‘Lightning Carriers’ Could Be Lightweights in an Asian War

[rangerrebew]

‘Lightning Carriers’ Could Be Lightweights in an Asian War
John Bradford and Olli Pekka Suorsa
October 29, 2021
 

Earlier this month, U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II fighters embarked on the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force ship JS Izumo as a capability validation. The event marked an important step in the Izumo’s metamorphosis from a flat-deck helicopter carrier (called a “helicopter destroyer” in Japanese nomenclature) into a light aircraft carrier operating advanced fifth-generation short take-off and vertical landing fighters. This is a landmark event for the Japanese navy and Japan’s defense posture more generally, giving Tokyo an aircraft carrier for the first time since World War II. It is also a milestone on a path that is establishing smaller aircraft carriers equipped with the F-35B Lightning II, or “Lightning carriers,” as the new capital ships of Asia.

The U.S. Navy forward-deployed its own Lightning carrier, the USS America, to Sasebo, Japan in 2019. In 2021, the United Kingdom dispatched HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Indo-Pacific on her maiden voyage. South Korea also plans to launch a Lightning carrier by the end of this decade. Procurement of F-35 variants also cracks the door for Singapore or Australia to similarly appoint their large-deck ship programs with carrier-aviation capabilities should they choose to do so. Asia’s Lightning carriers will boost national prestige, but will also come at high cost.

 https://warontherocks.com/2021/10/lightning-carriers-emerge-as-asias-new-capital-ships-strategic-investments-with-varied-operational-value/

[PeteS in CA]

"Lightning Carriers" has a cool ring to it, but USN amphibious assault ships were carrying AV-8Bs before F-35s came into the fleet, and the Japanese Self Defense Force had helicopter destroyers before the F-35 came around. IOW, carrying F-35s is a functional upgrade of existing ships, not ships built to carry F-35s. Similarly, light carriers and hybrid gunship-carrier ships have been around at least since WW2.