Sea Control Ship
Encyclopedia
The Sea Control Ship (SCS) was a small aircraft carrier
developed and conceptualized by the United States Navy
under Chief of Naval Operations
Elmo Zumwalt during the 1970s. Currently the term refers to naval vessels that can perform similar duties. The SCS was intended as an escort vessel, providing air support for convoys. It was the result of budgetary cuts the US Navy faced at the time.
The SCS was to be equipped with a mix of Rockwell XFV-12 fighter aircraft
and anti-submarine warfare
helicopters
. It was tasked with carrying out anti-submarine warfare operations.
as part of the US Marine Corps
. The vessel was equipped with AV-8A Harrier STOVL
fighters and Sea King ASW helicopters. The tests were completed in July 1974; the USS Guam resumed its role as an amphibious assault ship.
flagship
, Principe de Asturias (R11), and her smaller cousin ship, Thailand's
HTMS Chakri Naruebet, were based on the final US Navy blueprints for a dedicated sea control ship, but with the addition of a ski-jump ramp and follow a similar mission profile. As currently configured, the Italian
aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi (551) would also fit under the SCS description. A STOVL flight deck equipped Spruance class destroyer
with Harriers for air cover was seriously considered in the 1970s for the SCS but in the end rejected by the US Navy and Congress.
The British Invincible
class began life separately from the Elmo Zumwalt SCS design and has its origins in a sketch design for a 6,000 ton
, guided-missile armed, helicopter carrying escort cruiser intended as a complement to the much larger CVA-01-class
fleet aircraft carrier. The cancellation of CVA-01 in 1966 meant that the smaller cruiser would now have to provide the anti-submarine warfare
(ASW) taskforce with command and control
facilities. A 17,500 ton vessel was chosen with a "through-deck", nine Sea Kings and missiles right forward. By 1970, the "through-deck" design had advanced into a Naval Staff Requirement for an 18,750 ton Through-Deck Command Cruisers (TDCC). In May 1975, the British Government authorised the maritime version of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which was successfully developed into the Sea Harrier
. This meant that the design was reworked again to include a small complement of these VTOL
aircraft. In order to launch a heavily-laden Harrier more efficiently by STOVL
(short take-off vertical landing) from the comparatively short - 170 m - flight deck
, a 'ski-jump' was developed.
The Soviet
Kiev class aircraft carrier
s had a similar mission, but were much bigger as they were effectively an SCS and a heavy missile cruiser combined into one hull. The Kiev class was equipped with twelve short ranged defensive Yakovlev Yak-38 STOL fighters and sixteen Kamov Ka-25 or Kamov Ka-27 ASW helicopters which operated from an angled flight deck. The forward deck was filled with eight large P-500 Bazalt surface to surface missiles for land and sea strike missions as well as torpedo launchers and strong layered missile and gun anti-aircraft defenses.
In January, 1969, contacts between the US Navy and the team in charge of the V/STOL “Harrier” at the Hawker Sidley plant in Dunsfold were the conceptual origin of a carrier for this kind of airplane, without catapults and with shorter runways. Thus a ship was proposed not for nuclear conflicts but for ground attack from the littoral and sea interdiction. It was not well received among circles in the US Navy that promoted a heavier aircraft carrier type during the Cold War.
Tarawa
and Wasp
classes
. All of these ships typically operate STOVL
/VTOL
fighter/attack aircraft
and some have also operated as light carriers in both of the Persian Gulf
operations after unloading and deploying the Marine
ground forces equipment (e.g. tank
s, armored vehicles, landing craft
), troop, and cargo helicopters of their primary amphibious assault mission. The Spanish ship Juan Carlos I will also split its duties between amphibious assault and SCS/aircraft carrier work.
is similar in size and design to other vessels considered Sea Control Ships but would require both political and structural changes as well as acquisition of VSTOL fighters to assume the full role of a SCS. Older light conventional carriers which predate the SCS proposal such as the and at times carried both CATOBAR
ASW aircraft and fighters for CAP
missions in addition to helicopters, they had a sea control type mission but predate the SCS concept, they were simply designated as anti-submarine warfare carrier
s.
in 1982. Unable to acquire full-size carriers due to political opposition, Britain had procured Invincible class
"through-deck cruisers" to keep sea lanes clear of Soviet submarines and patrol aircraft. In this mission they typically carried four to five Sea Harriers and nine Sea Kings
for anti-submarine warfare
. When Argentina
invaded the Falkland Islands
, and were filled to capacity with Harrier and Sea Harrier fighter aircraft to recover the islands. The Sea Harriers shot down 21 Argentine aircraft in air-to-air combat with no air-to-air losses, although two Sea Harriers were lost to ground fire and four to accidents.
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
developed and conceptualized by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
under Chief of Naval Operations
Chief of Naval Operations
The Chief of Naval Operations is a statutory office held by a four-star admiral in the United States Navy, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Navy. The office is a military adviser and deputy to the Secretary of the Navy...
