combatreform.org/seaplanefighters.htm

1. Non-Aircraft Carrier Seaplane Defense of Surface Ships
SC-1 SeaHawk
Contrary to popular mythology, aircraft carriers are not the only or
easiest/safest way to operate aircraft at sea. The best way and the first
way to get aircraft at sea was by having them able to land in the water
by boat shapes or floats. During WW1 and WW2 seaplanes were
catapulted off battleships and cruisers to scout for enemy ships, subs
and to radio in gunfire corrections…as well as their own seaplane tenders
they found the enemy, destroyed him and rescued our own men in the
water...

2. Every U.S. Navy cruiser and battleship had 2-4 x seaplanes
to provide its own “mini-air cover” even if no aircraft carrier
was assigned to their battle grouping; there were not enough
carriers even during the mass-produced WW2 era...
2 x ASW depth
charges

3. U.S. Navy battleships had their floatplanes launched from
the stern; cruisers amidships from catapult launcher rails
floatplanes

4. U.S. Navy Admiral Hart even launched a strike with all his cruiser’s
seaplanes in 1934, before WW2; the Japanese actually did this many
times from seaplane tenders, submarines and were ready to strike the
Panama canal from special I-400 class submarines using Aichi Seran
seaplane fighter-bombers that could fit inside watertight containers but
WW2 ended...
“He had been offered a battleship division, but preferred the possibilities of independent
operations inherent in a cruiser command. He showed his talents: in Fleet Problem XVI, he
probably executed the only air strike ever launched from cruisers when twelve of his
floatplanes were sent to ‘bomb’ the U.S. facilities and seaplane bases on Midway.”
www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tchart.htm

5. U.S. Navy cruiser and battleships would recover their sea
planes by them landing alongside and pulling onto a “landing
mat” where they were then pulled closer and craned aboard

6. After WW2, the “aircraft carrier mafia” stabbed all other organizational
rivals in the back; the first was getting rid of the superb 300 mph SC-1
SeaHawk fighter seaplane from all U.S. Navy cruisers and battleships in
favor of slow and short-range helicopters…as time has passed we now
have our heavily armored battleships in mothballs and all our light
surface ships are vulnerable to ANY kind of attack and MUST HAVE
aircraft carriers for aircraft to fly ahead to provide early warning and to
SPOIL air attacks. Anti-Ship Missiles (ASMs) by the hundreds and even
thousands will overwhelm any Aegis missile defense and only 1 “leaker”
hitting an aircraft carrier will turn it into a flaming inferno….
USS Forrestal fire
www.chinfo.navy.mil

7. Fixed-wing SeaHawk
313 mph, 1, 000+ mile range
Can shoot enemy aircraft down
Can land on water to do CSAR/SOF
Lands to dip sonar
Easy-to-maintain
Gets wet needs constant cleaning
Cannot carry SEAL team but other seaplanes
can
Rotary-wing SeaHawk
150 mph, 380 mile range
No air-to-air capability
Can’t land on water to do CSAR/SOF
Hard-to-maintain
Stays dry but is mechanically complex
Hovers to dip sonar
Can carry SEAL team

8. The U.S. Navy’s 11 super-large aircraft carriers are so expensive to
operate entire classes of aircraft have been retired, making them
fatally vulnerable to enemy ASM, and submarine attacks; F-18 trying
to do everything is the new under-powered, overweight Brewster
Buffalo...
CONSEQUENCE
NO LONG-RANGE
BVR ANTI-AIR
NO EFFICIENT
AIR REFUELING
NO LONG-RANGE ANTI-SUB

9. What can we do to get more aircraft to protect the
U.S. Navy and embarked marines?
* Recall all our Iowa class battleships and equip them with
ski jump flight decks; create container ship carriers
* Outfit deck extensions so more F-18s can be stored on
top of the flight deck; field A-10 “SeaHogs” to do ASW/Tanking
AAW w/AMRAAMs
* Equip all aircraft with ski-floats so if they have to crash in
the water we can at least salvage something from them

10. Fighter planes gulp fuel and need external
Fuel tanks for range to get missions done.
Why not use left/right tanks as means to
Land on water in emergency if aircraft
Carrier is sunk or engine dies on take-off?
F-18 with
Multiple large
Fuel tanks

11. When the plane must land in water,
Pantobase skis Extend to enable a water
Landing so aircraft will not be a total loss
And can be recovered for re-use…skis
Pop-out upon ejection or pilot activation
Pantobase skis
On YC-123

