How thick is the aircraft carrier deck?

How thick is the aircraft carrier deck?

The deck thickness of an aircraft carrier is generally between 50 and 60 mm, and the material belongs to special steel, which generally needs to meet the following requirements:

1, the impact of carrier-based aircraft landing on the aircraft carrier is very great, almost on the deck. It is required that the steel plate with a thickness of 50-60 mm and the frame structure strength of the whole flight deck can withstand the impact and wear of the deck when the carrier aircraft lands on the ship, and it must not be deformed for a long time, and the whole deck structure should not be too heavy, otherwise the center of gravity of the whole aircraft carrier will be high, which will affect the stability and maneuverability.

2. Because planes that take off and land vertically, such as F35B fighter jets and AV-8B harrier fighters, are sometimes recovered from aircraft carriers, the temperature of the air ejected from the nozzle during vertical take-off and landing is relatively high. Therefore, aircraft carrier deck steel must also have certain high temperature resistance. As for the fighters that take off by ejection, such as FA- 18 Bumblebee fighter, it is necessary to have a special deflector to deflect the high-temperature gas ejected from its tail nozzle during take-off, which requires better high-temperature resistant materials.

3. Of course, the corrosion resistance of the steel on the deck of the aircraft carrier should also be taken into account because it travels at sea all the year round. Due to the strong armor-piercing ability of anti-ship missiles, the deck area of aircraft carrier is too large, so it is impossible to give consideration to bulletproof ability. Aircraft carriers can only protect some key parts with armor. For example, in the periphery of power cabin and ammunition depot, the thickness of steel plate is generally above 300 mm, and other underwater parts are generally above150 mm.

As for the large area of water, the thickness of steel plate can only be above 20 mm, so it is unrealistic to increase the armor thickness blindly in the face of the super armor-piercing ability of anti-ship missiles. Therefore, it is a wise choice to design the deck of carrier-based aircraft just to be competent for the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft and cooperate with other carrier-based aircraft for defense.