The Sea Control Ship (SCS) was a small

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

developed and conceptualized by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

under

Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an Admiral (United States), admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the United States Secretary ...

Elmo Zumwalt during the 1970s. Currently the term refers to naval vessels that can perform similar duties.Sea Control Ship
– GlobalSecurity.org The SCS was intended as an escort vessel, providing air support for convoys. It was canceled after budgetary cuts to the US Navy. The SCS was to be equipped with a mix of Rockwell XFV-12

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

and

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s. It was tasked with carrying out anti-submarine warfare operations.

Concept

In the late 1960s, studies by US Navy identified a potential requirement for large scale convoy operations in the event of a war with the Soviet Union. In order to compensate for a shortage of escort ships, it was suggested that helicopters operating from small helicopter carriers could fill the gap. When Elmo Zumwalt became

in 1970, he seized on the idea of small helicopter carriers as part of his "High-Low" plan in which large numbers of cheaper lower capability ships would be built to supplement existing expensive high capability ships. The proposed small carrier, which was named the Sea Control Ship (SCS), was required to provide continuous airborne cover of two anti-submarine and one airborne early warning helicopters, as well as carrying VSTOL fighters to stop Soviet long-range aircraft (like the Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear") from shadowing convoys and directing submarines and surface ships against them. This resulted in a requirement to carry 14 helicopters and three VSTOL fighters such as the AV-8 Harrier. It was hoped that production SCSs could be built for $100 million each, an eighth of the price of a full sized aircraft carrier.Gardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 575.Friedman 1985, p. 352. The resultant design had a full load displacement of and an overall length of . It was to be powered by two General Electric LM2500 gas turbines generating and driving a single shaft, which would propel the ship to a speed of . Weaponry was to be limited, consisting of two Phalanx Close-in weapon systems to defend against anti-ship missiles.

Experimental Sea Control Ship

In 1971 was chosen as a test vessel. Testing began on 18 January 1972. In 1974 she was deployed to the Atlantic Ocean. The vessel was equipped with AV-8A Harrier

STOVL A short take-off and vertical landing aircraft (STOVL aircraft) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is able to take off from a short runway (or take off vertically if it does not have a heavy payload) and land vertically (i.e. with no runway). The ...

fighters and

SH-3 Sea King The Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King (company designation S-61) is an American twin-engine anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter designed and built by Sikorsky Aircraft. A landmark design, it was one of the first ASW rotorcraft to use turboshaft engine ...

ASW helicopters. The tests were completed in July 1974; USS ''Guam'' resumed its role as an

amphibious assault ship An amphibious assault ship is a type of warship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory during an armed conflict. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers (which, as a result, ar ...

Related ships

The SCSs were smaller than most fleet aircraft carriers, and the concept was adopted by two countries wanting inexpensive aircraft carriers. Spain's , and her smaller cousin ship, Thailand's , were based on the final US Navy blueprints for a dedicated sea control ship, but with the addition of a ski-jump ramp and follow a similar mission profile.

References

Notes

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External links

Sea Control Ship
– GlobalSecurity.org Ship types Amphibious warfare vessels Cold War aircraft carriers of the United States Proposed aircraft carriers Cancelled ships of the United States Navy Aircraft carriers of the United States Navy