海軍航空兵

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海軍航空兵（naval aviation或naval air force）又稱海軍航空隊或簡稱海航（aeronaval），指歸屬於海軍麾下指揮的軍事航空軍種，與獨立的空軍和歸屬於陸軍指揮的陸軍航空兵一起構成了軍隊的空中武裝力量。海軍航空兵以輔助艦隊進行聯合海戰或對陸空襲等攻擊性作戰為主要軍事準則，同時也負責本土領海與外地海軍基地周圍領空的防衛，以及為執勤艦隊提供空中預警、後勤運輸和勤務支援。

海軍航空兵的軍用航空器通常會配置在航空母艦上做為遠洋制空權和超視距作戰的主要戰力（如美國海軍和中國人民解放軍海軍航母戰鬥群上的艦載機），或部署在兩棲登陸艦上為登陸作戰時提供空中突擊和近距離空中支援（如美國海軍陸戰隊航空兵的各類V/STOL航空器）。在航母戰力有限的國家（如俄羅斯、日本、澳大利亞等），其海軍航空兵主要使用岸基機，依賴沿岸的陸上軍用機場，形態與普通空軍無異，功能主要是海上巡邏、偵察、預警與強行驅離等防禦性任務，雖然力量投射因此受限，但可以部署航母無法承載的中大型遠程轟炸機和預警機。

## 歷史

### 早期海軍航空器

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1849年，奧匈帝國海軍的外輪船「火神」號（SMS Vulcano）在鎮壓1848年革命反叛的威尼斯共和國時首次使用裝配了燃燒彈的熱氣球轟炸威尼斯，開創了海軍艦艇通過航空器進行軍事行動的先河。然而因為風向的改變，絕大多數氣球炸彈都沒能命中目標，有些甚至被風吹回到了奧匈陣地和艦艇上空。美國南北戰爭時期，北軍大概從半島會戰開始使用氣球來針對南軍陣地進行偵察，其中內陸河流上的一些運煤的駁船被改裝專門用來釋放氣球。同樣，南軍也將一些拖船改裝成了氣球母艦。

英國海軍部曾在1903年就試驗用風箏進行海軍通訊。美國狂野西部秀與載人航空先驅塞繆爾·富蘭克林·科迪（Samuel Franklin Cody，1867～1913）也稱展示了一個8ft長的風箏用作無線通訊或軍事偵察的空中載具。

1908年，英國首相H·H·阿斯奎斯批准在帝國國防委員會成立一個「空中小組委員會」（Aerial Sub-Committee）來調查海軍航空潛力。在1909年這個委員會接受了「無畏號」戰列艦首任艦長雷金納德·培根少將（Reginald Bacon，1863～1947）向第一海務大臣約翰·費舍爾男爵提出為皇家海軍建造用於偵察的硬式飛艇的提議，並在同年建造了「蜉蝣」號飛艇，這是海軍史上第一個有動力飛行器。在1913年，西班牙工程師萊昂納多·托雷斯·克韋多（Leonardo Torres Quevedo，1852～1936）發明了一種可以固定運送飛艇的新船，想要將專利賣給英國陸軍但被拒絕。1922年，西班牙海軍將1918年俘獲的一艘蒸汽貨船改造成了飛艇母艦，並在里夫戰爭中服役。

在1908年萊特兄弟用新發明的萊特飛行器展示重於空氣的航空器能夠飛行之後，由查爾斯·勞斯參與創辦、本是著重於氣球的皇家航空俱樂部（Royal Aero Club）開始關注飛機。1910年6月，英國皇家海軍從皇家航空俱樂部抽到了兩架飛機來訓練新的飛行員，並在肯特郡謝佩島的一個機場上建立了世界上第一所海軍飛行學校，在二百名申請者中只有四人入選。法國人見此也在同年也建立了法國海軍航空兵和訓練學校。

