海军航空兵

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海军航空兵（naval aviation或naval air force）又称海军航空队或简称海航（aeronaval），指归属于海军麾下指挥的军事航空军种，与独立的空军和归属于陆军指挥的陆军航空兵一起构成了军队的空中武装力量。海军航空兵以辅助舰队进行联合海战或对陆空袭等攻击性作战为主要军事准则，同时也负责本土领海与外地海军基地周围领空的防卫，以及为执勤舰队提供空中预警、后勤运输和勤务支援。

海军航空兵的军用航空器通常会配置在航空母舰上做为远洋制空权和超视距作战的主要战力（如美国海军和中国人民解放军海军航母战斗群上的舰载机），或部署在两栖登陆舰上为登陆作战时提供空中突击和近距离空中支援（如美国海军陆战队航空兵的各类V/STOL航空器）。在航母战力有限的国家（如俄罗斯、日本、澳大利亚等），其海军航空兵主要使用岸基机，依赖沿岸的陆上军用机场，形态与普通空军无异，功能主要是海上巡逻、侦察、预警与强行驱离等防御性任务，虽然力量投射因此受限，但可以部署航母无法承载的中大型远程轰炸机和预警机。

## 历史

### 早期海军航空器

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1849年，奥匈帝国海军的外轮船“火神”号（SMS Vulcano）在镇压1848年革命反叛的威尼斯共和国时首次使用装配了燃烧弹的热气球轰炸威尼斯，开创了海军舰艇通过航空器进行军事行动的先河。然而因为风向的改变，绝大多数气球炸弹都没能命中目标，有些甚至被风吹回到了奥匈阵地和舰艇上空。美国南北战争时期，北军大概从半岛会战开始使用气球来针对南军阵地进行侦察，其中内陆河流上的一些运煤的驳船被改装专门用来释放气球。同样，南军也将一些拖船改装成了气球母舰。

英国海军部曾在1903年就试验用风筝进行海军通讯。美国狂野西部秀与载人航空先驱塞缪尔·富兰克林·科迪（Samuel Franklin Cody，1867～1913）也称展示了一个8ft长的风筝用作无线通讯或军事侦察的空中载具。

1908年，英国首相H·H·阿斯奎斯批准在帝国国防委员会成立一个“空中小组委员会”（Aerial Sub-Committee）来调查海军航空潜力。在1909年这个委员会接受了“无畏号”战列舰首任舰长雷金纳德·培根少将（Reginald Bacon，1863～1947）向第一海务大臣约翰·费舍尔男爵提出为皇家海军建造用于侦察的硬式飞艇的提议，并在同年建造了“蜉蝣”号飞艇，这是海军史上第一个有动力飞行器。在1913年，西班牙工程师莱昂纳多·托雷斯·克韦多（Leonardo Torres Quevedo，1852～1936）发明了一种可以固定运送飞艇的新船，想要将专利卖给英国陆军但被拒绝。1922年，西班牙海军将1918年俘获的一艘蒸汽货船改造成了飞艇母舰，并在里夫战争中服役。

在1908年莱特兄弟用新发明的莱特飞行器展示重于空气的航空器能够飞行之后，由查尔斯·劳斯参与创办、本是着重于气球的皇家航空俱乐部（Royal Aero Club）开始关注飞机。1910年6月，英国皇家海军从皇家航空俱乐部抽到了两架飞机来训练新的飞行员，并在肯特郡谢佩岛的一个机场上建立了世界上第一所海军飞行学校，在二百名申请者中只有四人入选。法国人见此也在同年也建立了法国海军航空兵和训练学校。

美国也不甘落后，格伦·柯蒂斯与美国海军签约展示出海的舰船上可以起降飞机，在1910年11月由柯蒂斯麾下的飞行员尤金·伊利（Eugene Burton Ely，1886～1911）从在弗吉尼亚州海岸停靠的“伯明翰”号巡洋舰上起飞，并在两个月后成功尝试在旧金山湾的另一艘巡洋舰“宾夕法尼亚”号上降落，但这两艘舰艇上的起降平台都是临时搭建的。1911年1月，柯蒂斯完成了两次壮举，先是在1月27日亲自驾驶在圣迭戈湾起飞了世界上第一架真正意义上的两栖水上飞机——柯蒂斯D型，然后次日由他手下受训的学生——海军上尉西奥多·埃里森（Theodore Gordon Ellyson，1885～1928）重复飞行，使得后者称为了世界上得到军方认可的第一位海军航空兵。美国海军海事局因此用25000美元购买了三家飞机，并额外派遣四位军官交给柯蒂斯和莱特兄弟训练，并在马里兰州安纳波利斯附近的一个简易机场上建立了训练营。这个训练营的主要任务是训练飞行员充当侦察兵和炮兵观察员，因为当时的技术水平无法实现用飞机轰炸舰船，只能考虑让飞行员用无线电回报空中侦察的发现，当时除美国海军外只有意大利海军在使用水上飞机进行军用。在之后两年，训练营分别又从海军和海军陆战队增加了11名学员，并成功在战列舰“密西西比”号上起飞。在1912年8月，海军上校亨利·马斯廷（Henry Croskey Mustin，1874～1923）成功试验了飞机弹射器的概念，并在1915年成功弹射了第一架舰载机。1914年1月，第一处永备的海军基地——彭萨科拉海军航空基地在佛罗里达建立，由马斯廷担任指挥官。同年因为坦皮科事件爆发，从4月24日开始约45天时间内，共有十位飞行员驾驶水上飞机和飞行艇从“密西西比”号和“伯明翰”号上起飞在墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯和坦皮科海岸进行侦查任务。

