F -22. Gradually, such machines will replace the fourth generation fighters, determining the strike potential of the fleets of the great world powers. Not only America.
Not only carrier-based aircraft are gradually becoming invisible, but also the carriers themselves. At least it was previously stated that "Gerald R. Ford" is also seen "inconspicuous." At least as far as possible for such a large ship. The best demonstration of stealth technology at sea should be considered the newest American destroyer Zamvolt, whose iron shape allows to reduce its effective scattering area (a measure that determines the radar signature of an object) by 50 times in comparison with other large warships of large sizes.
But not everything is so simple, and here the Americans themselves were already "burned", so that the destroyer of the future became at some stage the destroyer of the past. It's all about the price: now the cost of one Zamvolt is about $ 4 billion. This is a gigantic amount even for the United States. For comparison, the cost of the destroyer "Arleigh Burke" is approximately one and a half billion dollars, and the tactical strike potential of these ships is comparable. Ultimately, the US Navy ordered not 32 Zamvolts, but only three, which, in turn, led to an even greater increase in the cost of the destroyer. Such is the vicious circle.
Destroyers "Zamvolt" could become the prototype of the ship of the future for another reason. Previously, the leadership of the US Navy tested and wanted to adopt the so-called railgun, which was seen as the standard artillery gun of the Zamvolta. Recall that a railgun is a device consisting of two parallel electrodes (rails), which are connected to a powerful direct current source. A conventional "projectile" is between the rails and at the right moment can shoot, accelerating due to the Ampere force acting on a closed conductor with a current in its own magnetic field. The Ampere force affects the rails, leading them to mutual repulsion.
Such a simple scheme, in theory, allows you to shoot at a distance of 400 kilometers, which is unattainable for conventional naval guns, whose firing range is often limited to about a hundred kilometers. By the way, in 2011, the US Navy tested a promising AGS cannon with guided projectiles with GPS guidance: it hit targets at a range of 81 kilometers. However, later these shells were also abandoned, since the price of one was about a million dollars.
So what was the reason for the rejection of the railgun? The main thing, again, can be called the price. Tests, modifications, maintenance - all this cost a lot of money, which now no one will undertake to calculate. At the same time, the firing range of a railgun is still less than the launch range of a cruise missile, which can exceed 2500 kilometers (although the price of a cruise missile is often more than a million US dollars).
Interestingly, the American failure did not frighten China. Back in March last year, it became known that the Celestial Empire was probably the first in the world to test a railgun mounted on the deck of a ship. The weapon was mounted on the Haiyangshan landing ship of the Type 072-III type. It's hard to say what will happen next. The fact is that China is a very closed country when it comes to military technology. And very many "achievements" of the Chinese military-industrial complex often turn out to be an ordinary propaganda move (which, however, should not give reason to underestimate China).
We briefly examined the current realities of the naval forces, which, obviously, will be relevant in half a century. In the next part, we will touch on the issue of creating fundamentally new, revolutionary ship designs that can replace modern aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates.