美國也不甘落後，格倫·柯蒂斯與美國海軍簽約展示出海的艦船上可以起降飛機，在1910年11月由柯蒂斯麾下的飛行員尤金·伊利（Eugene Burton Ely，1886～1911）從在維吉尼亞州海岸停靠的「伯明罕」號巡洋艦上起飛，並在兩個月後成功嘗試在舊金山灣的另一艘巡洋艦「賓夕法尼亞」號上降落，但這兩艘艦艇上的起降平台都是臨時搭建的。1911年1月，柯蒂斯完成了兩次壯舉，先是在1月27日親自駕駛在聖地牙哥灣起飛了世界上第一架真正意義上的兩棲水上飛機——柯蒂斯D型，然後次日由他手下受訓的學生——海軍上尉西奧多·埃里森（Theodore Gordon Ellyson，1885～1928）重複飛行，使得後者稱為了世界上得到軍方認可的第一位海軍航空兵。美國海軍海事局因此用25000美元購買了三家飛機，並額外派遣四位軍官交給柯蒂斯和萊特兄弟訓練，並在馬里蘭州安納波利斯附近的一個簡易機場上建立了訓練營。這個訓練營的主要任務是訓練飛行員充當偵察兵和炮兵觀察員，因為當時的技術水平無法實現用飛機轟炸艦船，只能考慮讓飛行員用無線電回報空中偵察的發現，當時除美國海軍外只有義大利海軍在使用水上飛機進行軍用。在之後兩年，訓練營分別又從海軍和海軍陸戰隊增加了11名學員，並成功在戰列艦「密西西比」號上起飛。在1912年8月，海軍上校亨利·馬斯廷（Henry Croskey Mustin，1874～1923）成功試驗了飛機彈射器的概念，並在1915年成功彈射了第一架艦載機。1914年1月，第一處永備的海軍基地——彭薩科拉海軍航空基地在佛羅里達建立，由馬斯廷擔任指揮官。同年因為坦皮科事件爆發，從4月24日開始約45天時間內，共有十位飛行員駕駛水上飛機和飛行艇從「密西西比」號和「伯明罕」號上起飛在墨西哥韋拉克魯斯和坦皮科海岸進行偵查任務。

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1912年1月, 英國前無畏艦「非洲」號在施爾尼斯進行飛機實驗，前甲板上在炮塔頂部搭建了一個100ft長、並帶有向下傾斜滑軌的跑道。當時的海軍上尉查爾斯·薩姆森（Charles Rumney Samson，1883～1931）在1月10日駕駛水上飛機「S.38」成功從戰艦上起飛，成為第一個從艦艇上起飛的英國飛行員。「非洲」號的起飛跑道隨後被移到了其姐妹艦「希伯尼亞」號，同年5月薩姆森駕駛「S.38」從正在韋茅斯灣參加皇家海上閱兵以10.5kn速度航行的「希伯尼亞」號上起飛，成為第一架從移動艦艇上起飛的飛行員。隨後「希伯尼亞」號的航空設備又被移到了戰列艦「倫敦」號上。以上的飛行試驗使得皇家海軍認定在艦艇上設置飛行器有助於偵查和觀測，但飛行器材會阻礙艦炮射界，而且在波濤洶湧的海面回收水上飛機的風險過大，因此在艦艇上搞航空的價值不大。同年，剛剛建立的海軍航空隊被合併到了皇家飛行隊中，但在次年被批准建造了一個梅德韋d 水上飛機基地、阿什福德區的飛艇基地和八個新的空軍基地，而且將巡洋艦「赫耳墨斯」號改造成了水上飛機母艦。1914年，海軍航空隊被重新分化出來成為皇家海軍航空隊（Royal Naval Air Service），並在1917年前成為了英國海軍艦隊作戰的重要部分。

德意志帝國和沙俄也是水上飛機的早期使用者，其中德意志帝國海軍在1913年5月就建立了位於柏林的一個齊柏林飛艇編隊和位於普茨克的一個飛機中隊。同樣，日本也在1913年效仿英國海軍航空隊建立了大日本帝國海軍航空隊。而在巴爾幹戰爭中，希臘飛行員還在偵察鄂圖曼帝國海軍位置時還向其空投了四枚炸彈。

### 第一次世界大戰

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At the outbreak of war the Royal Naval Air Service had 93 aircraft, six airships, two balloons and 727 personnel, making it larger than the Royal Flying Corps. The main roles of the RNAS were fleet reconnaissance, patrolling coasts for enemy ships and submarines, attacking enemy coastal territory and defending Britain from enemy air-raids, along with deployment along the Western Front. In 1914 the first aerial torpedo was dropped in trials performed in a Short "Folder" by Lieutenant (later Air Chief Marshal Sir) Arthur Longmore, and in August 1915, a Short Type 184 piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds from Ben-my-Chree sank a Turkish supply ship in the Sea of Marmara with a 14in, 810lb torpedo.

The first strike from a seaplane carrier against a land target as well as a sea target took place in September 1914 when the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Japanese seaplane carrier conducted ship-launched air raids from Kiaochow Bay during the Battle of Tsingtao in China. The four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets (communication centers and command centers) and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September until 6 November 1914, when the Germans surrendered. One Japanese plane was credited being shot down by the German aviator Gunther Plüschow in an Etrich Taube, using his pistol.

