More than two weeks have passed since the start of the Russian operation in Syria. You can already see some of its results. The Russian aviation group at the Khmeimim airbase consists of 12 Su-24M, 12 Su-25M, 6 Su-34, 4 Su-30SM, 1 Il-20M. There is also a number of Mi-24 helicopters, Mi-8, possibly Mi-17. Since September 30, the group has been flying from 20 to 88 sorties per day. In addition, 26 cruise missiles were struck from the Caspian Sea. During combat work, strikes are struck primarily at command and staff posts, communication centers, storage sites for ammunition, weapons and fuel, and places of concentration of military equipment.
For a long time on this forum, some respected authors talked about the decline of the era of aircraft carriers, their complete futility and uselessness at a very high cost of construction and operation. We will not consider all areas of application, where it is quite possible to find a more successful replacement for aircraft carriers in some areas. Let's consider only one - air support for ground anti-terrorist operations.
Despite the fact that the fight against terrorists is a private task, it threatens to become the main headache number one for many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia for many years, and perhaps for the coming decades.
The Russian aviation group has a total of 35 aircraft: 18 front-line bombers, 12 attack aircraft, 4 fighters, 1 RTR. According to the project, the aircraft group of the ship 1143.5 was supposed to consist of 50 units of aircraft and helicopters: 26 MiG-29K or Su-27K, 4 Ka-27RLD, 18 K-27PL, 2 K-27PS.
Thus, by changing the composition of the group to mainly multipurpose fighters, you can get the equivalent in terms of the strike power of the grouping in Khmeimim. At present, Su-33K and MiG-29K aircraft can be based on the aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov".
Compared to the Su-24M and Su-34, the Su-33K aircraft have a lower maximum combat load - 6500 kg instead of 8000 kg, and an approximately comparable range of combat action. Apparently, the KAB-500 and air-to-ground missiles with laser, satellite and television guidance are not able to be used, but this is most likely due to the concept of application - the air defense of a ship group and the attack of enemy ships with Mosquito missiles. Additional equipment for striking ground targets is quite possible. In such an air wing there are no RTR aircraft, but at one time it was assumed on the basis of the Su-27 to create a whole family of naval aircraft: the Su-27KSh attack aircraft, the Su-27KRTs reconnaissance and target designation, the Su-27KPP jammer, the Su-27KT tanker. The MiG-29K has an even lower maximum combat load (4500 kg) and a smaller combat radius, but a richer range of weapons.
Unfortunately, at present, it is unrealistic to form a full-fledged air wing for an aircraft carrier, both due to the amount of necessary equipment and due to the lack of the required number of pilots trained for takeoff and landing on the deck for round-the-clock high-intensity combat operations.
The use of aviation from a ground airfield and from the deck has its pros and cons. The aircraft carrier, covered by escort ships and RLD helicopters, is practically invulnerable to terrorist attacks. Aircraft at the ground airfield can be attacked by mobile sabotage groups with mortars. Dust storms have no effect on the aircraft carrier, the raised aircraft can use satellite-guided ammunition. The impact of storms can be partially offset by the ability of the aircraft carrier to change the area of recovery of aviation. The redeployment of aviation on an aircraft carrier is carried out together with "its" airfield and ammunition, no one will close the air corridor, there is no dependence on the quality of the ground airfield in the country of destination. At the same time, the ground airfield will have advantages in the possibility of better rest for the crews and service personnel, a greater number of deployed ammunition and fuel, and the convenience of servicing equipment. Cruise missile strikes can be considered in general only as an addition, taking into account both their cost (salute of 26 missiles - about 1 billion rubles) and the impossibility of objective control immediately following the results of their use in the form of video recording.
Considering that Nimitz-class aircraft carriers can carry out up to 120-140 sorties per day for two weeks at an intensity of 40-60 sorties, it is possible to carry out an air operation for 1-1.5 months without replenishing fuel and ammunition supplies. For "Admiral Kuznetsov" the figures, of course, will be different.
The bottom line is that an aircraft carrier is such a versatile ship that there is always a task that it can perform better than other means.
At least for now.
