Can you believe it?The speed of the world's most advanced aircraft carrier, which sails on the sea, is not as fast as the speed of electric vehicles, this is not nonsense, even the most advanced nuclear aircraft carrier of the United States "Ford", the fastest speed does not exceed the speed of a motorcycle.
So why are aircraft carriers of several thousand tons so slow?So can you increase the speed of the aircraft carrier?
The world's first aircraft carrier was not built by the United States and Britain, but was first built by Japan, and it was Britain that first proposed to build an aircraft carrier, and it had already begun to do it, but after Japan learned the news, it immediately sent people to learn Xi.
Japan's Navy Commander Kaneko Yozo thought that aircraft carriers would definitely dominate the seas in the future, so he secretly transmitted all the information on British aircraft carriers back to Japan.
So in 1922, Japan took the lead in manufacturing the aircraft carrier "Fengxiang" than Britain, and after the news spread to the world, Britain was confused, obviously it was proposed to manufacture it first, why did Japan build it before him.
In the end, I learned that there were traitors within ourselves, and although Japan copied and imitated the British mothership by stealing technology, it had to admit that Japan was indeed the first country in the world to build an aircraft carrier.
And the aircraft carrier has a total length of 168 meters and a full load displacement of 090,000 tons, the crew working on the aircraft carrier reached 548 people, the maximum speed was 25 knots, and it was able to put 6 fighters and 18 attack aircraft.
This was the first aircraft carrier at that time, but how fast was this 25-knots Fengxiang?Let me first introduce to you how fast the speed of an aircraft carrier is converted into a kilometer of the speed of ground vehicles
According to the international unit of measurement, 1 knot is equal to 1 nautical mile per hour, and each nautical mile is equal to 1852 meters, which is equivalent to the speed of the knots, so this is easier to calculate.
If the speed of this aircraft carrier is 20 knots, then 1 nautical mile is equal to 1852 meters, and 20 knots is equal to 3704 kilometers per hour, and this speed is equivalent to the speed of electric vehicles on land, and even if there are fast electric vehicles, they are more than 40 kilometers per hour, so the average aircraft carrier is not as fast as electric vehicles.
So the speed of 25 knots is the speed of Japan's first aircraft carrier, and what if it is a current aircraft carrier?Is it faster than the previous one?
Let's make a comparison with China's aircraft carrier "Shandong Ship", which is China's first aircraft carrier that was completely independently designed and built, and its equipment has been upgraded compared with the previous Liaoning ship.
The Shandong ship was officially delivered to the Navy on December 17, 2019, and on September 24, 2020, it completed routine training and sea trials, and on April 5, 2023, it can already carry out cruising in the Taiwan Strait and conducting navigation training in the Atlantic.
So what is the data of the Shandong ship?The Shandong is 315 meters long, 75 meters wide, has a displacement of about 70,000 tons, can carry 36 aircraft, and has a speed of 30 knots, which is 5 knots faster than the previous Fengxiang's 25 knots.
So according to the international unit of measurement, how fast is the speed of the Shandong ship?According to 1 nautical mile equal to 1852 meters, the speed of 30 knots is 55At 56 km/h, that's about the same speed as a motorcycle.
Such a speed is really not fast, so if the speed of the Shandong ship is not fast, it is because the Shandong ship is not a nuclear submarine, then how fast is the US nuclear submarine?
The United States now has the world's most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Ford", which cost $13 billion, and is also the most expensive aircraft carrier in the history of the U.S. Navy, and this aircraft carrier officially entered service with the U.S. Navy on July 22, 2017.
So what is the data for the USS Ford?Its captain is 33285 meters, the width of the ship is 40,84 meters, the displacement reaches 100,000 tons, the draft is 124 meters, while the speed of the voyage is 30 knots.
So look at it this way, even though it is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the United States, the speed is also 30 knots, so it is the same as the speed of our aircraft carriers.
So why is it that all aircraft carriers in the world do not have a speed of more than 30 knots, and the usual speed of aircraft carriers is basically 15 knots, which is very slow, why is it so slow?
First of all, we have to look at the overall size of the aircraft carrier, you must know that the minimum length of the aircraft carrier is about 300 meters, and the weight is 100,000 tons, which leads to the resistance of the aircraft carrier is very large, and in order to be able to maintain stability, it will not always go at full speed.
The reason for this is that there are many fighter jets parked on the aircraft carrier, and although these fighters are safely fixed to the deck, they cannot be easily allowed to slide, so the speed of the aircraft carrier cannot be fast.
