Aircraft carriers and spy satellites

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That's a nice historical photo from @HiddenHistoryYT. For clarification I think that's the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, which is maybe 30km from Seattle proper. The trip takes about an hour on a Washington State Ferry.

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That's a nice historical photo from @HiddenHistoryYT. For clarification I think that's the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, which is maybe 30km from Seattle proper. The trip takes about an hour on a Washington State Ferry.

I think that's Seattle Pier 92. I just checked on Googlemaps and Pier 91 is currently a cruise ship terminal. Shape of the terrain and the docks matches.

[sdsds]

I think that's Seattle Pier 92. I just checked on Googlemaps and Pier 91 is currently a cruise ship terminal. Shape of the terrain and the docks matches.

Ah, I stand corrected. That does indeed look like the bridge to Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood, clearly visible in the photo.

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I think that's Seattle Pier 92. I just checked on Googlemaps and Pier 91 is currently a cruise ship terminal. Shape of the terrain and the docks matches.

Ah, I stand corrected. That does indeed look like the bridge to Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood, clearly visible in the photo.

Bremerton is a good default assumption. When Harry and I started looking for carriers spotted by satellites during the Cold War, we started with Norfolk and Bremerton. Then we expanded to other places like San Francisco, Alameda, Long Beach, Boston and New York.

[edzieba]

They call them "helicopter destroyers," which evokes a certain amount of derision from people because they are not really destroyers. However, I read something awhile ago that this is not simply deception, but is partly a translation issue.)

Partially translation, partially a bureaucratic ruse. The official Japanese designation is 'escort ship', but it's also classed as "DDH" which is where the "Helicopter Destroyer" idea comes from. It's DDH because the class it replaced (the Hyuga class) was also a DDH, which itself replaced the Shirane class which was also DDH - under the idea that they're just like-for-like drop-in replacements and not some new capability so don't need any new debates or scrutiny or anything (similar fiction to the Hornet and Super Hornet both being 'F/A-18' whilst gaining new engines, new avionics, a new airframe, an extra 5 tonnes, etc).

All moot now: the JMSDF have redesignated them 'CVM' - except that 'C' now stands for 'Cruiser' again rather than CV for 'Carrier' (unlike the USN usage).

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And here's a neat one. Not a satellite photo, but a predecessor--aerial photo of the large Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Shinano.

A fascinating story. Shinano was the third of the Yamato-class battleships. Because the IJN realized that battleships were obsolete, they ordered that she be completed as an aircraft carrier. She was huge. However, even when complete, she would not have all the capabilities of a regular aircraft carrier.

She set sail without all the work finished, and a US submarine found her and sank her. There are several good videos on YouTube showing how this happened, and there is at least one book.

[Targeteer]

They didn't have trained flight crews to man if if if wasn't sunk.

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Spotting the heavy lift ship is kinda neat, that's why I included the aerial photos.

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https://thespacereview.com/article/5148/1

Dragonship: China builds a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier while satellites watch
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, February 2, 2026

In the fall of 2025, China commissioned its first indigenously-designed and built aircraft carrier, Fujian, named after a Chinese province. The commissioning ceremony was photographed from overhead by Western commercial reconnaissance satellites, but of course China proudly released their own photographs of the ceremony. The conventionally powered aircraft carrier is large and impressive. Although not quite as big as the US Navy’s Nimitz-class or Ford-class carriers, Fujian sports modern equipment, such as electromagnetic catapults and arresting gear.

But even as Fujian was formally entering service after an extended period of sea trials, another large carrier was taking shape in China. It too has been photographed by commercial reconnaissance satellites, and Western amateur analysts have been keeping tabs on the progress, trying to assess its size and capabilities. They soon saw indications that this ship, unlike its predecessors, will be nuclear-powered. Satellites are a primary source of information on China’s latest naval developments.

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[JulesVerneATV]

This is the Thai Carrier, it was constructed by Spanish shipbuilder

https://x.com/d__mitch/status/575736310683594752

News reported HTMS Chakri Naruebet usually spends only a day each month at sea, though it had recently sailed through the Singapore Strait. The ship is open to tourists when it is docked at its home port.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210417020830/https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/03/31/the-worlds-weirdest-aircraft-carrier-just-reappeared-near-singapore/?sh=42e34e84f9f5

the Spanish do have their own Juan Carlos I class, Príncipe de Asturias-class, the Asturias was reported scrapped in 2017

https://theleader.info/2017/08/09/final-journey-aircraft-carrier-prince-asturias/

'annual maintenance cost was said to be about 100 million euros per year'

[Blackstar]

This is the Thai Carrier, it was constructed by Spanish shipbuilder

https://x.com/d__mitch/status/575736310683594752

News reported HTMS Chakri Naruebet usually spends only a day each month at sea, though it had recently sailed through the Singapore Strait. The ship is open to tourists when it is docked at its home port.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210417020830/https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/03/31/the-worlds-weirdest-aircraft-carrier-just-reappeared-near-singapore/?sh=42e34e84f9f5

the Spanish do have their own Juan Carlos I class, Príncipe de Asturias-class, the Asturias was reported scrapped in 2017

https://theleader.info/2017/08/09/final-journey-aircraft-carrier-prince-asturias/

'annual maintenance cost was said to be about 100 million euros per year'

The Spanish carrier was originally based on a US Navy design from the early 1970s. I'll simply quote from Wikipedia here:

"The design of Principe de Asturias was based on that of the US Navy's 1970s Sea Control Ship concept. This was a proposal for a small through deck vessel, capable of operating helicopters and a small number of STOVL fixed-wing aircraft, to provide anti-submarine defence for convoys in the event of war with the Soviet Union."

The Thai carrier was in turn based upon the Spanish design, but enlarged.

Harry and I have gone looking for non-US carriers in historical satellite photos, but not found them.


Addendum: The SCS has always fascinated me. By the late 1960s, the US Navy was retiring many of its WWII-era Essex-class aircraft carriers. These were used as Apollo and Gemini recovery ships. Some of them had been converted to anti-submarine warfare carriers. The Navy considered the SCS as a replacement for these ships, and the concept was for a ship smaller than the big supercarriers, conventionally-powered, and equipped with helicopters and vertical takeoff and landing jets. The idea was that the ships could be primarily used in the North Atlantic to maintain control of the shipping lanes between the US and Europe. The Navy rejected that idea for a bunch of reasons and never built them. Eventually they bought the Harrier from the Brits (building an improved version) and putting them on helicopter carriers. But that was for amphibious missions, not sea control. Advanced VTOL designs were not pursued because the Harrier was more economical.