Elmo Zumwalt during the 1970s. Currently the term refers to naval vessels that can perform similar duties. The SCS was intended as an escort vessel, providing air support for convoys. It was the result of budgetary cuts the US Navy faced at the time.
The SCS was to be equipped with a mix of Rockwell XFV-12 fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
and anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
helicopters
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
. It was tasked with carrying out anti-submarine warfare operations.
Experimental Sea Control Ship
In 1971, the , was chosen as a test vessel. Testing began on January 18th, 1972. In 1974 she was deployed to the Atlantic OceanAtlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
as part of the US Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps Aviation
United States Marine Corps Aviation is the air component of the United States Marine Corps. Marine aviation has a very different mission and operation than its ground counterpart, and thus, has many of its own histories, traditions, terms, and procedures....
. The vessel was equipped with AV-8A Harrier STOVL
STOVL
STOVL is an acronym for short take off and vertical landing.This is the ability of some aircraft to take off from a short runway or take off vertically if it does not have a very heavy payload and land vertically...
fighters and Sea King ASW helicopters. The tests were completed in July 1974; the USS Guam resumed its role as an amphibious assault ship.
Ships built following the SCS concept
The SCSs were smaller than most fleet aircraft carriers, and the concept was seized upon by nations wanting cheap aircraft carriers. Spain'sSpanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
, Principe de Asturias (R11), and her smaller cousin ship, Thailand's
Royal Thai Navy
The Royal Thai Navy is the navy of Thailand and part of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, it was established in the late 19th century. Admiral Prince Abhakara Kiartiwongse is "The Father of Royal Thai Navy". Similar to the organizational structure of the United States, the Royal Thai Navy includes the...
HTMS Chakri Naruebet, were based on the final US Navy blueprints for a dedicated sea control ship, but with the addition of a ski-jump ramp and follow a similar mission profile. As currently configured, the Italian
Marina Militare
The Italian Navy is the navy of the Italian Republic. It is one of the four branches of military forces of Italy; formed in 1946, from what remained of the Regia Marina . As of 2008, the Italian Navy had 35,200 active personnel with 180 commissioned ships, 19 Floating Docks, and 123 aircraft...
aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi (551) would also fit under the SCS description. A STOVL flight deck equipped Spruance class destroyer
Spruance class destroyer
The Spruance-class destroyer was developed by the United States to replace a large number of World War II-built Allen M. Sumner- and Gearing-class destroyers, and was the primary destroyer built for the U.S. Navy during the 1970s....
with Harriers for air cover was seriously considered in the 1970s for the SCS but in the end rejected by the US Navy and Congress.
The British Invincible
Invincible class aircraft carrier
The Invincible class is a class of light aircraft carrier operated by the British Royal Navy. Three ships were constructed, , and . The vessels were built as aviation-capable anti-submarine warfare platforms to counter the Cold War North Atlantic Soviet submarine threat, and initially embarked...
class began life separately from the Elmo Zumwalt SCS design and has its origins in a sketch design for a 6,000 ton
Long ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
, guided-missile armed, helicopter carrying escort cruiser intended as a complement to the much larger CVA-01-class
CVA-01
The CVA-01 aircraft carrier was to be a class of at least two fleet carriers that would have replaced the Royal Navy's existing aircraft carriers, most of which had been designed prior to or during World War II....
fleet aircraft carrier. The cancellation of CVA-01 in 1966 meant that the smaller cruiser would now have to provide the anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
(ASW) taskforce with command and control
Command and Control (military)
Command and control, or C2, in a military organization can be defined as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission...
facilities. A 17,500 ton vessel was chosen with a "through-deck", nine Sea Kings and missiles right forward. By 1970, the "through-deck" design had advanced into a Naval Staff Requirement for an 18,750 ton Through-Deck Command Cruisers (TDCC). In May 1975, the British Government authorised the maritime version of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which was successfully developed into the Sea Harrier
BAE Sea Harrier
The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval VTOL/STOVL jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft, a development of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS1 and became informally known as the "Shar"...
. This meant that the design was reworked again to include a small complement of these VTOL
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
aircraft. In order to launch a heavily-laden Harrier more efficiently by STOVL
STOVL
STOVL is an acronym for short take off and vertical landing.This is the ability of some aircraft to take off from a short runway or take off vertically if it does not have a very heavy payload and land vertically...
(short take-off vertical landing) from the comparatively short - 170 m - flight deck
Flight deck
The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters and other VTOL aircraft is also referred to as the...
, a 'ski-jump' was developed.
The Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Kiev class aircraft carrier
Kiev class aircraft carrier
The Kiev class carriers were the first class of fixed-wing aircraft carriers built in the Soviet Union....
s had a similar mission, but were much bigger as they were effectively an SCS and a heavy missile cruiser combined into one hull. The Kiev class was equipped with twelve short ranged defensive Yakovlev Yak-38 STOL fighters and sixteen Kamov Ka-25 or Kamov Ka-27 ASW helicopters which operated from an angled flight deck. The forward deck was filled with eight large P-500 Bazalt surface to surface missiles for land and sea strike missions as well as torpedo launchers and strong layered missile and gun anti-aircraft defenses.
In January, 1969, contacts between the US Navy and the team in charge of the V/STOL “Harrier” at the Hawker Sidley plant in Dunsfold were the conceptual origin of a carrier for this kind of airplane, without catapults and with shorter runways. Thus a ship was proposed not for nuclear conflicts but for ground attack from the littoral and sea interdiction. It was not well received among circles in the US Navy that promoted a heavier aircraft carrier type during the Cold War.
Ships with secondary SCS mission
Ships that can be used for secondary SCS missions include many modern amphibious carriers, such as the U.S.United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Tarawa
Tarawa class amphibious assault ship
The Tarawa class is a ship class of amphibious assault ships operated by the United States Navy . Five ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding between 1971 and 1980; another four ships were planned, but later cancelled...
and Wasp
Wasp class amphibious assault ship
The Wasp class is a class of Landing Helicopter Dock amphibious assault ships operated by the United States Navy. Based on the Tarawa class, with modifications to operate more advanced aircraft and landing craft, the Wasp class is capable of transporting almost the full strength of a United States...
classes
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
. All of these ships typically operate STOVL
STOVL
STOVL is an acronym for short take off and vertical landing.This is the ability of some aircraft to take off from a short runway or take off vertically if it does not have a very heavy payload and land vertically...
/VTOL
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
fighter/attack aircraft
Ground attack aircraft
Ground-attack aircraft are military aircraft with primary role of attacking targets on the ground with greater precision than bombers and prepared to face stronger low-level air defense...
and some have also operated as light carriers in both of the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
operations after unloading and deploying the Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
ground forces equipment (e.g. tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s, armored vehicles, landing craft
Landing craft
Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...
), troop, and cargo helicopters of their primary amphibious assault mission. The Spanish ship Juan Carlos I will also split its duties between amphibious assault and SCS/aircraft carrier work.
Ships similar to the SCS
Warships of the helicopter carrier or helicopter cruiser designation such as French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc and the Moskva class helicopter cruisers were tasked with similar ASW missions as a SCS but had no organic fighter aircraft and therefore depended on onboard anti-aircraft weapons, anti-aircraft protection from escorting ships, or available nearby fighter aircraft so they are not considered Sea Control Ships. The Japanese Hyūga class helicopter destroyerHyuga class helicopter destroyer
The are a type of helicopter carrier being built for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force . Two ships of the class were built to replace the two 7,000-ton Haruna-class helicopter destroyers. The new ships are the largest combatant ship operated by Japan since the Imperial Japanese Navy was...
is similar in size and design to other vessels considered Sea Control Ships but would require both political and structural changes as well as acquisition of VSTOL fighters to assume the full role of a SCS. Older light conventional carriers which predate the SCS proposal such as the and at times carried both CATOBAR
CATOBAR
CATOBAR is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier...
ASW aircraft and fighters for CAP
Combat air patrol
Combat air patrol is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft.A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, for the purpose of intercepting and destroying hostile...
missions in addition to helicopters, they had a sea control type mission but predate the SCS concept, they were simply designated as anti-submarine warfare carrier
Anti-submarine warfare carrier
An ASW carrier is a type of small aircraft carrier whose primary role is to hunt and destroy submarines...
s.
Falklands War
The only example of a conflict where a SCS-type ship played a large part was the Falklands WarFalklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
in 1982. Unable to acquire full-size carriers due to political opposition, Britain had procured Invincible class
Invincible class aircraft carrier
The Invincible class is a class of light aircraft carrier operated by the British Royal Navy. Three ships were constructed, , and . The vessels were built as aviation-capable anti-submarine warfare platforms to counter the Cold War North Atlantic Soviet submarine threat, and initially embarked...
"through-deck cruisers" to keep sea lanes clear of Soviet submarines and patrol aircraft. In this mission they typically carried four to five Sea Harriers and nine Sea Kings
Westland Sea King
The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines , British made anti-submarine warfare systems and a...
for anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
. When Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
invaded the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
, and were filled to capacity with Harrier and Sea Harrier fighter aircraft to recover the islands. The Sea Harriers shot down 21 Argentine aircraft in air-to-air combat with no air-to-air losses, although two Sea Harriers were lost to ground fire and four to accidents.
External links
- Sea Control Ship - GlobalSecurity.orgGlobalSecurity.orgGlobalSecurity.org, launched in 2000, is a public policy organization focusing on the fields of defense, space exploration, intelligence, weapons of mass destruction and homeland security...