LPX-II Light Aircraft-Carrier - Design
Aircraft carrier plans and a model were unveiled at the Seoul Air Show 10 May 1996 [other sources report October 1996]. Hyundai Heavy Industries discussed an aircraft carrier commissioned in 2012 for the Republic of Korea Navy. The company displayed a model of a vessel 197m x 24m with a 15,000-ton displacement. It was closer to an aviation cruiser than an aircraft carrier, but it was designed by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Even China, which spends massive military spending, was the first carrier to upgrade its Liaoning class, the Admiral Kuznetsov class in Russia. However, the impact of the change of government and IMF crisis produced financial difficulties and practical limitations that stalled the project.
As the plan was postponed, the size of the aircraft carrier was enlarged, to no less than 20,000 tons, and the correct displacement might be more than 35,000 tons for a medium-sized aircraft carrier. The displacement is increased when it is seen as a strategic effect, and a displacement of more than 35,000 tons will support smooth ocean operations that can reflect the real requirements compared to neighboring countries such as Japan and China.
The ship should carry distant early warning aircraft, and fixed-wing high performance carrier-based aircraft, such the F/A-18 or F-35BC next-generation stealth fighter. This level of operation is possible through a medium-sized aircraft carrier of displacement of 35,000-40,000 tons.
The "Flight Deck Design Proposal" was from the Korea Maritime University. The BLUE TEMPTATION team's Korean carrier proposal in October 2003 mostly recommended a carrier about 265 meters long.
The Military Review article in March 2008 looked at a modification of the Dokdo class amphibious multipurpose ship with structural differences, such as an increased hull and a ski ramp. Some discussions of such future implementation of the multi-purpose amphibious ship may have been a development of the design of the overall form Dokdo did not anticipate a big difference, but this more detailed treatment came to rather different conclusions. A second elevator would be added with a 30-ton load capacity to transport the heavily armed F-35B. In addition, there will be a small mid-deck elevator carrying weapons deployed separately.
The core of the aircraft carrier flight deck operations would require a full-length of 230 meters [nearly 750 feet] and a beam of 32m or so [versus 200 meters and 32 meters for Dockdo] approximately the size of the Australian Canberra LHD. Unlike Dokdo with just one deck structure, an upper deck for Carrier-based aircraft and a lower deck for landing craft is adopted, in accordance with the height of the the hull was about 10m higher. A study in March 2008 looked at the question of an aircraft carrier in South Korea. The full load displacement is about 6000 tons to over 10,000 tons relative to the 20,000 tons of Dokdo. Because the existing 5,000 horsepower diesel engines have insufficient output, propulsion would be updated with additional diesel engines or a gas turbine engine, and with the additional requirements for exhaust stacks order to support these expansion engine systems [as will be seen relative to a 2007 design study].
Korean netizens designed a future aircraft carrier named KCVX, with a length of 275 meters, width of 43.5 meters, draft of 9.7 meters, full load displacement of 48,000 tons, a maximum speed of 28, cruising speed of eight. With 3 x 7 Gatling machine guns as the defense weapons. 3 x 25 mounts of anti-missile missile system (RAM), 4 Harpoon anti-ship missile system with 16 Harpoon missiles, 32 Enhanced Sea Sparrow air defense missile system consists of 128 Sea Sparrow missiles and two 3 is connected with torpedo launchers as their weapon. The carrier is designed to carry 32 F-35B fighters, 16 F-35C fighters, four E-2C Hawkeyes, four anti-submarine helicopters KMH, six helicopters and landing operations type KMH KMH four offensive helicopters. Some of the details are implausible [carrying both F-35B and F-35C], while others are somewhat improbable - the forward island location seems a bit precarious.
A 45,000-ton medium-sized aircraft carrier can mount about 30 to 40 fixed-wing fighters and helicopters. The cost of their purchase will be comparable to or more expensive than the value of the aircraft carrier itself, and the operating cost should also be taken into account for the fuel / armament / maintenance budget of these aircraft. The reason for introducing F-35B was for the design of light aircraft carrier. A military official said: "For the design of the main parts of the hull such as the deck, detailed information of the F-35B is required." However, the manufacturing company Lockheed Martin stated that it cannot provide information before signing the contract on the grounds of security.
The JoongAng Ilbo acquired a bird's eye view of the navy's light aircraft carrier, which was currently being conceptually designed. The Navy explained to the bird's eye view, "It is not final, and we will develop the ship type of the light carrier through research and review." However, "the 'basics' will not change significantly," was the hint from multiple government sources. There are two islands (bridges), like Queen Elizabeth, the British carrier. One bridge is in charge of sailing, and the other is in charge of air traffic control. It has a flat deck like the American assault and landing ship, the American ship. Both elevators that move the aircraft up and down from the hangar to the deck are on the starboard.
The navy's light carrier is a flat deck resembling an American ship. The Elizabeth ship has a ski jump stand. Carriers with shorter runways than land bases float into the sky as if they were shot by catapults. However, there is not enough space to install an injection machine for a medium-sized carrier (40,000t class) or less. So, after the aircraft runs through the deck at full speed, it takes off by jumping from the ski jump. By the way, the American and Queen Elizabeth ships operate the same F-35B , but they are split between the flat deck and the ski jump. The navy's light carrier does not have a ski jump. Like the American ship, the F-35B takes off by shortening the run distance by operating a lift fan.
The navy's light carrier does not have a welldock. The welldock is a space where the landing ship opens a door during landing operations and allows seawater to enter, allowing the landing boat or amphibious armored vehicle to float. It is reasonable to assume that the size of the light carrier and the number of aircraft on board are slightly larger than that of the Italian Cavour (550).
There are no early warning helicopters on the naval light carrier. Instead, it is said that destroyers are placed at the forefront of the front line of the carrier, or fighters are always launched and put into patrol operations. For self-defense, the Navy's light carrier is equipped with a proximity defense system (CIWS) and a fleet-to-air guided missile defense guided weapon (SAAM). The Navy is currently using US-made Phalanx or Dutch-made goalkeepers as CIWS, but is about to start developing domestically. SAAM is Haegeung, a fleet-air missile produced by LIG Nex1. Haegeung comes from the Korean vertical launch system ( VLS ). It is a missile that can intercept sea skimming missiles flying low as if passing through the water.
Minseok Kim, Research Fellow, Korea Defense Security Forum, notd that the 2021 design featured three major areas of improvement that distinguish it from past designs. The first improvement is the optimization of the space arrangement. The light carrier currently being studied by the Navy means that it is lighter for an aircraft carrier, but it weighs more than twice the weight of the Dokdo ship and is close to Charles de Gaulle (42,000 tons), the nuclear aircraft carrier of the French Navy. Nevertheless, the Korean light aircraft are concerned about the chronic lack of space, because the main aircraft, the F-35B, is a very heavy and large aircraft that can reach 27 tons, similar to the F-4E Phantom.
In order to increase the narrow space even a little, the latest design of the light aircraft has an aircraft elevator placed on the left and right on the right, so that the aircraft can use both of the elevators while taking off. In addition, the island was separated into two smaller bridges and an elevator was placed between them to increase space utilization. Actually, the total area of ??the deck has not increased much, but the space utilization is improved as the traffic line is reduced when the plane is actually taken off by putting elevators and other spaces between the separated bridges.
The second improvement is the installation of many additional equipment to improve the aircraft's operational capability. The separated front and rear bridges not only use more space, but also divide the roles of a front bridge for navigation and a rear bridge for aircraft operation (Flyco), making it easier and clearer to grasp the take-off and landing conditions. In addition, the bridge can create turbulence by acting as a huge windshield, and it has the effect of reducing turbulence by dividing it into two to reduce its size. Finally, two large LED screens, like an airport or train station's electronic signboard, will be installed on the bridge, and a system will also be installed to guide everyone on the deck which plane should go where.
The third improvement is improved viability. A common argument by aircraft carrier prostheses is the existence of ASBM, that is, anti-ship ballistic missiles capable of hitting aircraft carriers. Unlike the initial landing ship design, the latest light aircraft design released by the Navy is equipped with the multi-functional radar (MFR) of the next-generation Korean destroyer KDDX. In addition to the ability to detect common aircraft and warships, the radar can detect very small objects such as submarine periscopes to very high-altitude ultra-high-speed objects such as ballistic missiles, which will greatly help improve the survivability of aircraft carriers.
Although the design of the light carrier is developing in this way, the two major drawbacks of the light carrier that anti-carrier opponents point out are still not resolved. The biggest problem is that it cannot detect long-range low-flying targets. Regular aircraft carriers are equipped with an early warning (AEW) like the E-2D Hawkeye and fly around the aircraft carrier. This is because no matter how good the radar of an aircraft carrier is, it has limitations in detecting low-flying enemy aircraft or missiles due to the curved surface of the Earth.
In the case of British Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, which cannot carry early warning, the AW101 Merlin helicopter is flying with a radar device called Crowsnest. This is inferior to early warning, but guarantees a low-altitude target detection range of more than twice that of ship radar. The ROK Navy must also consider adopting an early warning AW101 helicopter or, if budget is available, converting the AW609, which can fly at a much higher altitude than a helicopter, into a simple early warning system.
The second drawback is still insufficient deck area. Previously, it was said that the deck space was efficient as a merit of the new light carrier design, but the deck area is still very narrow to operate the large and heavy F-35B. The deck width of the Korean light carrier is 30m~40m. The similar 40,000-ton conventional light carrier Vikrant-class is 60m wide, and the larger Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is 70m wide. This is because our light aircraft carrier is based on the American Landing Ship (LHD) design, which is centered on helicopter operation. Aircraft carriers in other countries created landing spaces for conventional aircraft operations, or allocated space for remodeling in case of emergency.
Of course, due to budget issues, it can be very difficult to significantly increase the width of the Korean light aircraft in the current basic design. However, there is a precedent that the 40,000-ton class Korean light carrier designed by Daewoo Shipbuilding in the past was also designed with a width of 60m. Therefore, it seems possible to increase the deck space in the detailed design process. In my personal opinion, in the current design, the area of ??the rear bridge is further reduced by changing or reducing the position of the large vehicle elevator of the rear bridge, and the bridge is further tilted to the right, and various armaments such as missile launchers are placed to the left, One way is to increase the width as much as possible.
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