On the Western front the first naval air raid occurred on 25 December 1914 when twelve seaplanes from Engadine, Riviera and Empress (cross-channel steamers converted into seaplane carriers) attacked the Zeppelin base at Cuxhaven. The raid was not a complete success, owing to sub-optimal weather conditions, including fog and low cloud, but the raid was able to conclusively demonstrate the feasibility of air-to-land strikes from a naval platform. Two German airships were destroyed at the Tøndern base on July 19, 1918, by seven Sopwith Camels launched from the carrier Furious.

In August 1914 Germany operated 20 planes and one Zeppelin, another 15 planes were confiscated. They operated from bases in Germany and Flanders (Belgium). On 19 August 1918 several British torpedo boats were sunk by 10 German planes near Heligoland. These are considered as the first naval units solely destroyed by airplanes. During the war the German "Marineflieger" claimed the destruction of 270 enemy planes, 6 balloons, 2 airships, 1 Russian destroyer, 4 merchant ships, 3 submarines, 4 torpedo boats and 12 vehicles, for the loss of 170 German sea and land planes as well as 9 vehicles. Notable Marineflieger aces were Gotthard Sachsenberg (31 victories), Alexander Zenzes (18 victories), Friedrich Christiansen (13 victories, 1 airship and 1 submarine), Karl Meyer (8 victories), Karl Scharon (8 victories), and Hans Goerth (7 victories).

### 航空母艦的發展

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The need for a more mobile strike capacity led to the development of the aircraft carrier - the backbone of modern naval aviation. Ark Royal was the first purpose-built seaplane carrier and was also arguably the first modern aircraft carrier. She was originally laid down as a merchant ship, but was converted on the building stocks to be a hybrid airplane/seaplane carrier with a launch platform and the capacity to hold up to four wheeled aircraft. Launched on 5 September 1914, she served in the Dardanelles campaign and throughout World War I.

During World War I the Royal Navy also used HMS Furious to experiment with the use of wheeled aircraft on ships. This ship was reconstructed three times between 1915 and 1925: first, while still under construction, it was modified to receive a flight deck on the fore-deck; in 1917 it was reconstructed with separate flight decks fore and aft of the superstructure; then finally, after the war, it was heavily reconstructed with a three-quarter length main flight deck, and a lower-level take-off only flight deck on the fore-deck.

On 2 August 1917, Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning, Royal Navy, landed his Sopwith Pup aircraft on Furious in Scapa Flow, Orkney, becoming the first person to land a plane on a moving ship. He was killed five days later during another landing on Furious.

Argus was converted from an ocean liner and became the first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land. After commissioning, the ship was heavily involved for several years in the development of the optimum design for other aircraft carriers. Argus also evaluated various types of arresting gear, general procedures needed to operate a number of aircraft in concert, and fleet tactics.

The Tondern raid, a British bombing raid against the Imperial German Navy's airship base at Tønder, Denmark was the first attack in history made by aircraft flying from a carrier flight deck, with seven Sopwith Camels launched from HMS Furious. For the loss of one man, the British destroyed two German zeppelins, L.54 and L.60 and a captive balloon.

### 兩戰間期

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Genuine aircraft carriers did not emerge beyond Britain until the early 1920s.

The Japanese Japanese aircraft carrier (1921) was the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, although the initial plans and laying down for Hermes (1924) had begun earlier. Both Hōshō and Hermes initially boasted the two most distinctive features of a modern aircraft carrier: a full-length flight deck and a starboard-side control tower island. Both continued to be adjusted in the light of further experimentation and experience, however: Hōshō even opted to remove its island entirely in favor of a less obstructed flight deck and improved pilot visibility. Instead, Japanese carriers opted to control their flight operations from a platform extending from the side of the flight deck.

