Lehendakari Aguirre Class

The Lehendakari Aguirre Class aircraft carrier is the first aircraft carrier class in service under Euskadi flag and the only "supercarrier" in service. She is the former US Navy Kitty Hawk class USS America.

Design
Once the Extend Life Program was aproved, technicians began working on the redesign of the ship.

The guidelines were as follows:


 * Reforming and strengthening of the hull


 * Changes in the flight deck to accommodate the new aircraft and new automated systems


 * Installing a new power plant more modern and efficient, adapted to the new requirements of power


 * A completely new installation of all the ship's electronic systems


 * Upgrading weapons systems

Hull
New hull modifications include a new propeller design, a new bulbous bow design that provides more buoyancy to the forward end of the ship and improves hull efficiency, curved flight deck edges to reduce radar signature, a new underwater hull-coating system, deck covering modernized to reduce ship weight by 100 tons, low Solar Absorptive and Anti-Stain Paint, and a redesigned hangar bay that has less clutter.

Flight deck
Changes to the flight deck are the most visible of the differences between the Kitty Hawk and Lehendakari Aguirre classes. Several sections have been altered from the layout of the Kitty Hawk class flight deck to improve aircraft handling, storage, and flow. Lehendakari Aguirre Class have no catapult-specific restrictions on launching aircraft, but still retains 4 catapults, 2 bow and 2 waist and the number of aircraft lifts from hangar deck to flight deck level is reduced from 4 to 3. The design changes to the flight deck are instrumental in the maximization of sortie generation.

The route of weapons to the aircraft stops on the flight deck has been replanned to accommodate higher re-arming rates, and in turn higher potential sortie rates.

Another major change is the creation of a deck space for a centralized re-arming and re-fueling location. This reduces the number of times that an aircraft will have to be moved after landing before it can be launched again. Fewer aircraft movements require, in turn, fewer deck hands to accomplish them, reducing the size of the ship's crew. On Lehendakari Aguirre Class carriers the time that it takes to launch a plane after it has landed is defined by the time necessary to re-arm and re-fuel. To minimize this time, ordnance will be moved by robotic devices from storage areas to the centralized re-arming location via re-located weapons elevators. The new path that ordnance follows does not cross any areas of aircraft movement, thereby reducing traffic problems in the hangars and on the flight deck. The launching system has been completly redefined and the old steam catapults habe been replaced by Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) developed by General Atomics for the Everetty Gerald R. Ford-class aircraftcarriers. This system allows to launch aircraft from carriers using a linear motor drive instead of steam pistons used in conventional aircraft catapults. This technology reduces stress on airframes because they can be accelerated more gradually to takeoff speed than steam-powered catapults. EMALS also uses less fresh water, reducing the need for energy-intensive desalination.

Power generation & propulsion
The power plant of the ship has been completely redesigned to suit the needs and requirements of the RUN and the new systems and elements of the ship. IEIA chose to equip the ship with a clean fuel cell propulsion system developed by the company NAtech.

The power plant of the ship was designed taking into account the current needs of energy for propulsion and other systems on board, so it was possible to assume an increase in power required if new equipment or systems were installed in the future.

For the propulsion of the ship NAtech has developed a solution combining 4 NAtech Statpower System power plants of 40 MW each with 8 NAsoft ST energy servers with 8MW power each. Aditional NAsoft ST energy servers provide the electricity needed for the ship military and support systems.

The propulsion system is fully electrical with four AZIPOD s (ABB azimut thrusters) mounted externally to the main hull. The electricity for the motors is supplied by the power system. The diagram below shows the propulsion architecture.



Electronic systems
One of the main design premises was the need to mount common electronic systems in order to full integration with other Armed Forces systems and satellite net.

Sensors


 * 1 x Saab 9LV CMS Combat Management System
 * 1 x TERMA ATM Air Traffic Management


 * 1 x Saab 9lv FCS Fire Control System


 * 2 x Saab EOS 500 Weapons Control Radar


 * 2 x TERMA SCANTER 6000 Surveillance Radar


 * 1 x Saab Hull Inspector Sensor


 * 1 x Saab DD90 Diver Detection System

Electronic warfare


 * 1 x Saab SME-200 Tactical EMS / ELINT
 * 1 x Saab NLWS Naval Laser Warning System

Decoys


 * 2 x TERMA DL-12T decoy launcher
 * 2 x TERMA Loki torpedo countermeasure

Armament
The Lehendakari Aguirre Class uses three main weapon systems.The weapons system of the ships are:
 * 2 x 8 cell Ezpata Vertical Missile Launchers
 * 2 x Long Range Acoustic Device
 * 4 x Phalanx_CIWS

Air wing
The ship are able to carry more than 70 aircrafts. The 2010 Typical Aircraft wing is formed by:
 * 40 x JAS39 Sea Gripen
 * 2 x C-2 Greyhound
 * 2 x Saab 2000 AEW&C
 * 2 x Sea King HAR4 Search and Rescue
 * 6 x AS532 Cougar ASUW / ASW
 * 12 UAVs

List of ships
The ships are named after old norse goddesses Frigg and Freyja.