It has recently been reported that the UK has designed a supercarrier with a tonnage equivalent to 20 Ford-class aircraft carriers, or 30 times the size of the Liaoning, which can carry 300 fighters of various types. The supercarrier's bold design concept was bold but died due to a fatal flaw, and its blueprints are still treasured in museums by the British military. This project, known as the Ice Aircraft Carrier Program, is a controversial story in the history of world shipbuilding.
Since World War II, aircraft carriers have been one of the most powerful killers of modern navies. The United States has even developed the habit of sending aircraft carrier battle groups to deter in the event of a military crisis. Therefore, aircraft carriers are a vital fleet core weapon for any modern navy. It can be said that the number of aircraft carriers, the capacity of carrier-based aircraft and the technical level of carrier-based aircraft largely determine whether a fleet can survive the battle to the end.
During World War II, Britain had to build powerful capital ships to fight the Nazis due to operational needs. Faced with Germany's restrictions on blocking key materials such as steel, Britain had to consider using other alternative materials to build the main structure of the aircraft carrier. Therefore, they used ice that has undergone special material treatment as the material for the main structure of the aircraft carrier. If the plan succeeded, the British would have built large, hard-to-destroy capital ships at a relatively low cost, quickly turning the tide of war against them.
However, the shortcomings of ice carriers are also obvious. Although theoretically only fresh water and cotton are needed to repair its hull structure, the huge heat generated by the ship's power system, such as the boiler, when it is running can cause the inner walls of the power compartment to melt completely. In addition, the extremely low temperature of the hull required the addition of insulation inside the member compartment, which greatly increased the complexity of the ship's design.
More importantly, because the envisaged ice-based aircraft carrier is too large, it is difficult for the UK to provide it with enough propulsion engines and qualified power systems. In addition, according to calculations, such a large hull requires a lot of fuel, which makes it unaffordable for Britain, which is already in a shortage of supplies. These deficiencies mean that even if an ice-based aircraft carrier is successfully built, it will only be used as a floating airfield with limited functions, lacking tactical and strategic transfer capabilities. However, the British Air Force during World War II already had enough nearshore airfields to waste a lot of resources to improve the combat effectiveness of land-based aviation near the country. As a result, the plan ended up remaining on paper and in theory, never materialized.