前言
When talking about aircraft carriers, people always talk about elevators, arresting cables, flight deck layout, and the performance of the carrier-based aircraft, these enduring topics. A design that is inconspicuous on the aircraft carrier, but has a very large impact on the launch rate and performance of the aircraft carrier-the ammunition elevator is poorly understood, and even many people do not know that there is such an unremarkable one on the aircraft carrier. design.
Ammunition elevator
The ammunition elevator on the aircraft carrier is covered by the shadow of the carrier-based aircraft elevator. When drawing the three views of the aircraft carrier, the ammunition elevator is often overlooked, but the ammunition elevator serves as The indispensable presence on the aircraft carrier will directly restrict the launch efficiency and sorties of carrier-based aircraft. Then, as the absolute core of a country’s navy, how does the humble ammunition elevator affect the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier? What impact does the ammunition elevator position have?
The inability to deliver ammunition lifts is the core factor for Ford-class aircraft carriers to form combat effectiveness.
Ford-class aircraft carriers are the absolute core of the US Navy’s power in the next thirty years, but the time for Ford-class aircraft carriers to form combat effectiveness is one Towing and towing, to this day, the Ford-class catapult and the arrest cable, the two major aircraft carriers, have gone well. So what are the factors that restrict the formation of combat effectiveness of the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers? The ammunition lift is dead.
Ammunition elevator
Ford-class elevator problems are also because the elevator is too advanced. The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier's ammunition elevator can transport 4.5 tons of ammunition at a speed of 30 meters per minute, while the Ford-class "Advanced Weapon Lift" can lift 10.8 tons of ammunition at a speed of 45 meters per minute! Excessive advancement is directly equivalent to unreliability. Only 4 of 11 lifts can be used. How does this form combat effectiveness?
U.S. Navy aircraft carrier design that believes in equalization
Ammunition elevators are different from carrier-based aircraft elevators. The carrier-based aircraft elevator communicates between the hangar deck and the flight deck. The ammunition elevator communicates with the ammunition warehouse, the hangar deck, and the flight deck. Not all ammunition elevators need to penetrate the hangar deck. Among the 11 elevators of the Ford-class aircraft carrier, only 4 elevators penetrate the hangar deck. The 7 lifts only communicate with the ammunition depot and the hangar deck
Normally lift more than ten tons of ammunition in a space no larger than an Alto. This requires very high structural strength (ammunition The maximum lifting capacity of the elevator is 30 tons, but the normal method of use is to lift about ten tons of ammunition) and the ammunition elevator is directly connected to the ammunition depot. Once the ammunition elevator is broken down, the entire aircraft carrier will become a splendid firework. So there can be no more or less ammunition lifts!
Both the Nimitz class and the Ford class have 4 ammunition elevators located on the flight deck, but the positions of the two are different.
From the top view of the Ford class and Nimitz class, it can be seen that the ammunition lift of the Ford class aircraft carrier is closer to the parking area, and three of the four lifts of the Ford class aircraft carrier will not be affected. The impact of the take-off of the carrier-based aircraft. The ground crew can easily push the ammunition to the vicinity of the fighter and mount the ammunition on the fighter. The elevators at the front of the ship island are so dense that the three fighters share one elevator. The ammunition loading speed is extremely fast. It can be concluded that the carrier-based aircraft has a short take-off preparation time and high flying efficiency.
Overlapping of the top view of the Ford-class aircraft carrier and the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier
The ammunition elevator of the Ford-class aircraft carrier located directly behind the gas deflector can be used in the fighter as the fuel for the fighter to be flown The ammunition elevator mounted on the ammunition is located behind the deflector to protect the ammunition elevator from engine gas.
The ammunition elevator of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is also located on the right side of the flight deck. However, the ammunition rise and fall are irregular in size and position, and the front ammunition elevator is located in the take-off area.As long as there is a carrier-based aircraft taking off, the front lift is steadily useless... In other words, there are only three ammunition lifts that can operate normally.
Ammunition elevator
The remaining three elevators, two of which are on the left side of the ship island, and one on the left side of the parking area, which means that the second ammunition elevator is the front of the ship island The carrier-based aircraft in the parking area transports ammunition. The fourth elevator replenishes ammunition for the carrier-based aircraft in the parking area at the rear of the ship island. The third elevator also replenishes ammunition for the carrier-based aircraft parked in the front, rear and diagonal parking area of the island.
Dangerous area when carrier-based aircraft takes off
This is why the dispatch rate of Ford-class aircraft carriers is higher than that of Nimitz-class aircraft.
As for the left parking area without ammunition elevator, because there are very few fighters parked in this position, the carrier-based elevator can be used to transport ammunition.
Through the difference of the lift position, it can be concluded that the Ford-class aircraft carrier has the advantage of moving the ship island back-the integration of the parking area, which facilitates the improvement of the dispatching efficiency and the dispatch rate of the carrier.
Western navy aircraft carrier ammunition elevator design method
The position of the ammunition elevator of the British Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is not marked, and no clear picture of the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier opening the ammunition elevator has been found, so Direct description of France’s Charles de Gaulle-class aircraft carrier
The white position is the ammunition elevator
The Charles de Gaulle-class aircraft carrier has two ammunition elevators, one at the end of the front parking area and the other behind the island. In the middle of the parking area, there is another one suspected to be in the triangular parking area on the left side of the flight deck.
