It is hard to imagine how naval warfare would be conducted had it not been for the inspiration of the British Admiral John Fisher, who saw in 1909 how a string of islands distributed over the vast Pacific Ocean could be turned into aircraft carriers.
The advantages of using aircraft carriers over traditional naval warfare are obvious: instead of sending ships close enough to battle each other and risk being sunk by enemy fire, you can keep them at a safe distance from each other. Aircraft could then fly out and attack enemy vessels with little danger to themselves or your own ships. The same cannot be said about land bases; any country that establishes an airfield on land will have made itself vulnerable to attacks by other nations’ planes as well as ground troops and artillery units positioned nearby (unless they have some sort of agreement).
A year later, in 1910, he obtained the support of King Edward VII and by 1914 the Royal Navy already had three operational aircraft carriers.
The first aircraft carrier was the HMS Hermes, which was converted into an aircraft carrier in 1913. The plane employed on this ship were Fairey IIID seaplanes. The first ship designed from the start as an aircraft carrier was HMS Ark Royal, which entered service in 1914. This vessel had a deck that extended over most of its length, with a single tall funnel located near amidships where most of the machinery and crew spaces were located. Later on, by 1918 when World War I ended, both Great Britain and Japan had built several warships that could carry up to 24 aircraft each; these included HMS Argus (a converted merchant ship) and Akagi (a battlecruiser).
Fisher’s idea was that naval forces used to be deployed in small groups in order to observe enemy movements, but radar observation had become much easier, so it was no longer necessary for ships to remain near each other for mutual protection.
Early aircraft carriers, like the HMS Argus, were too small to carry more than a few planes at a time. As jet propulsion technology advanced and aircraft became more capable, however, the size of naval aircraft carriers grew to accommodate them.
Aircraft carriers are used in naval warfare as mobile bases for planes and helicopters that can conduct reconnaissance over long distances and launch bombing raids on enemy positions. They are also equipped with defensive weaponry to protect themselves from attack by submarines or surface ships.
The result was that smaller elements could cover a larger area at a lower cost. It is a lot cheaper to build a small ship than a large ship, it is easier to train a smaller crew, easier to maintain one, easier to maneuver one and there are logistical advantages as well. The aircraft carrier has been called “the most valuable single piece of machinery ever built by man” because it allowed naval forces to project power anywhere on earth at will. This led Fisher to suggest that instead of adding any other type of vessel to naval fleets (such as fleet airships or submarines), what should be added were aircraft carriers for reconnaissance purposes.
Fisher’s idea of using aircraft carriers for reconnaissance and bombing missions was not a new one. The concept had been around since World War I, and by the 1930s, several countries were experimenting with it. However, that did not stop Fisher from proposing his own radical approach to naval warfare. In 1919 he suggested that instead of adding any other type of vessel to naval fleets (such as fleet airships or submarines), what should be added were aircraft carriers for reconnaissance purposes. He argued that these would be more useful than other options because they could move from place to place quickly when needed.
The aircraft would have been small and light enough to be launched and landed on a ship. They would also have been cheap enough to be expendable weapons, in case they were shot down during the battle. Finally, these aircraft could have been used for observation purposes or bombing runs against the enemy
Without Fisher’s insight, we would probably still see large ships closely maneuvering and firing off broadsides against each other.
El Dorado Canyon taught the Pentagon that Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, could strike at a distant target with pinpoint accuracy. The operation was an important milestone in the evolution of carrier-based airpower and the ever-tightening cooperation between the Navy and the Air Force. Though nearly forgotten, it remains one of the most strategically significant air attacks since World War II.
Today, aircraft carriers are truly the “capital ships” of the modern era, a feat made possible through the lessons learned through operation El Dorado and other operations. They have become virtually irreplaceable on the modern battlefield and will remain so for years to come. The future is bright for carrier systems, and it is hard to imagine a major conflict where they don’t play an integral role.
