I guess it is relative, but that should be over 2000 miles, it’s hard to call that short. I don’t know the exact speeds of the Spanish Navy, but assuming perfect conditions and let’s give them 25 knots, that’s still going to run you ~4 days at top speed for the big ships.
I can’t think of a better method for Spain, but it’s a long enough voyage that no one’s going to surprise anyone.
I don’t think anyone was suggesting anyone had the ability to surprise any country with the presence of an aircraft carrier. They kinda stand out. The location of every major aircraft carrier group in the world is public knowledge, there is literally no point in trying to conceal it.
Oh man, you all are still thinking these guys have a navy at the same level as some of the top 10, none of the countries here are big enough to worry about a real aircraft carrier. Spain kind of has a singular one with a flight deck that can hold a few harriers, but they classify it as an amphibious assault ship or use it for helicopters. It’s definitely the big ship to worry about in the fleet and Spain has a pretty significant complement of larger ships, but we’re talking frigates, this is not that kind of Navy.
Beyond some big ships from Spain, think mostly patrol boats and a few submarines.
Spain is not in the top 10 strongest navies in the world obviously but it is still one of only 9 countries in the world that has a currently operational vessel capable of fielding fixed wing aircraft of any kind. 6 if you only want countries with carrier launched fighters. (3 if you don’t count VTOL/SVOTL at all). And the Spanish carrier in question can field about 3 dozen harriers (and technically it’s capable of launching F35s but Spain has declined to buy them)
You either misread a little bit or whatever you were reading wasn’t planning on getting those harriers off the deck. I’m not sure you could physically fit 36 harriers on the deck even if you didn’t have to worry about flying them off/on.
It can hold a few dozen helicopters, but the space required for helicopters is not interchangeable with the space required for harriers. The aircraft numbers you probably saw is assuming you take up the whole flight deck, no space to take off and land at all, and that is assuming the helicopters are small. You can find details pretty easily online, but just do an image search, it will make it pretty obvious that you are not fitting that many harriers on that boat. They’d have to hang them off the sides.
This still is probably the ship to watch out for, but comparing it to a real aircraft carrier is rough. Also, if you count this as an aircraft carrier, there’s 11 countries, maybe more depending on how you look at it. Australia has two of these that are the same class but they built and classify them exclusively as helicopter docks and don’t have anything else classified as a carrier.
That is the pure combat composition setup, which can fit 25 airplanes below deck and 6 in parking spots on the flight deck.
And there are 10 not 11 because Russia has one but it is not currently operational, it is undergoing repairs and retrofits and considering the focus of their military it is dubious how quickly they could field it.
The other side of the Med is not a long cruise for the Spanish Navy.
I guess it is relative, but that should be over 2000 miles, it’s hard to call that short. I don’t know the exact speeds of the Spanish Navy, but assuming perfect conditions and let’s give them 25 knots, that’s still going to run you ~4 days at top speed for the big ships.
I can’t think of a better method for Spain, but it’s a long enough voyage that no one’s going to surprise anyone.
Well yeah. Most strategic stuff in war isn’t a surprise though.
I don’t think anyone was suggesting anyone had the ability to surprise any country with the presence of an aircraft carrier. They kinda stand out. The location of every major aircraft carrier group in the world is public knowledge, there is literally no point in trying to conceal it.
Oh man, you all are still thinking these guys have a navy at the same level as some of the top 10, none of the countries here are big enough to worry about a real aircraft carrier. Spain kind of has a singular one with a flight deck that can hold a few harriers, but they classify it as an amphibious assault ship or use it for helicopters. It’s definitely the big ship to worry about in the fleet and Spain has a pretty significant complement of larger ships, but we’re talking frigates, this is not that kind of Navy.
Beyond some big ships from Spain, think mostly patrol boats and a few submarines.
Spain is not in the top 10 strongest navies in the world obviously but it is still one of only 9 countries in the world that has a currently operational vessel capable of fielding fixed wing aircraft of any kind. 6 if you only want countries with carrier launched fighters. (3 if you don’t count VTOL/SVOTL at all). And the Spanish carrier in question can field about 3 dozen harriers (and technically it’s capable of launching F35s but Spain has declined to buy them)
You either misread a little bit or whatever you were reading wasn’t planning on getting those harriers off the deck. I’m not sure you could physically fit 36 harriers on the deck even if you didn’t have to worry about flying them off/on.
It can hold a few dozen helicopters, but the space required for helicopters is not interchangeable with the space required for harriers. The aircraft numbers you probably saw is assuming you take up the whole flight deck, no space to take off and land at all, and that is assuming the helicopters are small. You can find details pretty easily online, but just do an image search, it will make it pretty obvious that you are not fitting that many harriers on that boat. They’d have to hang them off the sides.
This still is probably the ship to watch out for, but comparing it to a real aircraft carrier is rough. Also, if you count this as an aircraft carrier, there’s 11 countries, maybe more depending on how you look at it. Australia has two of these that are the same class but they built and classify them exclusively as helicopter docks and don’t have anything else classified as a carrier.
That is the pure combat composition setup, which can fit 25 airplanes below deck and 6 in parking spots on the flight deck.
That is the pure combat composition setup, which can fit 25 airplanes below deck and 6 in parking spots on the flight deck.
And there are 10 not 11 because Russia has one but it is not currently operational, it is undergoing repairs and retrofits and considering the focus of their military it is dubious how quickly they could field it.