In addition, carrier-based aircraft should always be on the deck of the aircraft carrier, taking off and landing, because the aircraft needs a certain taxiing channel, and at this time, it is necessary to keep the speed of the aircraft carrier and the speed of the aircraft consistent, not one fast and the other slow.
Therefore, the fastest speed of the aircraft carrier at this time is to maintain a speed of about 30 knots, so as to ensure that the fighter can successfully land on the deck of the aircraft carrier.
At the same time, there is one of the most important situations, which affects the speed of the aircraft carrier, that is, the aircraft carrier does not act alone, although it can carry dozens of fighters, but because the target is too large, it is easy to be detected by the enemy's radar and attacked by enemy missiles or torpedoes.
So let's take a look at what advanced defense systems the aircraft carrier is equipped with, take the USS Ford aircraft carrier as an example, the USS Ford is one of the most advanced aircraft carriers in the world, and it is naturally equipped with no less advanced **.
The first is the world's most advanced AN SPY-6 radar system, which is a multi-functional long-range radar, which not only detects and tracks at a long distance, but also monitors multiple targets at the same time, and this radar is also equipped with an ESSM short-range air defense missile system, as long as the radar detects an enemy attack, it will immediately launch the air defense director to intercept.
The USS Ford is also equipped with an anti-ship missile system, which has the world's most advanced positioning systemWith high maneuverability, high hit rate and ultra-long-range strike capabilities, after detecting the enemy's ** at a long distance, it can send out anti-ship missiles to destroy and intercept.
In addition, the Ford is also equipped with an electronic warfare system, which can not only interfere with and fight against the enemy's radar, but also protect its own radar system from jamming and destruction, which belongs to the offensive and defensive grasp, with this electronic warfare system, the Ford can almost go sideways in the sea.
In addition to these long-range **, the Ford Shanghai is equipped with melee **, such as close defense guns, anti-torpedoes, short-range torpedoes, short-range anti-air missiles, etc., the main purpose is to prevent the aircraft carrier from being attacked by the enemy.
Of course, in addition to the aircraft carrier itself, all countries have arranged a complete set of aircraft carrier strike formations around the aircraft carrier, so the aircraft carrier does not go out alone, but a whole formation sets off collectively.
And around the USS Ford are cruisers, destroyers, frigates, nuclear submarines, etc., all to protect the safety of aircraft carriers.
These protected fleets, each with its own duties, are responsible for providing aircraft carriers with aviation security, anti-missile, anti-ship capabilities, so that they can provide very good protection for aircraft carriers.
If the enemy wants to attack the aircraft carrier, then it is necessary to destroy these protected ships first, and to be able to have such a capability, the military strength is absolutely excellent.
And the aircraft carrier is also because it has such a powerful protection fleet, so the speed will not be very fast, the speed of 30 knots is enough, and this can also consume relatively little fuel.
If the engine of the aircraft carrier is seriously damaged and the endurance is greatly reduced if it travels at a speed of 30 knots for a long time, the aircraft carrier will not go at full speed at all.
At the same time, now only 8 countries in the world have aircraft carriers, and as for Japan, there is no capacity to build aircraft carriers now, since their defeatIt has been sanctioned by the whole world, especially military capabilities, which simply cannot create mass destruction**, so Japan has withdrawn from the battle for aircraft carriers.
What is more surprising is that India also has aircraft carriers, and they were manufactured more than 60 years earlier than our country, India had its first aircraft carrier "Vikrant" in 1957, and this aircraft carrier also participated in the Indo-Pakistani war.
India's second aircraft carrier is called "Vikramaditya", India bought an aircraft carrier from Russia in 1999, but in 2004, Russia handed over its aircraft carrier to India.
India began to renovate the aircraft carrier, and it was not until 2013 that the transformation was completed and officially delivered to the Indian Navy, but what is more embarrassing is that the aircraft carrier actually had a fire in 2021, and almost the entire equipment was burned out.
Subsequently, India carried out emergency repairs to the aircraft carrierOnly then did the aircraft carrier be restored to its original state, but this aircraft carrier also had advantages, the "Vikramaditya", with a total length of 283 meters, a displacement of 45,000 tons, a draft of 10 meters, and a maximum speed of 32 knots.
However, although India's aircraft carriers can reach speeds of 32 knots, their usual speeds are still about 15 knots, which is still not as fast as cars on land.
Aircraft carriers belong to the country's big killers, and their precision belongs to the top technology of high precision, and the speed of aircraft carriers is also strictly controlled.
China now has three aircraft carriers, but does not yet have a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and it is believed that the country will soon build China's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.