In the United States, Admiral William Benson attempted to entirely dissolve the USN's Naval Aeronautics program in 1919. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt and others succeeded in maintaining it, but the service continued to support battleship-based doctrines. To counter Billy Mitchell's campaign to establish a separate Department of Aeronautics, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels ordered a rigged test against Indiana in 1920 which reached the conclusion that "the entire experiment pointed to the improbability of a modern battleship being either destroyed or completely put out of action by aerial bombs." Investigation by the New-York Tribune that discovered the rigging led to Congressional resolutions compelling more honest studies. The sinking of Ostfriesland involved violating the Navy's rules of engagement but completely vindicated Mitchell to the public. Some men, such as Captain (soon Rear Admiral) William A. Moffett, saw the publicity stunt as a means to increase funding and support for the Navy's aircraft carrier projects. Moffett was sure that he had to move decisively in order to avoid having his fleet air arm fall into the hands of a proposed combined Land/Sea Air Force which took care of all the United States's airpower needs. (That very fate had befallen the two air services of the United Kingdom in 1918: the Royal Flying Corps had been combined with the Royal Naval Air Service to become the Royal Air Force, a condition which would remain until 1937.) Moffett supervised the development of naval air tactics throughout the '20s. The first aircraft carrier entered the U.S. fleet with the conversion of the collier USS Jupiter and its recommissioning as Langley in 1922.

Many British naval vessels carried float planes, seaplanes or amphibians for reconnaissance and spotting: two to four on battleships or battlecruisers and one on cruisers. The aircraft, a Fairey Seafox or later a Supermarine Walrus, were catapult-launched, and landed on the sea alongside for recovery by crane. Several submarine aircraft carriers were built by Japan, each carrying one floatplane, which did not prove effective in war. The French Navy built one large submarine, French submarine, which also carried one floatplane, and was also not effective in war.

### 第二次世界大戰

World War II saw the emergence of naval aviation as the decisive element in the war at sea. The principal users were Japan, United States (both with Pacific interests to protect) and Britain. Germany, the Soviet Union, France and Italy had a lesser involvement. Soviet Naval Aviation was mostly organised as land-based coastal defense force (apart from some scout floatplanes it consisted almost exclusively of land-based types also used by its air arms).

During the course of the war, seaborne aircraft were used in fleet actions at sea (Midway, German battleship), strikes against naval units in port (Taranto, Pearl Harbor), support of ground forces (Okinawa, Allied invasion of Italy) and anti-submarine warfare (the Battle of the Atlantic). Carrier-based aircraft were specialised as dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters. Surface-based aircraft such as the PBY Catalina helped finding submarines and surface fleets.

In World War II the aircraft carrier replaced the battleship as the most powerful naval offensive weapons system as battles between fleets were increasingly fought out of gun range by aircraft. The Japanese Japanese battleship, the heaviest battleship ever built, was first turned back by light escort carrier aircraft and later sunk lacking its own air cover.

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During the Doolittle Raid of 1942, 16 Army medium bombers were launched from the carrier Hornet on one-way missions to bomb Japan. All were lost to fuel exhaustion after bombing their targets and the experiment was not repeated. Smaller carriers were built in large numbers to escort slow cargo convoys or supplement fast carriers. Aircraft for observation or light raids were also carried by battleships and cruisers, while blimps were used to search for attack submarines.

Experience showed that there was a need for widespread use of aircraft which could not be met quickly enough by building new fleet aircraft carriers. This was particularly true in the North Atlantic, where convoys were highly vulnerable to U-boat attack. The British authorities used unorthodox, temporary, but effective means of giving air protection such as CAM ships and merchant aircraft carriers, merchant ships modified to carry a small number of aircraft. The solution to the problem were large numbers of mass-produced merchant hulls converted into escort aircraft carriers (also known as "jeep carriers"). These basic vessels, unsuited to fleet action by their capacity, speed and vulnerability, nevertheless provided air cover where it was needed.

The Royal Navy had observed the impact of naval aviation and, obliged to prioritise their use of resources, abandoned battleships as the mainstay of the fleet. Vanguard was therefore the last British battleship and her sisters were cancelled. The United States had already instigated a large construction programme (which was also cut short) but these large ships were mainly used as anti-aircraft batteries or for shore bombardment.

Other actions involving naval aviation included:

- Battle of the Atlantic, aircraft carried by low-cost escort carriers were used for antisubmarine patrol, defense, and attack.
- At the start of the Pacific War in 1941, Japanese carrier-based aircraft sank many US warships during the attack on Pearl Harbor and land-based aircraft sank two large British warships. Engagements between Japanese and American naval fleets were then conducted largely or entirely by aircraft - examples include the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, Bismarck Sea and Philippine Sea.
- Battle of Leyte Gulf, with the first appearance of kamikazes, perhaps the largest naval battle in history. Japan's last carriers and pilots are deliberately sacrificed, a battleship is sunk by aircraft.
- Operation Ten-Go demonstrated U.S. air supremacy in the Pacific theater by this stage in the war and the vulnerability of surface ships without air cover to aerial attack.

