Tag Archives: LHD Anadolu

Budget Flattops of Opportunity: Entering the Age of the Drone Carrier

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While China, the U.S., France, Britain and India are collectively spending billions in treasure and decades of time to develop modern supercarriers to deliver wings of advanced combat aircraft across any coastline in the world, countries with a more modest budget are going a different route.

Rather than a 40,000+ ton vessel with a crew of 1K plus in its smallest format, simpler flattops filled with UAVs are now leaving the drawing board and taking to the water.

Turkey

As previously reported, Turkey, which had built a 25,000-ton/762-foot variant of the Spanish LHA Juan Carlos I with the intention of using a dozen F-35Bs from her deck, kicking the country out of the F-35 program left it with a spare carrier and no aircraft. They have fixed that by planning to embark now Navy-operated AH-1 Cobra gunships and as many as 40 domestically-produced Bayraktar TB3s drones on deck with the promise of at least that many stowed below.

Thailand

The Royal Thai Navy took the Spanish Navy’s Príncipe de Asturias Harrier carrier design of the 1980s (which in itself was based on the old U.S. Navy’s Sea Control Ship project of the 1970s) and built the ski-jump equipped 11,500-ton HTMS Chakri Naruebet some 25 years ago.

Royal Thai Navy AV-8S Matador VSTOL fighters on HTMS Chakri Naruebet (CVH-911) harrier carrier, a capability they had from 1997-2006. 

Originally fielding a tiny force of surplus ex-Spanish AV-8S Matadors which were withdrawn from service in 2006, she has been largely relegated to use as a royal yacht and sometime LPH, reportedly only getting to sea about 12 days a year.

However, since at least last November, the Royal Thai Navy has been testing a series of drones including the locally-produced MARCUS-B (Maritime Aerial Reconnaissance Craft Unmanned System-B) Vertical Take-Off and Landing UAV from the carrier and started taking delivery of RQ-21A Blackjack drones from the U.S. in May.

Portugal

As detailed by Naval News, the Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa) unveiled details on a new drone mothership project dubbed “plataforma naval multifuncional” (multifunctional naval platform). Initial brainstorming shows an LPH-style vessel that could hit the 10,000-ton range.

The mothership is shown with two notional fixed-wing UAVs on deck (they look like MQ-1C Grey Eagle but the new MQ-9B STOL may be a better fit) as well as 6 quad-copter UAVs and one NH90 helicopter. The design seems to lack an aviation hangar. Below decks is a modular area to launch and recover AUV, UUV and USV. Portuguese Navy image.

The fixed-wing UAVs are launched via a ski jump. Portuguese Navy image.

Iran

Last week, the Iranians showed off their new “Drone-Carrier Division” in the Indian Ocean including a Kilo-class submarine Tareq (901), auxiliary ship Delvar (471), and landing ship Lavan (514). Iranian state TV claimed one unnamed vessel currently carries at least 50 drones, which isn’t unbelievable.

As noted by Janes: 

Most were launched from rails using rocket boosters, including what appeared to be Ababil-2 and Arash types, which can be used to conduct one-way attacks. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) television news coverage of the event showed a floating target and a target on land being hit by UAVs.

The one launched from the submarine appeared to be a new, smaller type, roughly similar in size and configuration to the Warmate loitering munition made by Poland’s WB Group.

A UAV that appeared to be an Ababil-3 – a reusable surveillance type with wheeled undercarriage – was shown taking off from Lavan from a rail. The UAV may have been fitted with a parachute and a flotation device so it can be recovered from the sea, although this was not shown.

Welcome to 2022.

Enter the Drone Carrier

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Check out this depiction of Turkey’s prospective Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD), Anadolu, that showed up in a video this week.

The 25,000-ton/762-foot variant of the Spanish LHA Juan Carlos I, it had been thought that Anadolu would carry up to a dozen F-35Bs. However, as Turkey was exiled from the F-35 program, it is now thought she will be completed later this year with domestically-produced UCAVs such as the Bayraktar TB-3, an aircraft roughly equivalent to a late model General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.

If the Bayraktar sounds familiar, in 2020 Azerbaijan used a few dozen less advanced TB-2 variants of the UCAV to destroy Armenian artillery, infantry positions, and military vehicles including BM-30 Smerch MLRS, T-72s tanks, BMP-1 and BMP-2 IFVs, along with Osa and Strela-10 air defense systems wholesale.

The Bayraktar TB2, with a max takeoff weight of just 1,400-pounds, isn’t fast, pedaling around at just 120 knots, roughly the same speed as a Great War biplane. However, it can carry four laser-guided smart munitions, each capable of zapping a tank, and remain aloft for half a day. The TB3 is twice as big, has folding wings because it is a carrier aircraft, and double the endurance/payload. (Photo via wiki commons)

As the depiction shows Anadolu with upwards of 40 TB3s on deck with the promise of at least that many stowed below, it could point to a very interesting future for naval aviation.

There is no reason something like this couldn’t be done with, say, a surplus converted “roofed over” supertanker or Ro-Ro that has lots of dead space available to soak up hits from enemy weapons and only needs a tiny crew of mariners to sail the ship. Add the UAV technicians with the possibility that the pilots could even be remotely linked safely ashore somewhere, and the whole thing becomes very attractive with a light investment in treasure and souls. 

Can you say CVE + UAV?