Sea Control Ship - Ships Built Following The SCS Concept

Ships Built Following The SCS Concept

The SCSs were smaller than most fleet aircraft carriers, and the concept was seized upon by nations wanting cheap aircraft carriers. Spain's flagship, Principe de Asturias (R11), and her smaller cousin ship, Thailand's HTMS Chakri Naruebet, were based on the final US Navy blueprints for a dedicated sea control ship, but with the addition of a ski-jump ramp and follow a similar mission profile. As currently configured, the Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi (551) would also fit under the SCS description. A STOVL flight deck equipped Spruance class destroyer with Harriers for air cover was seriously considered in the 1970s for the SCS but in the end rejected by the US Navy and Congress.

The British Invincible class began life separately from the Elmo Zumwalt SCS design and has its origins in a sketch design for a 6,000 ton, guided-missile armed, helicopter carrying escort cruiser intended as a complement to the much larger CVA-01-class fleet aircraft carrier. The cancellation of CVA-01 in 1966 meant that the smaller cruiser would now have to provide the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) taskforce with command and control facilities. A 17,500 ton vessel was chosen with a "through-deck", nine Sea Kings and missiles right forward. By 1970, the "through-deck" design had advanced into a Naval Staff Requirement for an 18,750 ton Through-Deck Command Cruisers (TDCC). In May 1975, the British Government authorised the maritime version of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which was successfully developed into the Sea Harrier. This meant that the design was reworked again to include a small complement of these VTOL aircraft. In order to launch a heavily-laden Harrier more efficiently by STOVL (short take-off vertical landing) from the comparatively short - 170 m - flight deck, a 'ski-jump' was developed.

The Soviet Kiev class aircraft carriers had a similar mission, but were much bigger as they were effectively an SCS and a heavy missile cruiser combined into one hull. The Kiev class was equipped with twelve short ranged defensive Yakovlev Yak-38 STOL fighters and sixteen Kamov Ka-25 or Kamov Ka-27 ASW helicopters which operated from an angled flight deck. The forward deck was filled with eight large P-500 Bazalt surface to surface missiles for land and sea strike missions as well as torpedo launchers and strong layered missile and gun anti-aircraft defenses.

In January, 1969, contacts between the US Navy and the team in charge of the V/STOL “Harrier” at the Hawker Sidley plant in Dunsfold were the conceptual origin of a carrier for this kind of airplane, without catapults and with shorter runways. Thus a ship was proposed not for nuclear conflicts but for ground attack from the littoral and sea interdiction. It was not well received among circles in the US Navy that promoted a heavier aircraft carrier type during the Cold War.