Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Catapults - Aircraft Carriers

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STOBAR ("Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery" or "Short Take-Off, Barrier Arrested Recovery") is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier, combining elements of "short take-off and vertical landing" (STOVL) with "catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery" (CATOBAR).

An aircraft catapult is a device used to launch aircraft from ships, most commonly used on aircraft carriers, as a form of assisted take off. It consists of a track built into the flight deck, below which is a large piston or shuttle that is attached through the track to the nose gear of the aircraft, or in some cases a wire rope, called a catapult bridle, is attached to the aircraft and the catapult shuttle. Different means have been used to propel the catapult, such as weight and derrick, gunpowder, flywheel, air pressure, hydraulic, and steam power. The U.S. Navy is developing the use of Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems with the construction of the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. Catapulted aircraft land like conventional aircraft, sometimes with the help of arresting gear.
Aviation pioneer and Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley used a spring-operated catapult to launch his successful flying models and his failed aerodrome of 1903. Likewise the Wright Brothers beginning in 1904 used a weight and derrick styled catapult to assist their early aircraft with a takeoff in a limited distance.

On 31 July 1912, Theodore Gordon Ellyson became the first person to be launched from a U.S. Navy catapult system. The Navy had been perfecting a compressed-air catapult system and mounted it on the Santee Dock in Annapolis, Maryland. The first attempt nearly killed Lieutenant Ellyson when the plane left the ramp with its nose pointing upward and it caught a crosswind, pushing the plane into the water. Ellyson was able to escape from the wreckage unhurt. On 12 November 1912, Lt. Ellyson made history as the Navy's first successful catapult launch, from a stationary coal barge. On 5 November 1915, Lieutenant Commander Henry C. Mustin made the first catapult launch from a ship underway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_catapult .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_aircraft_carrier .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_Aircraft_Launch_System .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski-jump_(aviation) .

CDG - Charles de Gaulle Carrier

24-3-8 Charles de Gaulle: Small Carrier Most Powerful Besides Supercarriers - nwyt > .
> French Armed Forces >>

Charles de Gaulle is the flagship of the French Navy. The ship, commissioned in 2001, is the tenth French aircraft carrier, the first French nuclear-powered surface vessel, and the only nuclear-powered carrier completed outside of the United States Navy. She is named after French president and general Charles de Gaulle.

The ship carries a complement of Dassault Rafale M and E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, AS365F Dauphin Pedro, EC725 Caracal and AS532 Cougar helicopters for combat search and rescue, as well as modern electronics and Aster missiles. She is a CATOBAR-type carrier that uses two 75 m (246 ft) C13‑3 steam catapults of a shorter version of the catapult system installed on the US Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, one at the bow and one at the waist. As of July 2021, Charles de Gaulle was the only non-American carrier-vessel that had a catapult launch system, which has allowed for operation of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and C-2 Greyhounds of the United States Navy.

The French Navy is actively planning for a future aircraft carrier and new flagship. It is known in French as Porte-avions de nouvelle génération (PA-NG) for 'new generation aircraft carrier'. Construction of the PANG is expected to begin around 2031 and it is projected to enter service in about 2038; the year the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is due to be retired. The ship will be nuclear-powered and will feature the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG).

China's SSBNs

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21-8-13 Xina's Pursuit Force of Nuclear Armed Ballistic Missile Submarines - WotW > .
24-5-19 Detection Advances vs Future of Ballistic, Attack Submarines - Perun > .
23-8-2 Xi's Anti-Corruption Purge of PLA Rocket Force | PLA structure - Digging > .
22-10-31 How could war between Xina & Taiwan play out? | Four Corners > .
22-4-20 Nuclear Defences - ROC Cold War 1, Ċold Ŵar 2 - mfp > .
22-3-27 Taiwan might extend military service b/o Beijing's sabre-rattling | ABC Aus > .
22-3-17 Russia’s Nuclear Arsenal, World’s Largest, Comparisons | WSJ > .


The 1930s and 40s were time a of great pain for the Chinese people. Exploited by nearly all of the great foreign powers for decades, its vast population were largely impoverished and with the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 which had ruled the country since the mid-17th century, political instability broke the country up into factions. Then of course came the second world war, the Japanese occupation of China saw acts of brutality against the Chinese population that would be considered barbaric even by the standards of the dark ages. Then came Civil War, ending in 1949 when Mao Zedong emerged victorious and communism ruled the country. The newly founded People’s Republic of China found itself in a precarious position, however. Sapped by years of warfare and strife, the country was now at odds with an increasingly hostile United States that was dominated by an anti-communist mania. Remembering how the US defeated their great enemy Japan with atom bombs, Chairman Mao and the communists knew they needed an answer to America’s superweapons which were soon coming not just from the air but under the sea. In today’s episode of Wars of the World, we are going to look at the history of China’s efforts to develop the ultimate weapon. This is the story of China’s undersea dragons; its pursuit force of nuclear armed ballistic missile submarines or SSBNs. 

0:00 Introduction
2:07 Red China and the Atom
6:54 Got to Start Somewhere
11:32 Huge Wave-1 and Fish Hook
14:54 Going Nuclear
19:49 Deterrence at Last
27:27 Diesel Oddity
30:47 The Future

Chokepoints - Royal Navy, Britain


From the 18th to the early 20th centuries, the sheer size of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy meant it had control over much of the world's oceans and seas. Chokepoints were of huge importance to the British Empire, which often used them to control trade in British colonies and, to a lesser extent, for defense. Choke points have also been a source of tension, notably during the Suez Crisis. The Royal Navy still deems its choke points as strategically vital. Indeed, the importance of choke points was first recognised by British Admiral John Fisher.

These are major British choke points today:
The choke points still have significant strategic importance for the Royal Navy. The GIUK gap is particularly important to the Royal Navy, as any attempt by northern European forces to break into the open Atlantic would have to do so through the heavily defended English Channel, which is also the world's busiest shipping lane, or through one of the exits on either side of Iceland. Considering British control over the strategic fortress of Gibraltar at the entrance to the MediterraneanSpain (northern coast), France (Atlantic coast) and Portugal are the only mainland European nations that have direct access to the Atlantic Ocean in a way that cannot be easily blocked at a choke point by the Royal Navy. The GIUK gap was also a strategically important part of the Cold War, as the Royal Navy were given the responsibility of keeping an eye on Soviet submarines trying to break into the open Atlantic.

The Fulda Gap was seen as one of the potentially decisive bottleneck battlegrounds of the Cold War in Germany.



Other chokepoints:
Taiwan, ROC
ROC Armed Forces ..
Taiwan ..

Commando Frogmen


sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...