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The more carrier tonnage allocated to guns and armor for protection, the less was available for carrying and launching aircraft, the warship's principal weapon. Combatant nations of World War II placed varying emphasis on these factors depending upon conditions in their principal operating theater, their preferred operating tactics, and their ...
More aircraft carriers were approved and built, including Ranger, the first class of aircraft carriers in the United States Navy designed and built as aircraft carriers from the keel. The United States declared war on Japan following the attack of December 7, 1941, on Pearl Harbor. The two nations revolutionized naval warfare in the course of ...
Aircraft carriers of World War II by country Aircraft carriers serve as a seagoing airbases, equipped with a flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying and recovering aircraft. [ 1 ] Typically, they are the capital ships of a fleet, as they project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for operational support.
In addition, RN carriers such as Ark Royal or Illustrious had far heavier anti-aircraft (AA) outfits than their USN counterparts, up to the introduction of the USN Essex-class carriers. Ark Royal , in 1940, carried 16 x 4.5-inch guns , 32 x 40mm "Pom-pom" and 32 x 0.5 inch 0.5 inch Vickers machine guns against 8 x 5-inch, 16 x 28 mm and 24 x .5 ...
The Nimitz class is a class of ten nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service with the United States Navy.The lead ship of the class is named after World War II United States Pacific Fleet commander Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who was the last living U.S. Navy officer to hold the rank.
As World War II loomed, two more classes of carriers were commissioned under President Franklin Roosevelt: the Essex class, which is informally divided into regular bow and extended bow sub-classes, and the Independence-class ships, which are classified as light aircraft carriers. [3]
Many RN and USN carrier aircraft used this technology, but it involved adding weight, and the IJN was reluctant to sacrifice range and maneuverability for improved survivability. Protective armor. Like self-sealing fuel tanks, protective armor for the aircrew improved survivability at the cost of performance.
The additional weight of the armor, however, reduced their typical carrying capability to 35 to 55 aircraft. Thus their additional defensive measures limited their offensive striking power until Britain introduced a new carrier class late in the war.