The position of the white circle is the position of the suspected ammunition elevator.
The front and rear two elevators can take care of the ammunition mounting of the carrier aircraft in the front and rear parking areas, that is, the triangle on the left side of the flight deck The parking zone is only used for temporary parking of carrier-based aircraft. From the difference in the number and layout of ammunition lifts, it can also be concluded that the number of second wave attacks of the Charles de Gaulle-class aircraft carrier is much lower than that of the US aircraft carrier.
Cavour-class light aircraft carrier has two front two rear one, three ammunition lifts, the rear lift is mainly used for the ammunition mounting of vertical take-off and landing fighters, and the front is used for carrier-based ammunition The task of recovering and mounting helicopter ammunition is heavier, so the number of ammunition elevators in the front is two.
Garibaldi-class light aircraft carrier does not have an independent deck-piercing ammunition elevator because of its limited tonnage. The ammunition is transported by carrier-based aircraft elevators. To a certain extent, it refers to Cavour's Izumo class and Hyuga class, which are also the first two and the rear one and three ammunition elevators.
Generally speaking, the ammunition elevators should be arranged separately, with at least one in each parking area, to optimize the ammunition transportation process and avoid the need to push several tons of ammunition carts to mount a missile. In the awkward situation of 100 meters, the number of elevators at the front of the flight deck should be a little more, because when the carrier aircraft is in the recovery state, the more ammunition elevators at the front, the more conducive to the rapid recovery of ammunition.
The small white squares are the ammunition elevator
The predicament of the aircraft cruiser, concentrated on the front part of the ammunition elevator
as everyone knows The aircraft carrier in the eyes of the Soviet Navy is called an aircraft cruiser. It is a cruiser that can carry carrier aircraft. Because the Soviet Navy has a large number of anti-ship missiles, the main attack weapon of aircraft cruisers is also anti-ship missiles. The carrier aircraft is just the icing on the cake. Therefore, the Soviet Navy does not pursue the anti-ship capabilities of carrier-based aircraft, but focuses on the small-mounted air defense capabilities and anti-submarine capabilities of carrier-based aircraft.
So the distinctive Soviet carrier cruiser did not use the design pattern of one ammunition elevator per parking area, nor did it adopt the design of front and rear elevators.In calculation mode, the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier has a total of four ammunition elevators, which are comparable to Ford, but all the four ammunition elevators are located in the middle of the two gas deflectors and are arranged in a grid pattern.
The ammunition elevator in the middle of the gas deflector
and the ammunition elevator is located in the danger zone when the carrier-based aircraft takes off. When the aircraft takes off, the four densely distributed The ammunition elevator can only mount weapons and ammunition for the carrier-based aircraft that is ready to take off. When it is necessary to mount ammunition for other carrier-based aircraft, the take-off work of the carrier-based aircraft must be stopped, and the ammunition elevator is far away from the parking area, making it difficult to dispatch , The transportation time is long, resulting in a serious time wastage, and the ammunition elevators are located in a concentrated manner, which is easy to be ended in a pot.
In order to make up for the deficiencies in the design, the carrier-based aircraft can only be lifted frequently or the ammunition can be stored in the parking area on the left side of the island. Considering that the parking area of the 1143.5 aircraft carrier is very small, with two aircraft in the front parking area and three in the rear parking area, it is impossible to stop a few fighters. Perhaps the Soviet Union's idea is to use carrier-based aircraft lifts to make a living.
However, the ammunition elevator is located directly in front of the hangar, that is to say, subsequent models of 1143.5 type cannot extend the hangar forward, which further limits the modification potential of the aircraft carrier.
However, the ammunition elevators that are all concentrated in the front are not useless. This type of elevator layout is very suitable for the maximum recovery state of the aircraft carrier. The carrier-based aircraft are all parked at the front of the deck and the elevators are concentrated. The front part can recover ammunition very quickly, minimizing the probability of ammunition exploding, but the bright spot is nothing more.
This can only mean that Lao Maozi’s airborne cruiser has unsightly performance when it has granite. Without granite, its performance is nothing but indescribable, so there is a library. The question of whether the performance of Znetsov and Charles de Gaulle is superior or inferior, if Kuznetsov’s design is a little more reasonable, instead of pursuing the aspect ratio so much, it will be able to exert the combat effectiveness of the 60,000-ton aircraft carrier. Maybe Kuznets Zoff's evaluation will be much better.
Summary
The ammunition elevator is an existence that is easily overlooked, but the ammunition elevator has a significant impact on the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier. Several elevators with stupid designs can significantly reduce the aircraft carrier’s movement rate. Affecting the performance of aircraft carriers, the design standard of ammunition elevators is very simple, that is, close to the parking area and avoid the front of the depot.
Maybe two consecutive ski jump aircraft carriers are positioned as training ships and transition ships. This is the reason, because an aircraft carrier with a low dispatch rate does not meet the needs of a major navy. This world , 100,000 tons of justice is the most powerful iron fist of justice!