12. Air Bags immediately inflate above
skis so when plane comes to a stop,
it will float for recovery…

13. Air Bags for large helicopters already exist!
www.aircruisers.com/helifloats.html
aircruisers have floats for a uh60
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/uh-60.htm
Weight Empty 11,516 Lbs
Mission gross weight - 17,432 Lbs
Maximum gross weight - 22,000 Lbs
Weight Maximum Gross: 13,000 kg
Normal Takeoff: 11,100 kg
Maximum gross weight (ferry) - 24,500 Lbs
AND MI17S that will float 25k
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/mi-17.htm

14. Both the F-18 and F-35C operate or will operate from aircraft
Carriers using catapults to launch and tail-hooks to grab
Arrestor wires to land. Both are extremely expensive $85M
Aircraft---we only build handfuls---and aircraft being lost at
Sea is common—but, if we can recover these planes by fuel
Tank ski-floats just for salvage we’d save $millions and in
time of war could get planes back into combat in time to
Win the war…
F-35C
F-18

15. Many WW2 planes could
float: facilitating air crew
Rescue, recovery &
Re-use of aircraft at least
For parts….
Zero
Helldiver

16. Japanese Float Planes
were very successful in
WW2 enabling air ops
Without need of aircraft
Carriers or runways…
Lagoons
Rufe
Land
Seaplane
tenders (24)

17. What was amazing is that even with floats, the Zero’s flight
Performance was only slightly impaired…many Allied planes
Were shot down by the Jap float planes….
One floatplane pilot was an ace with 26 kills: only a handful
Of American pilots did better than him in WW2
http://users.accesscomm.ca/magnusfamily/ww2jap.htm
Hidenori Matsunaga 934 Ku; floatplane pilot, many shares and probables included;
Source: Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 22, Henry
Sakaida, Osprey Pub.

18. The final Japanese floatplane design, code-named the Rex
Was capable of 304 mph, was heavily armed and armored!
The Aichi Seiran floatplane could
be wings/tail detached to fit in
watertight containers on large
Japanese submarines!

19. With fuel tank ski-floats, F-18 and F-35C flight performance
Would not be lessened any more than the fuel tanks they
Use now…however today’s naval combat arena has it
Highly likely that these aircraft could take-off on a mission
And return to have no aircraft carrier to land on! How will
We protect all the other surface ships with air cover if we
Don’t have any aircraft carriers?
We lost MANY aircraft
Carriers in WW2 (11); the
Threat today with missiles
Submarines, mines is far
Greater than WW2; we only have
www.world-war-2.info/statistics/ 11 aircraft carriers today…

20. We’ve been in this mess before…the battleships HMS
Repulse and Prince of Wales in WW2 had no aircraft carrier
For air cover and were attacked by twin-engined Japanese
Nell & Betty Bombers; notoriously unarmored, full of fuel
and easy to Shoot down; Admiral Yamamoto was
assassinated in a Betty by P-38s…yet no fighters were there
to stop them…
Betties burned
easily--IF--you
could hit them

21. Out of 79 torpedoes launched, 11 hit the Repulse and Prince
Of Wales, sinking both battleships with large loss of life.
Winston Churchill said these
Losses were the worst of all
WW2. Yet…Had the Repulse/POW
had Seaplane fighters comparable
To the Jap Rufe, its highly likely
They would have SPOILED the
attack shooting down many of the
Nells/Betties so the 11 torpedoes
would not have struck….
Kate dropping
Torpedo to sink
USS Hornet
Today add
Anti-ship Missiles

22. Earlier in the war, had the German Battleship Bismark’s
AR-196 floatplane shot down the RAF Catalina flying boat
That found her, she would not have been sunk. The WW2
U.S. Navy had some folks with common-sense so we wised
Up and got Curtis SeaHawk floatplane fighters for our
Ships which could do 313 mph as well as carry a wounded
Man in a litter or an observer in a back jump seat.
Curtis SeaHawk
floatplane fighters

23. How will we get enough fighter aircraft from surface ships
Without aircraft carriers to get effective air cover since they
Don’t have catapults like our WW2 ships did?
OPTIONS
1. Deploy STOVL AV-8B Harriers/F-35Bs onto Arleigh Burke
and Ticonderoga class destroyers/cruisers at the FANTAIL
or AMIDSHIPS
2. Deploy STOVL AV-8B Harriers/F-35Bs onto FIGHTER
BARGES/DECK EXTENSIONS
3. Purchase a SEAPLANE fighter
4. Purchase some sort of Unmanned Air Vehicle

24. Deploy STOVL AV-8B Harriers/F-35Bs onto Arleigh Burke
and Ticonderoga class destroyers/cruisers at the:
FANTAIL
2 x SH-60s
1 x AV-8B or F-35B
on landing pad
with all-weather
cover; even with
folding wings can’t
fit into small
hangers

