Nuclear Helicopter Carrier

A Nuclear Powered Helicopter Carrier ship

You heard that right yeah I…uh…I…ugh what were the French thinking!!!

The Nuclear powered Helicopter Carrier PH-75 was designed in 1970 with 1 ship proposed as she was to displace 16,400 tonnes at her standard with her full load of 18,400 tonnes.

Her powerplant was to be a nuclear reactor probably the Aerva CAS-230 driving two shafts generating 65,000 horsepower and a speed of 28 knots.

She had a crew of 890 and a troop capacity of 1000 and 500 more could be on the hangar deck.

While the ship had no armour, she did have two 8-cell R440 Cells for 16 Crotale Surface to Air Missile Systems with two 100mm/55 Modele 1968 Dual Purpose Anti-Air Guns.

She was to have 25 Helicopters presumably Sud-Aviation SA321G Super Frelon or Westland WG-13 Lynx HAS.2/4 Anti-Submarine Warfare Helicopters or a mix of SA321GA Super Frelon of the French Navy or French Air Force SA330B Puma for Amphibious Assault.

Thankfully the French cancelled this ship in favour of the conventionally powered Mistral Class Helicopter Carriers

Although had the Nuclear Powered Helicopter Carrier or presumably the Bretagne Class Helicopter Carrier went into service it would have been replaced by Mistral Class anyway.

Here’s a picture of the PH75 Nuclear Helicopter Carrier:

https://preview.redd.it/vmqzq4cny0i61.jpg?width=283&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e43e0c13cde180e4f92d790c7d257d7f65ea677b

The PA76 Light Aircraft Carrier or as I call it the Voltiere class Light Aircraft Carrier was a proposal derived from the cancelled nuclear PH-75 Helicopter carrier

https://preview.redd.it/3l0aich81gi61.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14529b88ec5b968daf610b0070a854936e7e9f6f

The PA76 had a standard displacement of 16,400 tonnes and a full displacement of 19,400 tonnes, she was 630 w.l in length and 87 w.l in width.

Instead of the Aerva CAS-230 Nuclear Reactor, She was to be powered by two Rolls-Royce Marine Olympus TM3 Gas turbines and two AGO Diesels with two shafts generating 65,000 horsepower for a speed of 28 knots.

Her Radar systems were probably to be very impressive as its air defence radar consisted of a DRBV-26 Jupiter Air-Search Radar and DBRV-51 Air-Search Radar, its missiles would be guided by a DRBC-32 Fire-Direction Radar and its Anti-Submarine Sonar is the DUBA-25 Tarpon Anti-Submarine Sonar.

The Ship’s Armament was to be two 8-cell Crotale SAM for sixteen cells and two 120mm guns of an unknown type.

The PA-76 was to have two catapults with a capacity of 25-30 aircraft and helicopters presumably the Dassault Super Etendard strike aircraft with Breguet Alize carrier based Anti-Submarine Warfare planes and Sud-Aviation SA321G Super Frelon carrier based Anti-Submarine Warfare Helicopter

Why wasn’t it built well as Reddit User Keyan_F explains

The answer should be obvious tbh: in 1976-77, most of the Western world, including France, is reeling from the aftershocks of the 1973 Oil crisis (and a second shock will come soon), defence budgets worldwide are heavily curtailed and it’s clearly not the time to build a big nuclear warship. During the same period, Presidents Ford, then Carter refuses to approve funding to build more Nimitzes, and even Zumwalt’s CVV has trouble gaining traction.

Also, even if France had the funding to build such a ship, they very probably would have found out that building either an updated but still conventional powered Clemenceau or a full sized nuclear powered carrier (the Richelieu project) would give a better bang per buck, an issue that scuppered the aforementioned CVV.

Personal Opinion

This should have been built as it would have given the French more ships and allowed the Clemenceau class ships for power projection duties but why didn’t they built this and what might the ramifications have been had the PA76 gone into use? and what might the French have named her?

So first things first, yeah I know I’ve not posted since July last year but I’ve had a lot going on but I’ll try to make more posts but I can’t promise anything

So I was looking around the secret projects forum and weapons and warfare and found some proposed soviet aircraft carriers

https://preview.redd.it/25ass05akvc61.jpg?width=584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a55b80a6937356bd43ca84755c6c2ce45a06f47

Project Kostromitinova

1st is Project Kostromitinova carrier which was to have 66 fighter aircraft and 40 Bombers/Torpedo Bombers with two catapults.

Her gun armament was to be sixteen 152mm guns with twenty-four 100mm FlaK guns, twenty-four 37mm guns and forty-four 23mm guns.

Her armour on the deck was to be 180mm thick, Her side armour was to be 100mm thick and the hangar had 40mm of armour with her top speed 32 knots with a range of 8000 miles when travelling at 18 knots.

https://preview.redd.it/5efxdusdkvc61.jpg?width=584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdd31eded708e4b88d1ceb0e987bb0bb257d526a

Our 2nd ship is the Project 71 Carrier

Project 71

Project 71 had a speed of 34-35 knots and had an armament for eight 100mm Anti-Air Guns, sixteen 37mm Anti-Air Guns and twenty 12.7mm Anti-Air Heavy Machine Guns.

The armour belt was presumed to 100mm thick armour on the outer hull and 75mm thick armour on the inner hull while the flight deck had 90mm thick armour while the bridge had 50mm thick armour.

Her Air Wing was intended to have twenty fighter aircraft and ten reconnaissance-bomber aircraft.

Our 3rd proposed Soviet carrier is the Project 72 Carrier

Project 72

The Project 72 Carrier’s gun armament was suppose to be twelve or sixteen 130mm Anti-Air Guns, sixteen 85mm Anti-Air Guns with twenty-four 37mm Anti-Air Guns and forty-eight 23mm Anti-Air Guns.

The armour belt was to have 90mm of armour and the flight was to have I think 60mm of deck armour

Side Note: the Deck armour was this 30mm+(50-80)mm.

Her air wing was to be 62 aircraft.

https://preview.redd.it/pr8tvuejkvc61.png?width=584&format=png&auto=webp&s=d3db6097f6f9f811555a5ab8d6d817effc419ee8

Our final carrier is the Project 85 Light Aircraft Carrier

Project 85 Light Aircraft Carrier

Project 85 Light Aircraft Carrier was a proposed Soviet Light Aircraft Carrier had a propulsion system consisting of steam turbines that produced 144,000 horsepower giving a top speed of 31.4 knots and cruising at 18 knots gave a range of 5000 nautical miles or 5753 miles.

Her Crew was to be 1850

Her armament was to intended to be, sixteen 100mm Anti-Air Guns, twenty-four 57mm Anti-Air Guns and thirty-two 25mm Anti-Air Guns.

Her aircraft was planned to be forty navalised MiG-19 Farmer variant known as Tigr and two Mil Mi-1 Hare helicopters.

What do you think of these proposed soviet carriers and what could they have been called had they gone into service and would they have been replaced by the Kiev and Admiral Kuznetzov class Aircraft Carriers

So I’ve already talked about the Graf Zeppelin Class Aircraft Carrier but the Nazis had several Converted Carrier ideas that were planned but never finished and here they are

Our 1st other German carrier is the I-class which was a conversion of German-Passenger Ship, the SS Europa of the Nordduetscher Lloyd passenger ship line and she was to have Twenty-Four BF-109T-1 and Eighteen Ju-87C Stuka aircraft and her guns were to Twelve 4.1-inch SK C/33, Twenty 1.5-inch SK c/30 Anti-Air Guns and Twenty-Eight to Thirty-Six 0.79-inch SK C/30 Anti-Air Guns.

Our 2nd other German carrier is the II-class which was the incomplete French Navy cruiser the F.N.S De Grasse which was suppose to have eleven BF-109T-1 and twelve Ju-87C Stuka aircraft while her guns consisted of Twelve 4.1-inch SK C/33 and 1.5-inch SK C/30 Anti-Air Guns and Twenty-Four 0.79-inch SK C/30 Anti-Air Guns.

The 3rd of the German’s other carriers is Jade class aircraft carriers which were conversions of German passenger-liners, the SS Gneisenau and SS Potsdam of the Nordduetscher Lloyd passenger ship line were intended to carry twelve BF109T-1 fighters and Ju-87C Stuka bombers, these carriers were to have ten 4.1-inch SK C/33 and 1.5-inch SK c/30 Anti-Air Guns and Twenty-Four-Thirty-Two 0.79-inch SK C/30 Anti-Air Guns.

And finally this the Weser class whiich was a converted Admiral Hipper Class Heavy Cruiser, the K.M.S Seydlitz and were to be armed with ten BF109T-1 fighters and ten Ju-87C Stuka bombers.

Her defensive armament was ten 4.1-inch SK C/33 and 1.5-inch SK c/30 Anti-Air Guns and twenty-four 0.79-inch SK C/30 Anti-Air Guns.

Would these converted carriers have made any difference to the war if they were finished and what would the implications be if any or all of them been completed?

Frankly not really as they’d all likely be hunted down and sunk by the UK’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy

So after WW2 The French seem to catch up in carriers

First is the PA16A/PA16B which had a displacement of 20.000 tons which had a speed of 30 knots and an air wing capacity of 40 aircraft and the PA-16/PA-16B was based on the cancelled Joffre design.

