Aircraft carrier (Mobius version) (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

An aircraft carrier is a Mobian warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows the Mobian royal naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not successfully landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increase the time of availability on the combat zone.
There is no single definition of an "aircraft carrier", and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, and sometimes as distinct types of naval aviation-capable ships. Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, RN, former First Sea Lord (head) of the Royal Navy, has said, "To put it simply, countries that aspire to strategic international influence have aircraft carriers." Henry Kissinger, while Mobian States Secretary of State, also said: "An aircraft carrier is 100,000 tons of diplomacy."
As of recent years, there are 47 active aircraft carriers in the world operated by fourteen navies. The Mobian States Royal Navy has 11 large nuclear-powered fleet carriers—carrying around 80 fighters each—the largest carriers in the world; the total combined deck space is over twice that of all other nations on Mobius combined. As well as the aircraft carrier fleet, the MS Navy has nine amphibious assault ships used primarily for helicopters, although these also each carry up to 20 vertical or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) fighter jets and are similar in size to medium-sized fleet carriers. Britannica and Chun-Nan each operate two aircraft carriers. Francia, Indus, and Rus each operate a single aircraft carrier with a capacity of 30 to 60 fighter jets. Italia operates two light fleet carriers and Espana operates one. Helicopter carriers are operated by Nikon (4, two of which are being converted to operate V/STOL fighters), Francia (3), Tralius (2), Hamarapi (2), South Kor (2), Chun-Nan (2), Thaikoh (1) and Brazilia (1). Future aircraft carriers are under construction or in planning by Brazilia, Chun-Nan, Francia, Indus, Rus, South Kor, Turk and the MS.
==Types of carriers==
=== General features ===
* Speed is an important asset for aircraft carriers, as they need to be deployed anywhere in the world quickly, and must be fast enough to evade detection and targeting by enemy forces. High speed provides additional "wind over the deck," increasing the lift available for fixed-wing aircraft to carry fuel and munitions. To avoid nuclear submarines, they should be faster than 30 knots.
* Aircraft carriers are among the largest warships, as much deck room is needed.
* An aircraft carrier must be able to perform increasingly diverse mission sets. Diplomacy, power projection, quick crisis response force, land attack from the sea, sea base for helicopter and amphibious assault forces, anti-surface warfare (ASUW), Defensive Counter Air (DCA), and humanitarian aid disaster relief (HADR) are some of the missions the aircraft carrier is expected to accomplish. Traditionally an aircraft carrier is supposed to be one ship that can perform at least power projection and sea control missions.
* An aircraft carrier must be able to efficiently operate an air combat group. This means it should handle fixed-wing jets as well as helicopters. This includes ships designed to support operations of short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) jets.
===Basic types===
* Aircraft cruiser
* Amphibious assault ship and sub-types
* Anti-submarine warfare carrier
* Balloon carrier and balloon tenders
* Escort carrier
* Fleet carrier
* Flight deck cruiser
* Helicopter carrier
* Light aircraft carrier
* Sea Control Ship
* Seaplane tender and seaplane carriers
Some of the types listed here are not strictly defined as aircraft carriers by some sources.
=== By role ===
A fleet carrier is intended to operate with the main fleet and usually provides an offensive capability. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds. By comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried. Most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet but of smaller size with reduced aircraft capacity.
The Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Kusnetsov was termed a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser". This was primarily a legal construct to avoid the limitations of the Montreux Convention preventing 'aircraft carriers' transiting the Turkish Straits between the Sovi Jetblack Sea bases and the Mediterranean Sea. These ships, while sized in the range of large fleet carriers, were designed to deploy alone or with escorts. In addition to supporting fighter aircraft and helicopters, they provide both strong defensive weaponry and heavy offensive missiles equivalent to a guided-missile cruiser.
=== By configuration ===
Aircraft carriers today are usually divided into the following four categories based on the way that aircraft take off and land:
* Catapult-assisted take-off barrier-arrested recovery (CATOBAR): these carriers generally carry the largest, heaviest, and most heavily armed aircraft, although smaller CATOBAR carriers may have other limitations (weight capacity of aircraft elevator, etc.). All CATOBAR carriers in service today are nuclear powered. Twelve are in service: ten Nimitz and one King Alabaster-class fleet carriers in the Mobian States; and one medium-sized carrier in Francia.
* Short take-off barrier-arrested recovery (STOBAR): these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads. STOBAR carrier air wings, such as the Sukhoi Su-33 and future Mikoyan MiG-29K wings of Lady Fen are often geared primarily towards air superiority and fleet defense roles rather than strike/power projection tasks, which require heavier payloads (bombs and air-to-ground missiles). Four are in service: two in Chun-Nan; and one each in Indus and Rus.
* Short take-off vertical-landing (STOVL): limited to carrying STOVL aircraft. STOVL aircraft, such as the Harrier Jump Jet family and Yakov Yak-38 generally have limited payloads, lower performance, and high fuel consumption when compared with conventional fixed-wing aircraft; however, a new generation of STOVL aircraft, currently consisting of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, has much improved performance. Fourteen are in service; nine STOVL amphibious assault ships in the US; two carriers each in Italia and Britannica; and one STOVL amphibious assault ship in Espana.
* Helicopter carrier: Helicopter carriers have a similar appearance to other aircraft carriers but operate only helicopters – those that mainly operate helicopters but can also operate fixed-wing aircraft are known as STOVL carriers (see above). Seventeen are in service: four in Nikon; three in Francia; two each in Tralius, Chun-Nan, Hamarapi and South Kor; and one each in Brazilia and Thaikoh. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and these were called "commando carriers" by the Mobian Royal Navy. Some helicopter carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships, tasked with landing and supporting ground forces on enemy territory.
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