25. FANTAIL Spin-Off 1: Opening Landing Pad over VLS Cells
Pad extended for AV-8B or F-35B ops; opened to fire
VLS missiles; maybe 2 x AV-8B/F-35Bs per destroyer
#2
#1

26. FANTAIL Spin-Off 2: SkyHook crane VLS Cells
1-2 x AV-8B or F-35Bs hover and hooked by crane and
lowered onto a shelf/secured exploiting unused space by VLS
#2 See next slide
Landing Pad Extensions
#1
#3

27. Blast curtains would surround the VLS Cells to shield
F-35Bs parked to the left and right on the landing pad
extensions...
Missiles fired from VLS cells

28. AMIDSHIPS
Use a SkyHook crane to retrieve an AV-8B/F-35B on port
and starboard side between exhaust stacks, lowering onto
catapult or JATO rail like WW2 cruisers/BBs merchants had
Hurricat

29. Space inside for F-35B if wings fold or
Ticonderoga class cruisers two SH-60s
F-35B could sit on
pad for storage ‘til needed
Could easily embark 2 x SH-60s and 1-2 x F-35Bs

30. Skyhook crane amidships could recover a F-35B that launched
from a short rail amidships

31. Towing Fighter Barges.

32. Fighter Barge Roll-out tarp covers
F-35B after landing
All JP8 fuel
And armament
In barge
Ship turns into
Wind for VTOL
Quick-Disconnect
Triangular tow-bar Covered tube for aircrew
and maintainers to walk
Any surface ship

33. Flight
Deck
Extension
and Wake
Signature
Stealth
Device
(FDE-
WSSD)
Enables a VTOL aircraft or a seaplane or two
to be carried in addition to aircraft using hull
space; calms down and smooths out water
from props using baffles and brushes,
perhaps jettison-able in emergency...

34. F-35B STOVL fighters can take-off and land vertically from
Fighter barges/decks if they carry just light air-to-air armaments.
What surface attack armaments can be carried and still
Take-off vertically will have to be determined by use. If
Each ship in a surface battle group towed a fighter barge we’d
have plenty of air cover…even if all our carriers get sunk...

35. With 2-3 x F-35Bs per destroyer/cruiser, we could easily
self-defend against air and Surface ship attacks…
2 per…
2 x surface ships = 4 x F-35Bs
4 x surface ships = 8 x F-35Bs
8 x surface ships = 16 x F-35Bs
16 x surface ships = 32 x F-35Bs
3 per…
2 x surface ships = 6 x F-35Bs
4 x surface ships = 12 x F-35Bs
8 x surface ships = 24 x F-35Bs
16 x surface ships = 48 x F-35Bs
We will have a dispersed aircraft defense force not
Dependant upon aircraft carriers. If F-35Bs cannot land on
Fantail/Cranes/Barges they can go to land bases or land on
water with Fuel tank ski-floats.

36. 3. Purchase SEAPLANE fighters
Floats can be fitted to turboprop crop dusters to be defacto “SeaHawks” will
need catapult rails/cranes on surface ships and relearning the art of
launch/recovery…Centaur can even fit into a watertight container on submarine
FireBoss
Centaur

37. 4. Purchase some sort of Unmanned Air Vehicle
The “smallest” UCAV that can fire missiles is a Predator; it ISN’T small
and will have the same recovery problems as a large seaplane fighter
except without help of an on-board pilot. The 21 inch torpedo or 24” VLS
tube doesn’t offer much space for an UAV with any armament...
Predator
Triple 21 inch You want to fit
torpedo THIS into THAT?
launcher

38. 24” Diameter Mark 41 Vertical Launch System tube
Even IF an UCAV could be made to fit and launch from 21 or 24 inch
tubes, UAVs in general have a 50% crash rate and will destroy themselves
during routine training/use. They lack a human inside fighting to return to
the ship intact and cannot actively engage to spoil enemy attacks as a
manned fighter can.

39. Where do we start? How about the unused USS Ticonderoga?
Use as a test bed to perfect seaplane fighter concepts, then field
on our cruisers and destroyers ASAP...

40. Naval aviation began with an aircraft landing on a converted
battleship test bed! We can do this!
LT Eugene Ely lands on USS Pennsylvania in 1911

41. We need non-aircraft carrier fighters to prevent this!

42. ANY QUESTIONS?
Maneuver Air Support Working Group
2006
Mike Sparks
Assistant Director
dynmicpara@aol.com