The 2nd post-WW2 Carrier was the PA19 carrier that was 260 metres long and had a displacement of 30,000 tonnes with a speed of 30 knots and was armed with twelve 155mm guns in four triple-turrets.

She ultimately had a single hangar with two lifts with a capacity of 50 aircraft.

The PA19 was the French trying to redesign the Joffre Class Aircraft Carrier with the lessons of World War 2 but it didn’t work out.

Now we come to the PA25 aircraft carrier which was the first clean-sheet design that had a displacement of 25,000 tonnes and a speed of 30 knots.

Her Gun Armament was eight 114mm Guns, sixteen 37mm and forty 20mm Guns.

She had a single hangar with two lifts with an unknown number of aircraft.

There was a carrier design based on the helicopter carrier I talked about, but I’m gonna do a separate post at some point.

Yes you heard that right the British had an A-10 of their own the British Aerospace P.101 Blitz sadly it was never put into production but was built from redesigned Jet Provost T.5 airframe with the jet exhaust removed and the canopy redesigned.

The single Rolls-Royce Viper Mark.201 Turbojet would be replaced with either two Rolls-Royce Viper Mk.600 turbojets generating 8000ibs of thrust or a single 5540ib thrust Rolls-Royce RB.401-35 Turbofan or US-made Garrett ATF3 Turbofan

The P.101 Blitz was to have a single 30mm GAU-13/A Rotary Gatling Gun firing an unknown number of rounds of PAU-14 Depleted Uranium Rounds like the rounds used in the A-10’s GAU-8/A Avenger.

Sadly I haven’t been able to find an image on google of this aircraft but there are diagrams in Chris Gibson’s Typhoon to Typhoon book on Royal Air Force Air Support Projects since 1945

From the pictures in the book this is a description of what I think would have been the most likely final design

A redesigned Jet Provost T.5 airframe with 30mm GAU-13/A in the nose, at the rear were a twin tail and two Rolls-Royce Viper 600 turbojets with four underwing hardpoints.

Side Note: I suspect the P.101 Blitz would’ve had its Rolls-Royce Viper mk.600s replaced with two Rolls-Royce RB.401-35 Turbofan giving 11,080ibs of thrust

F-14J Tomcat

Have you wondered what a Japanese Air Force F-14 Tomcat would like well wonder no more

https://preview.redd.it/btw4zbnw92e61.jpg?width=520&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f26481b5535be53b848362370d7d97da49505d12

So this is an F-14A or F-14B Tomcat model kits painted in the F-2A Viper Zero livery and frankly I don’t know why the US never offered the F-14 Tomcat to the Japanese as it would’ve given them a long-range air defence platform for Soviet and Chinese bombers

The model is very good

F-2 Super Kai

What if I told you there were more plans for the F-2 Viper Zero well I present

https://preview.redd.it/n17hjs0y4xd61.jpg?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc4ed66ef86d12981c3ed2da70503bf6a528e309

The F-2 Super Kai or as I call it the F-2C Super Viper Zero was an F-2 Viper Zero airframe which had its older J/APG-1 Airborne Electronic Scanning Array radar with a new AESA radar system with support for Japanese Link 16 aka the Tactical Digital Information Link with Joint Tactical Distribution System and Multi-Function Distribution System with conformal fuel tanks being installed.

As there would been 2 variants of the jet a single seater and a 2-seater or as I call it the F-2D Super Viper Zero which would have allowed a Weapon System Officer and specialised rear seats while the pilot would get a new Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System.

The F-2 Super Kai would gain the operational capability use of the new AIM-9X Sidewinders, AIM-120 AMRAAM AAMs, AGM-154 Joint Stand-off Weapon Glide munitions and AGM-88 HARM Anti-Radiation Missiles along with Wind-Corrected Cluster Munitions (before Japan disposed of their cluster munitions) and Satellite and Laser-Guided munitions like the Joint Directed Attack Munitions and Laser-Joint Directed Attack Munitions which would be directed by the AAQ-33 Sniper XR targeting pod.

The F-2 Super Kai would have gained the option to use reconnaissance pods allowing it to do the job of the RF-4EJ Phantom 2 and would have gained a fourth underwing hardpoint and all four could be used to carry weapons while its General Electric F110-129 Turbofan would have been replaced with a General Electric F110-132 Turbofan engine.

Frankly the model is very good and really this is something the Japanese really should have gone with as with since it could’ve have allowed the F-4EJ fleet to be re-tasked or retired and frankly might have given an early advantage over the future hostile neighbour of China