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1912年1月, 英国前无畏舰“非洲”号在施尔尼斯进行飞机实验，前甲板上在炮塔顶部搭建了一个100ft长、并带有向下倾斜滑轨的跑道。当时的海军上尉查尔斯·萨姆森（Charles Rumney Samson，1883～1931）在1月10日驾驶水上飞机“S.38”成功从战舰上起飞，成为第一个从舰艇上起飞的英国飞行员。“非洲”号的起飞跑道随后被移到了其姐妹舰“希伯尼亚”号，同年5月萨姆森驾驶“S.38”从正在韦茅斯湾参加皇家海上阅兵以10.5kn速度航行的“希伯尼亚”号上起飞，成为第一架从移动舰艇上起飞的飞行员。随后“希伯尼亚”号的航空设备又被移到了战列舰“伦敦”号上。以上的飞行试验使得皇家海军认定在舰艇上设置飞行器有助于侦查和观测，但飞行器材会阻碍舰炮射界，而且在波涛汹涌的海面回收水上飞机的风险过大，因此在舰艇上搞航空的价值不大。同年，刚刚建立的海军航空队被合并到了皇家飞行队中，但在次年被批准建造了一个梅德韦d 水上飞机基地、阿什福德区的飞艇基地和八个新的空军基地，而且将巡洋舰“赫耳墨斯”号改造成了水上飞机母舰。1914年，海军航空队被重新分化出来成为皇家海军航空队（Royal Naval Air Service），并在1917年前成为了英国海军舰队作战的重要部分。

德意志帝国和沙俄也是水上飞机的早期使用者，其中德意志帝国海军在1913年5月就建立了位于柏林的一个齐柏林飞艇编队和位于普茨克的一个飞机中队。同样，日本也在1913年效仿英国海军航空队建立了大日本帝国海军航空队。而在巴尔干战争中，希腊飞行员还在侦察鄂图曼帝国海军位置时还向其空投了四枚炸弹。

### 第一次世界大战

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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).

### 航空母舰的发展

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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.

### 两战间期

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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.

### 第二次世界大战

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.

### 二战后发展

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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.

## 各国海军航空兵

### 海基为主

这类海军航空兵主要通过搭载在航空母舰上的各种舰载机投射空中力量，陆地上的军用机场只用来进行海防、维修、训练和容纳盈余的飞行战力。

- 美国海军
- 美国海军陆战队航空兵
- 中国人民解放军海军航空兵（2023年起）
- 巴西海军航空兵（2018年起）
- 英国皇家海军舰队航空队
- 法国海军航空兵
- 意大利海军航空兵
- 西班牙海军航空兵

#### 曾经的海基航空兵

- 大日本帝国海军航空队（1912年～1945年）
- 阿根廷海军航空兵（1968年～1993年）
- 巴西海军航空兵（2000年～2017年）

### 陆基为主／海基为辅

这类海军航空兵的舰船主要搭载垂直起降（VTOL，如直升机）或垂直/短距起降航空器（V/STOL，如倾转旋翼机、自转旋翼机和推力矢量喷气机），但普通的固定翼飞机则主要依赖陆地上的机场进行起降。

- 苏联/俄罗斯海军航空兵
- 日本海上自卫队航空集团
- 澳大利亚皇家海军澳大利亚海军舰队航空队
- 韩国海军韩国海军航空司令部
- 印度海军印度海军航空兵
- 阿根廷海军阿根廷海军航空兵
- 泰国皇家海军泰国皇家海军航空师

### 完全陆基

这类航空兵缺乏舰载飞行器的能力，因此完全依赖陆基机场。

- 中华民国海军反潜航空指挥部(2025年－)
- 荷兰海军航空兵