Author: Yuri does not take revenge today, and it is forbidden to reprint without permission
In the world, there are not many countries in the world that have dual aircraft carriers in active service except the United States. In addition to us, everyone can think of the United Kingdom, Japan, etc., but in fact, there is one you can easily ignore, that is, Italy, in the recent large-scale military exercise, the country's navy of new and old 2 aircraft carriers, once again in the sea posture, and from the aircraft carrier design, the Italian style is very distinct.
Recently, the Italian Navy organized a military exercise in the Mediterranean code-named Mare Aperto 2021, dispatching as many as 21 warships and 4 fixed-wing fighters, 17 helicopters and 4,000 soldiers, while the new and old 2 largest combat ships of the country's navy, the aircraft carriers "C550" and "Garibaldi" (C551), also participated in the event surrounded by horizon-class anti-aircraft destroyers and FREMM frigates.
Image: The Garibaldi in the distance is indeed inconspicuous
It is worth mentioning that this is the F-35B of the Italian Navy, the first time to carry out actual combat training aboard the "Cavour". According to the pictures released by the Italian Navy, the flight deck of the "Cavour" carries at least 1 F-35B and multiple Harrier II vertical take-off and landing carrier-based fighters, compared with the Harrier, the F-35B's speed range, stealth, situational awareness, electronic countermeasures and over-the-horizon combat capabilities have been linearly improved.
Image: F-35B on the Cavour
The Cavour is Italy's second aircraft carrier, commissioned in 2004, with a displacement of about 27,000 tons, comparable to Japan's Izumo class.
Fully-fired, like its predecessor, the "Garibaldi", which entered service in 1985, it is also a ski-jumping, vertical landing aircraft carrier, but it is more than 1 times larger, designed to carry 16 "Harrier" carrier-based fighters, while the "Gaful" is designed with a certain amphibious attack capability, and the stern is designed with a vehicle ramp of 70 tons, which is not available in the "Garibaldi", right, India's first "domestic" aircraft carrier "Vikrant", which is actually "Gaful" Magnification improvement of the number.
Image: Old photo of 2 ships in the same frame
Italy is the third largest contributor to the F-35 program and is the only production line in Europe as a close ally of the United States. Although the number of purchases is not as large as japan, Italy still has to buy 90 F-35s, of which 60 are A-models for conventional take-off and landing delivered to the Air Force, and another 30 F-35Bs, due to contradictions between the navy and air force, and finally 15 each, it is expected that Italy will deploy the F-35B of the navy and air force on the "Cavour" at the same time, similar to the British approach, for which the "Cavour" completed an adaptive modification in Taranto last year, and returned home after completing the F-35B ship flight test at norfolk Port in the United States in April this year.
Image: F-35B shipboard test in the United States
Compared with some first-class naval powers, Italy's 2 aircraft carriers are not very large, but they are very distinctive.
The Cavour's ski-jump take-off deck has a 76m Otto next to it and aft. Meola rapid-fire naval guns, aircraft carriers have medium-caliber naval guns, which are rare in the world, and the "Cavour" also has 32 units of "Silva" A43 vertical fire can launch "Aster-15" medium-range ship-to-air missiles, and the air defense capabilities of the French "Charles de Gaulle" nuclear aircraft carrier, which is much larger than it, are completely consistent, and the firepower against the sea is beyond a lot.
Image: "Cavour" launches "Aster" vertically
The Garibaldi, which has a full load displacement of only 14,000 tons and is still the world's second pocket aircraft carrier (second only to Thailand's "Chakri dynasty", slightly smaller than the decommissioned 16,000-ton Spanish "Prince of Asturias" aircraft carrier), also has a strong firepower that does not match its own size, it has 2 sets of 8-unit "Sea Sparrow"/"Viper" (i.e. Aspid) short-range ship-to-air missile launchers, and before 2003, there were also 4 "Ottomat" medium-range anti-ship missile launchers. What's even more outrageous is that there are two sets of 324mm torpedo tubes, which are simply the "aircraft cruisers" of Western Europe.
Seriously, if carrier-based aircraft are not allowed to fight naval battles, the "Cavour" and the pre-2003 "Garibaldi" can stabilize the United States' "Nimitz" class, "Ford" class and other super nuclear aircraft carriers.
Image: "Garibaldi" old photo, the tail side of the side is the anti-ship missile launcher
However, it is not surprising that the Italian Navy ships pay attention to firepower is traditional, the real-world "Italian gun" is also well-known, "Garibaldi" is quite old, the new 30,000-ton "Trieste" amphibious assault ship that can also carry F-35B has begun to test, and Italy will maintain a two-carrier fleet in the future.