### 二戰後發展

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Jet aircraft were used on aircraft carriers after the War. The first jet landing on a carrier was made by Lt Cdr Eric 'Winkle' Brown who landed on Ocean in the specially modified de Havilland Vampire (registration LZ551/G) on 3 December 1945. Following the introduction of angled flight decks, jets were regularly operating from carriers by the mid-1950s.

An important development of the early 1950s was the British invention of the angled flight deck by Capt D.R.F. Campbell RN in conjunction with Lewis Boddington of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. The runway was canted at an angle of a few degrees from the longitudinal axis of the ship. If an aircraft missed the arrestor cables (referred to as a "bolter"), the pilot only needed to increase engine power to maximum to get airborne again, and would not hit the parked aircraft because the angled deck pointed out over the sea. The angled flight deck was first tested on Triumph, by painting angled deck markings onto the centerline flight deck for touch and go landings. The modern steam-powered catapult, powered by steam from a ship's boilers or reactors, was invented by Commander C.C. Mitchell of the Royal Naval Reserve. It was widely adopted following trials on Perseus between 1950 and 1952 which showed it to be more powerful and reliable than the hydraulic catapults which had been introduced in the 1940s. The first Optical Landing System, the Mirror Landing Aid was invented by Lieutenant Commander H. C. N. Goodhart RN. The first trials of a mirror landing sight were conducted on HMS Illustrious in 1952.

The US Navy built the first aircraft carrier to be powered by nuclear reactors. Enterprise was powered by eight nuclear reactors and was the second surface warship (after Long Beach) to be powered in this way. The post-war years also saw the development of the helicopter, with a variety of useful roles and mission capability aboard aircraft carriers and other naval ships. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United Kingdom and the United States converted some older carriers into Commando Carriers or Landing Platform Helicopters (LPH); seagoing helicopter airfields like Bulwark. To mitigate the expensive connotations of the term "aircraft carrier", the Invincible carriers were originally designated as "through deck cruisers" and were initially to operate as helicopter-only craft escort carriers.

The arrival of the Sea Harrier VTOL/STOVL fast jet meant that the Invincible-class could carry fixed-wing aircraft, despite their short flight decks. The British also introduced the ski-jump ramp as an alternative to contemporary catapult systems. As the Royal Navy retired or sold the last of its World War II-era carriers, they were replaced with smaller ships designed to operate helicopters and the V/STOVL Sea Harrier jet. The ski-jump gave the Harriers an enhanced STOVL capability, allowing them to take off with heavier payloads.

In 2013, the US Navy completed the first successful catapult launch and arrested landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aboard an aircraft carrier. After a decade of research and planning, the US Navy has been testing the integration of UAVs with carrier-based forces since 2013, using the experimental Northrop Grumman X-47B, and is working to procure a fleet of carrier-based UAVs, referred to as the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) system.

## 各國海軍航空兵

### 海基為主

這類海軍航空兵主要通過搭載在航空母艦上的各種艦載機投射空中力量，陸地上的軍用機場只用來進行海防、維修、訓練和容納盈餘的飛行戰力。

- 美國海軍
- 美國海軍陸戰隊航空兵
- 中國人民解放軍海軍航空兵（2023年起）
- 巴西海軍航空兵（2018年起）
- 英國皇家海軍艦隊航空隊
- 法國海軍航空兵
- 義大利海軍航空兵
- 西班牙海軍航空兵

#### 曾經的海基航空兵

- 大日本帝國海軍航空隊（1912年～1945年）
- 阿根廷海軍航空兵（1968年～1993年）
- 巴西海軍航空兵（2000年～2017年）

### 陸基為主／海基為輔

這類海軍航空兵的艦船主要搭載垂直起降（VTOL，如直升機）或垂直/短距起降航空器（V/STOL，如傾轉旋翼機、自轉旋翼機和推力矢量噴氣機），但普通的固定翼飛機則主要依賴陸地上的機場進行起降。

- 蘇聯/俄羅斯海軍航空兵
- 日本海上自衛隊航空集團
- 澳大利亞皇家海軍澳大利亞海軍艦隊航空隊
- 韓國海軍韓國海軍航空司令部
- 印度海軍印度海軍航空兵
- 阿根廷海軍阿根廷海軍航空兵
- 泰國皇家海軍泰國皇家海軍航空師

### 完全陸基

這類航空兵缺乏艦載飛行器的能力，因此完全依賴陸基機場。

- 中華民國海軍反潛航空指揮部(2025年－)
- 荷蘭海軍航空兵