War at Sea

Aircraft carriers are the epitome of naval strike power. They are large, powerful, and deadly weapons of war that evoke awe, respect, and fear in equal measure. Any naval power with aspirations for building a true-blue water capability centred around

Displacement: 8,000 tons full load Dimensions: 142.9m x 21.5m x 5.3m Propulsion: 2 x Wartsila diesel engines Speed: 20 knots Range: 7,000 nautical miles Armament: 1 x OTO Melera 76mm/62 SR Super Rapido, 2 x OTO Melera KBA 25mm/80 gun, 8-cell Sylver A

From this small modest start, the Royal Australian Navy quickly developed its experience with naval aviation by developing seaplane carriers such as HMAS Brisbane, HMAS Sydney and HMAS Australia throughout the First World War. Post war advocates of f

During the Second World War, the Brazilians, once again, played an active role in support of Allied forces scoring some notable successes such as the sinking of the German submarine U-199 off the coast of Rio de Janeiro with depth charges. It would t

So, it is not at all surprising that the PLAN leadership have, since the 1970s, planned for the eventual acquisition of an aircraft carrier capability within the Chinese fleet. It has been a long and sometimes arduous and occasionally highly secretiv

Displacement: 21,300 tonnes full load Dimensions: 200m x 32m x 6.3m Propulsion: 3 x Wartsilla 16V32 engines Speed: 18.8 knots Range: 5,800 nautical miles Armament: 4 x AN/TWQ-1 Avenger mobile surface to air missile system (32 FIM-92 US Stinger missil

Lieutenant Teste’s achievement was the culmination of a great deal of hard work and experimentation. Six years previously Rene Coudron, who would become a First World War ace conducted a series of experimental flights on May 8, 1914, when he took off

The incomplete hull of HMS Hercules was eventually purchased and following an extensive refit the ship was commissioned as INS Vikrant on March 4, 1961 in Belfast. As a light fleet carrier, she was able to carry a small complement of early fast jets,

In 1913, it was a seminal year for Italian Naval Aviation, when Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, Italian Navy Chief of Staff, established the Servizio Aeronautico della Regia Marina (the Navy Bureau of the Italian Aircraft) and, in the same year, the Av

During the siege of the German colony of Kiaochow and its capital Tsingtao, four Japanese naval Maurice Farman seaplanes flying from the Wakamiya Maru dropped bombs on German ships in the harbour becoming the first offensive strike mission conducted

The impetus to build air capable warships for the Russian Navy emerged in the early 1960s. With the fall of the Nikita Khrushchev’s Presidency, Leonard Brezhnev took the nation in a completely new direction and with it the future design and compositi

Displacement: 19,500 tons (full) Dimensions: 199m x 31m x 7m Propulsion: 4 x SEMT Pielstick 16 PC2.5 STC marine diesel engines Speed: 23 knots Boats: 2 LCAC Capacity: up to 200 vehicles (including tanks) and 720 marines Armament: 2 x Goalkeeper CIWS,

Modern Spanish Naval Aviation was created as recently as November 1954, but its history can be traced back to 1912, when alongside developments around the world Spanish innovators looked at the potential of aircraft as military weapons. In 1912, a ca

Displacement: 11,486 tons full load Dimensions: 182.65m x 30.5m x 6.12m Propulsion: 2 x General Electric LM2500 gas turbines + 2 Bazan MTU 16V1163 TB83 diesel engines Speed: 25.5 knots Range: 10,000 nautical miles Troops: up to 675 Armament: 2 x 0.5-

Displacement: 24,660 tons (light carrier configuration), 27,079 tons (LHD configuration) Dimensions: 232m x 32m x 6.9m Propulsion: 5 x 8,000 kW Man Diesel Generators, 2 x 11 MW Siemens SiPOD, 2 x 1,500 kW bow thruster Speed: 21 knots Range: 9,000 nau

In 1911, the Royal Navy watched on with curiosity as they saw Eugene Ely fly from the deck of an American cruiser, but it was the outbreak of the First World War that truly gave the British the impetus to develop a true integration between ships and

The first tentative steps towards a fully-fledged naval air force occurred in the waters off Hampton Roads in Virginia when Eugene Ely bravely launched himself off the bows of the cruiser USS Birmingham. The biplane rolled off the gently sloping temp