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Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, typically those displacing over 70,000 tons (64,000 metric tons).〔David Miller and Lindsay Peacock, ''Carriers: The Men and the Machines'' (London and New York: Salamander, 1991), p. 7: "There are four main types of carrier in service today. Largest of these are the super-carriers displacing over 70,000 tons; the U.S. Navy currently has fourteen, the Soviet Navy one."〕 Supercarriers are the largest warships ever built, larger than the largest battleship class laid down by any country. The United States Navy has ten supercarriers . while the United Kingdom has two, the s, one built, the and the second currently being built, entering service in 2018. Outside the US, there are more light carriers closer to 30,000 tons, such as Italy's . A few countries operate medium-sized fleet carriers of around 40,000 tons, such as the French aircraft carrier . ==History== The first ship to be described by ''The New York Times'' as a supercarrier was in 1938,〔 〕 with a length of and a displacement of 22,000 tons, designed to carry 72 aircraft. In 1943 the superlative was transferred to the 45,000-ton carriers as a step-up from the 27,000-ton . The , launched in 1944, was the first aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of over 65,000 metric tons. The post-war standard for supercarriers was set by the proposed and . ''Forrestal'' displaced 60,000 tons standard and 78,000 tons in deep load and is considered the first operational supercarrier in the present-day sense, as used by the US press. The similar-sized ''United States'' would have been in service earlier, had it been completed; its cancellation triggered the "Revolt of the Admirals". The Soviet Union's 85,000-ton nuclear carrier , closely comparable in size to earlier American supercarriers, was 40% complete when it and a follow-on vessel were canceled in 1991 during post-Cold War funding cuts. the United Kingdom has one 70,000-ton ''Queen Elizabeth''-class carrier being fitted out, and another under construction,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carrier )〕 and France had until 2013 been considering building one vessel based on the same design. These ships are referred to as supercarriers by British legislators and the news media.〔 〕〔 〕 The two ''Queen Elizabeth''-class carriers will provide the Royal Navy with capabilities much closer to United States Navy carriers than the vessels retired in 2014. Giving evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee in 2004, the First Sea Lord Alan West, Baron West of Spithead explained that interoperability with the United States Navy was as much a deciding factor of the size of the carriers as the firepower of the carrier's airwing: Future plans for supercarriers in the United States involve the construction of the U.S. Navy's next generation of carriers, the , which will have a 100,000-ton displacement. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「supercarrier」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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