Author: Rainbow Kursk
Recent sea trials of India's domestic aircraft carrier "Vikrant" have attracted attention.
The design of the carrier dates back to 1999, but if India's domestic carrier program is to be pushed forward another 10 years. Between 1988 and 1989, India proposed the construction of a domestic air defense ship (ADS) plan, which is a copy of the more popular sea-making ship project in the 1980s, compared with the modern aircraft carrier program (IAC), the air defense ship is actually a light aircraft carrier carrying a small number of carrier-based aircraft, such as Spain's "Prince of Asturias" aircraft carrier is a typical sea-making ship.
At that time, India had sought air defense ship designs from France and Italy, and received a positive response, and the French DCN company also submitted an air defense ship design plan, but because India's economic strength was not strong enough at that time, in the face of the high cost of the French, it regressed, which made the Indian aircraft carrier plan delayed for another 10 years, and shifted from outsourcing to domestic production.
Photo: DCN's model of the Indian air defense ship project, which was exhibited by DCN in the 1990s, has a full load displacement of 32,000 tons, almost a replica of the Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier.
Coincidentally, almost at the same time, the Chinese Navy was also given a chance to own an aircraft carrier.
At that time, in addition to France and Italy, Spain was also a country that actively promoted the aircraft carrier program in the international market. After the construction of the "Prince of Asturias" aircraft carrier in the 1980s and 1990s, and the construction of the Thai "Chakri Nalubet" aircraft carrier, the Spanish Bazin Shipyard was full of self-confidence, and it was also a medium-sized aircraft carrier with a design of 30,000 tons.
At that time, the Spanish Navy also hoped to obtain a larger aircraft carrier than the "Principe de Asturias", so the Bazin Shipyard proposed two aircraft carrier designs, SAC-185 and SAC-220. But the Spanish Navy looked at it, weighed the silver in its hands, and finally gave up the dream of rebuilding the "Armada" (the great fleet of sails in Spanish history).
Image: From top to bottom, SAC-185, Athletic, SAC-220, Clemenceau, and Charles de Gaulle.
As a result, Bazin Shipyard began to introduce the SAC-185 and SAC-220 aircraft carrier programs to the international market.
The SAC-185 aircraft carrier scheme has a full load displacement of 22,000 tons, and the SAC-220 aircraft carrier program has a full load displacement of 2,700 tons, which is generally similar to the British Navy's "Athletic", that is, the Indian Navy's retired "Virat" aircraft carrier.
However, both the SAC-185 and SAC-220 solutions are catapult carriers with two ejection take-off runways, and the "Athletic"/"Virat" aircraft carrier that India recently received from the United Kingdom is a ski-jump carrier that can only carry Harrier vertical/short take-off and landing fighters.
Photo: Spain's aircraft carrier program is actually similar to the size tonnage of India's decommissioned Virat.
At this time, Bazin Shipyard has marketed the two packages to Argentina, Brazil, Australia and China, which have purchased aircraft carriers, and whether they have also been sold to India cannot be confirmed. Later, the Bazin Shipyard also designed a SAC-200 scheme with a displacement of 23,000 tons.
In general, the Spanish plan is like a miniature version of the Nimitz aircraft carrier, with an angled deck, 2 catapult devices, 2 aircraft lifts, the bridge is smaller in the right rear, can carry medium and light carrier aircraft, different schemes are just different sizes, the overall layout is basically the same.
Since Spain cannot provide carrier-based aircraft and needs to find its own way, its aircraft carrier propaganda pictures can blur these characteristics a bit, and even use the US-made F-15 heavy fighter that cannot be used on the aircraft carrier as a carrier-based aircraft, obviously in order to deliberately blur the idea of carrier-based aircraft adaptability.
Image: The SAC-220 aircraft carrier looks like the US Nimitz aircraft carrier, but it is actually a small aircraft carrier of less than 30,000 tons.
At that time, these aircraft carrier programs were also marketed to our navy, and the military magazines of that year reported on these negotiations.
According to Bazin Shipyard, the first aircraft carrier can be delivered in five years, while the second can be delivered in three years. Around 1996, military magazines reported and introduced the Spanish aircraft carrier program, and it is said that the first negotiations with the plant have been held, which has attracted widespread attention from foreign media.
Ironically, the fictitious aircraft carrier was introduced into a simulated government game called "Toy Island" and given it the name "Luosha", which was also called the demon surrendered by the Buddhist Lotus Master. The class was designated Trevallyland.
Image: In the West Toy Island game, the aircraft carrier was named "Luosha" for this imaginary aircraft carrier.
The carrier is estimated to cost $400 million, based on the game's settings, and this low cost can be achieved by using a combination of military and civilian standard materials, equipment, and the use of shelf products commonly found in the market. Construction will begin in 1996, be launched in 2001, sea trials in 2002 and enter service on 16 June 2004.
The self-defense weapons are three Type 74 twin 37 mm anti-aircraft guns and two sets of HHQ-7 ship-to-air missiles. Carrier-based aircraft consisted of 21 MiG-29K fighters and helicopters, while the AWACS aircraft were Yak-44 fixed-wing AWACS aircraft. The aircraft carrier can carry up to 30 aircraft.
Image: SAC-220 aircraft carrier three views, its carrier aircraft are "Super Flag", "Hornet" and "Hawkeye".
It should be said that this "Toy Island" game still shows the performance of this rare aircraft carrier very well, and also allows us to have a more intuitive understanding of it.
In fact, although the SAC-220 solution was very suitable for the Chinese navy in the 1990s from the technical level, the Chinese navy ultimately rejected the ship for reason.
Although Bazin Shipyard is one of the few shipbuilders in the world with aircraft carrier construction capabilities, the plant cannot manufacture a full set of aircraft carrier-based equipment manufacturing, including engines, catapults and other key equipment in Spain can not be manufactured, must be imported from abroad. At that time, the only country in the world with steam catapult manufacturing capabilities was the United States, which meant that the SAC-220 program had to obtain permission from the United States if it was to be exported, which was obviously difficult to achieve.
Photo: China's aircraft carriers still have to rely on themselves.
At the same time, the Chinese Navy also lacked usable carrier-based aircraft at that time, and although there was no obstacle to the introduction of MiG-29K carrier-based fighters from Russia, it was not worth the loss to buy more than 20 fighter jets specifically for a light aircraft carrier. Now it seems that the Chinese Navy did not blindly introduce the SAC-220 program at that time, and it was not a wise choice.
In a sense, China and India rejected the aircraft carrier programs of Western countries for different reasons in the 1990s, and embarked on the road of developing domestic aircraft carriers after the new century, of course, due to the different levels of technological development, this road of self-built aircraft carriers immediately shows the superiority of the two.