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As promised, here's the same 35,000 ton carrier in STOBAR configuration with ~30 F-35Cs instead of F-35Bs.The difference in terms of aircraft flow is insignificant - the safe parking line moves out a little to accommodate the maximum wing span of the E-2D Hawkeye (80ft) with the usual safety margin. This is offset by the F-35C's smaller spot factor (folding wings) which makes deck parking easier.So adding STOBAR capability should be a low cost way to allow the US to flex the airwing between USN and USMC squadrons. And to add AEW capability and in the future UAVs or UCAVs. For example, a possible air group might be 24x F-35B/C, 4x Growler or MQ-25, 2 E-2Ds + 4 helos.Hopefully this exercise demonstrates that a very capable CVL can be built that would fit within the size & cost enveloppe of current LHAs, i.e. without blowing the budget.P.S. The advantage of starting with Charles de Gaulle as my design template is that it provides a credible baseline in terms of aviation capability (CdG was designed for 36 F/A-18s). Replacing the nuclear plant with conventional propulsion is fairly trivial in terms of internal arrangements (counterintuitive I know, but the nuke plant requires a lot of volume). Of course the same exercise could be done using Cavour/Trieste or an LHA as a starting point (however the mods would be much more extensive).
As promised, here's the same 35,000 ton carrier in STOBAR configuration with ~30 F-35Cs instead of F-35Bs.
The difference in terms of aircraft flow is insignificant - the safe parking line moves out a little to accommodate the maximum wing span of the E-2D Hawkeye (80ft) with the usual safety margin. This is offset by the F-35C's smaller spot factor (folding wings) which makes deck parking easier.
So adding STOBAR capability should be a low cost way to allow the US to flex the airwing between USN and USMC squadrons. And to add AEW capability and in the future UAVs or UCAVs. For example, a possible air group might be 24x F-35B/C, 4x Growler or MQ-25, 2 E-2Ds + 4 helos.
Hopefully this exercise demonstrates that a very capable CVL can be built that would fit within the size & cost enveloppe of current LHAs, i.e. without blowing the budget.
P.S. The advantage of starting with Charles de Gaulle as my design template is that it provides a credible baseline in terms of aviation capability (CdG was designed for 36 F/A-18s). Replacing the nuclear plant with conventional propulsion is fairly trivial in terms of internal arrangements (counterintuitive I know, but the nuke plant requires a lot of volume). Of course the same exercise could be done using Cavour/Trieste or an LHA as a starting point (however the mods would be much more extensive).
