The U.S. Navy is swapping out an amphibious assault ship forward deployed in the Western Pacific with an improved version capable of carrying many more F-35B fighter jets. USS America, a warship designed to hurl waves of Marines over the beach in helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft, is also designed to function as a “Lighting Carrier”, embarking nothing but fighter jets to act as a sort of “aircraft carrier lite”.

The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan, is one of the most powerful naval forces in the world. The Seventh Fleet is composed of a aircraft carrier, several large amphibious assault ships, destroyers, and minehunters. The Navy rotates ships through this force on a regular basis. The current USS Wasp, is based at Sasebo, outside Nagasaki.

USS Wasp during exercise Balikatan 2019, April 2019, ten F-35Bs clearly visible on her flight deck. MC1 Daniel Barker

Wasp was recently in the news for sailing through the South China Sea loaded with ten Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters—four more than it would usually carry. China claims the majority of the South China Sea as Chinese territory, and the Wasp was demonstrating its right of passage through the region.

In May, Wasp will rotate back to the United States. The Navy will replace it with USS America, a ship practically identical on the outside but with key internal differences that allow it to carry up to twice as many aircraft—including F-35Bs.

The Wasp-class amphibious assault ship is designed to act as a mobile base for a U.S. Marine Corps air-ground team. Wasps are meant to act as the centerpiece of an expeditionary strike group (ESG) that can embark a battalion of Marine Corps infantry, reinforced with tanks, light armored vehicles, and armed Humvees. The ESG also embarks an aviation component that includes MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor transports, CH-53E heavy lift helicopters, AH-1Z attack helicopters, and F-35Bs.

USS America passing USS Carl Vinson at sea, January 2018. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano

USS America is based on the Wasp class but different in one key way: the well deck, a floodable deck in the back of the ship capable of launching landing craft, LCAC hovercraft, and amphibious assault vehicles was deleted from the design blueprints. Instead America uses that space to enlarge the hangar bay, store extra aviation fuel, and embark extra aircraft munitions. While Wasp-class ships can send Marines ashore by air and sea, America can do so only via air, but better than the other ships in her class.

Wasp-class amphibious ships typically embark 6 F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, but Wasp’s passage through the South China Sea saw it take on ten of the fifth generation fighters (plus four MV-22 Ospreys.) America with her expanded aviation support suite, was built to accommodate up to 20 F-35s , plus two H-60 search and rescue helicopters. A typical Nimitz-class nuclear powered supercarrier typically embarks four squadrons of Super Hornet strike fighters, or about 40-48 fighter jets.

F-35B taking off from USS Wasp, April 2019. MC1 Daniel Barker

This “lightning carrier” concept, named after the F-35B Lightning II, allows an America-class ship to carry about forty percent of the firepower of a Nimitz-class carrier. The vertical takeoff and landing nature of the F-35B also means the Marines can fly their jets off the lightning carrier, land them at primitive airstrips on shore, and disperse them in the vicinity of the enemy--something regular carriers can’t do. A twenty fighter lightning carrier is the second most powerful aviation platform in the world, after the U.S. Navy’s supercarriers, and more powerful than China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, the Russian Admiral Kuznetsov, and perhaps even the UK’s new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers.

The lightning carrier concept does have its share of shortcomings. America-class ships lack dedicated helicopters for anti-submarine warfare, and can’t embark E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft that can detect aerial threats from afar and direct an air battle. This is a major problem if the embarked fighter force needs to help defend the America. F-35Bs, unlike Super Hornet strike fighters, can’t refuel one another, extending the fighter’s operating range. And an assault ship loaded to the gills with stealth fighters is one less ship capable of conducting a amphibious landing. A lightning carrier is a good ad hoc carrier, but it will never be on the same level as the Nimitz or Ford-class carriers.

Source: Task & Purpose

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io