EJM wrote:
Is it possible to make a stealth aircraft carrier? Or at least make as many features on a regular carrier as stealthy as possible? So many vehicles and systems in various militaries are being made more and more stealthy: UAV/UCAV, tanks, subs, frigates, patrol boats, etc., etc., etc.
But what could be done for a carrier, if anything? What features/items on a carrier would you change and how?
I'm planning to build a stealth CVX carrier model in the future and was curious to post this topic and get opinions.
I think it might be possible to make a very small CV stealthy providing that its air wing was limited to a squadron or two of drone aircraft along the lines of a UCAS.
Perhaps the hull might look like an enlarged version of "Sea Shadow (IX-529)" a SWATH, or catamaran hull with angled struts. It might be limited to two closely spaced catapults that would allow you to sequentially launch two aircraft in rapid succession (one at a time), reload and repeat.
I do not think that you could make the CV stealthy in terms of its acoustic signature though, and that is a real problem in dealing with SS/SSN/SSG/SSGNs.