by
Sam Roggeveen
18 January 2008
If you thought the Australian aircraft carrier debate died with the scrapping of HMAS Melbourne in 1982, you haven't seen the design for the Navy's recently-ordered amphibious ships. That ramp you see at the front of the flight-deck is known as a 'ski-jump', and is designed for the sole purpose of launching short-take off jets like the Harrier or the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. At present, there are no plans to operate any aircraft other than helicopters from these 230 metre-long ships. But it was considered too expensive to remove the ramp from the ship design, which does leave an opening for the return of fixed-wing carrier aviation to the RAN. Those opposed to such a move might try to win the argument through reason and deduction and logic. If that fails, they could try mockery: