DESIGN for LIFE

摘要

Aircraft carriers are recognised as more than mere warships. They are political instruments and highly visible symbols of diplomatic posture and military resolve that allow freedom of action and negate the need for host nation support. As naval analyst and historian Dr Norman Friedman notes: "The aircraft carrier provides an insurance in a world where surprise tends to be the rule rather than the exception." Of course, in addition to being potent tools of military power, large carriers are also enormously complex engineering endeavours that must integrate and resolve disparate require- -ments for propulsion, power distribution, seakeeping, stability, survivability, aircraft operation and support, weapons handling, command and control, air traffic manage- ment, complementing, habitability and in-service support. All this must be achieved within tightly defined cost and programme bounds, which themselves place significant demands on the capability, capacity and ingenuity of the shipbuilding enterprise and a wider supply chain.