Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Navy - Military - Battleships: => Topic started by: Patrick Henry on February 11, 2010, 05:31:28 pm
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An aircraft carrier at sea..not at full operational status, not in any war scenario, not at action stations...
How many (roughly) aircraft would be on deck whilst at sea?
Rich
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I thought they allways have some planes is the air to search for any kind of threads (terrorists for example), and therefore will probebly have a few Hornets, a tank-plane and a Hawkeye on the the deck so that they can take-off as soon as the current group of planes is leaving their positions up in the air.
The Hawkeye might be in the air quite a bit longer then the fighters, and probebly also longer then the tankers as well.
Besides that they'll be practising quite a lot.
Greetings Josse
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Cheers for that Josse....much appreciated.
Rich
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In answer to your question Rich, if none operational at sea, not alot, you may see one or two helicopters and a flight of mixed aircraft, but, not full compliment if any at all. Carriers in general do not embark their air wing untill they go operational usually and most of them get embarked while at sea. If we are talking US Carriers that are operational as in ready to do business, they would have a full compliment of aircraft with what Josse says. They have a "Cap" Combat air patrol up all the time with a tanker and at least two alert 5 fighters on standby, alert five means ready to shoot in five minutes at the first sign of a threat towards either the cap or the ship itself and so on an so forth, the responce level is set and has been for years, so there will be alert ten and so on etc if you know what I mean? But this only normally happens on a fully operational carrier.The E2C "Hawkeye" is a long range aircraft that provides high level airborne early warning like the big 707 version, this flys outside the "cap" and at a greater height so it can see anything comming from the threat area first, it then relays the information back to the fleet so the carrier's escorts are ready with "AA" weapons" if needed. Tankers are only sent up as and when and these used to be modified Intruders, I still think they use them now? The Viking is either a cargo carrying aircraft or an anti submarine aircraft, there are a few versions of the Viking. then there is the aew Prowler, a stretched Intruder which is an electronics warfare bird. I hope this helps.
Paul...
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That was exactly what I needed Paul, many thanks indeed for that, much appreciated.
Rich
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Oh my gawd...Paul @ PSS Ships offered me a pic or two of carriers at sea in a 'non-operational' model.
Sixty one images and counting! Wow, cheers for those Paul, most gratefully received...top man yourself.
Thanks mate,
Rich
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No problems Rich, just sent you some more.
Paul...
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The American carrier wings have changed in recent years they now have -
2 F/A18A Hornet (The 'C version has used up its carrier landing life) squadrons of 10 aircraft used mainly as fighters.
2 F/A18E Super Hornet Squadrons of 10 aircraft used mainly for close air support ground attack.
2 F/A18F Super Hornet Squadrons of 10 aircraft mainly used for general ground attack.
1 EA6B Prowler Flight of 4-5 aircraft used to jam enemy radars. These are being replaced by the EF18G Growler which can jam enemy radars better than the EA6 and carry 2 HARM(Anti-radar) and 2 AMRAAM(air to air) missiles at the same time.
1 E2C/E2D Hawkeye flight of 4 aircraft use in the AWACS role.
1 C2 Greyhound Flight of 1 or 2 cargo aircraft(this is a modified E2 airframe with a rear ramp and folding seats. It is used to fly cargo and personnel to and from the carrier, it cannot be used as a tanker.
1 MH60 Seahawk Flight of 4-8 aircraft used for SAR.
1 SH60 Seahawk Flight of 4-8 aircraft used for ASW.
The tanker role is now provided by any of the F/A18's on board.
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Apologies, Niall old chap..missed seeing your answer to this post for some reason. Many thanks for your help, sir..very much appreciated.
Rich
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Apologies, Niall old chap..missed seeing your answer to this post for some reason. Many thanks for your help, sir..very much appreciated.
Rich
(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo95/raider-hall/2pu09rc.jpg)