The former HMAS Jervis Bay (ARK-45) was able to operate in bad seas up to SS6 which the crew barely noticed.

The design being of catamaran concept and wave piercing technology has allowed InCat to put forward a range of successful design products to the US Military including the current multi vessel JHSV based on the above 112m vessel.

JHSV has taken lessons learned from the HSV-2 Swift program on board to allow perfection of what now to become the US military’s core transport fleet. Included in the specs was the ability to operate a helo up to SS5 for launch and SS4 for recovery- this carried over to JHSV.

InCat’s 112m design above also follows along those same lines for flight ops!

It certainly pays to go through your attachments- I was looking for something relevant to this thread and couldn’t find it anywhere, after two days of searching, I look through my attachments and bang there it is!

Anyway back on topic- so you want a small carrier for Co-In duties, small amount of aircraft, minimal fuss, maximum strike capabilities, CALL INCAT

This is their LHT design (Light Helo Transport)

but you can use it for said role as well- heck you could even put a ski jump at the bow if you really wanted to.

In fact InCat has designed a range of small carriers for just about every role imaginable, here is a slightly bigger 112m Carrier already capable of supporting a small contingent of F-35B’s. It is the same design, but my point about the ski jump is evident here!

Perhaps something along these lines may be better for what was originally intended!

I think the point has been lost here, sure older carriers operated with loads of aircraft, but then again if you look at the size and weights of those aircraft, todays planes seem like monsters- you could not operate a modern day plane off any of the WWII era carriers (unless it was a Harrier). The case of the Colossus class in Argentine service (and the Majestic class in various naval services around the world) point to a maximum of only 26 aircraft being operated under standard operating procedures, of that 16-18 were planes- the rest were helos. It’s a question of size over practical space available (space needed to work on engines and air frames as such).

Chakri Naruebet is a very very sad case indeed, Thailand bought the EAV-8’s to fly off the carrier but to my knowledge, only three ever actually got to fly off her deck and none are serviceable today- which doesn’t really matter because they actually don’t have any pilots for them. The whole ship is basically one gigantic floating palace anyway with the Royal Chambers taking up most of 01 deck. If I was the head of the Thai navy I’d put her in to dock and cut the ski jump off and turn it in to another helo spot!

Now the question of actually having a land link to spares and mail is actually not that hard- Yes for most the C-2 is way out of the question simply because of it’s weight- she is a very fat lady! But the Brazilians have the right idea- buy some old C-1 Traders (well actually they are buying Trackers and rebuilding them but C-1’s are in Storage there at AMARC). But then again the whole thing basically revolves around how far you intend to take your carrier, Spain, The UK and Italy use helos to send out urgent parts.

Over- the OV-10 had the capacity to drop 5 troopers in a very light transport role. It flying high could fly over the area of interest and drop Seal Teams for strategic strike value. This was before Helos has Whisper modes on them- we’re talking the days of UH-1 Huey’s here.

But i agree- the need for a carrier dedicated to Co-In is not feasable, more likely to have a small fleet of aircraft and use them on board a standard carrier- much in the same way they do with C-2 greyhounds.

I would expect the most likely platforms for sea trials of Sea Gripen, if built, to be Sao Paulo (catapult launch & arrested launch) and Vikramaditya (STOBAR), i.e. ships operated by potential customers.

Swerve: Vikramditya won’t be ready before Sea Gripen is and as for Sao Paulo, Sea Gripen isn’t designed for cat launches- the new carriers Brazil are looking at have Ski jumps and may even have a similar system for launching planes to what the Russians use- hence me asking my question.