There have been several aircraft carriers throughout history that definitely should be noted in the list of ones that were the worst ever constructed, from design flaws to crew incompetence and dismal combat records. As we dare to look back through our shortlist, it is important to acknowledge that these vessels were truly products of their times, from the limitations of the technology to the level of demonstrated strategic thought. Nevertheless, their failures serve as cautionary tales in the ever-evolving field of naval warfare.
The Shinano: A Colossal Failure on Maiden Voyage In November 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) Shinano, a massive battleship-turned-aircraft carrier, met a tragic fate during her sea trials near Yokosuka Naval Base. The 69,000-ton behemoth had 1,435 officers, enlisted sailors, and civilians aboard; it was hit by three torpedoes from an American submarine, the USS Archerfish, and sank within seven hours of the assault. Quoted from the source article: “69,000 tons and 1,435 officers, including the skipper, Capt. Toshio Abe, enlisted sailors and civilians, down the drain.” The Shinano’s sinking before it saw any combat made it an exemplar of the world’s worst carriers ever built.
The Taihō: A Floating Time Bomb The IJN Taihō, Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa flagship, succumbed to a single torpedo hit from the American submarine USS Albacore on June 19, 1944. As the reference article explains, “a novice took over the damage control responsibilities. He believed that the best way to handle gasoline fumes was to open up the ship’s ventilation system and let them disperse throughout the ship. This action turned the ship into a floating time bomb.” A catastrophic explosion followed, sealing the Taihō’s fate and underscoring the consequences of crew incompetence.
The Graf Zeppelin: A Marvel That Never Saw Combat Alternative: While the Kriegsmarine had proven itself with its battleships, battlecruisers, and U-boats, the same was not the case with their aircraft carrier program during World War II. The vaunted Graf Zeppelin, commissioned in 1938, never even saw battle, having been prevented by a series of delays that probably had their greatest start with the breaking of the war. As the source article says, “By 1943 it turned out that the Graf Zeppelin was still not seaworthy, and the then 67-year-old Admiral Erich Raeder was pushed aside by der Führer as commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine and replaced by Admiral Karl Dönitz, who did not believe in the strategic importance of aircraft carriers and put the kibosh on any further work on the Graf Zeppelin.” A marvel of engineering, this ship has never seen action since that event, which was quite a waste for the German carrier program.
The Admiral Kuznetsov: Russia’s Troubled Flagship Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, has been plagued by numerous issues since its commissioning in 1990, during the twilight years of the Soviet Union. As the reference article notes, “Between 1991 and 2015, she completed only six patrols at sea.” Relying on the polluting fuel Mazut, suffering from a sunken dry dock in 2018, and enduring a costly onboard fire in 2019, the Kuznetsov’s reliability issues have rendered it a liability for the Russian Navy.
The Vikramaditya: India’s Inherited Headache India’s flagship aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, epitomizes the ordeal associated with operating Soviet-era carriers. Commissioned originally in 1987 as the Soviet Navy’s Admiral Gorshkov, it was bought by India from post-Soviet Russia in 2004. Ever since, the Vikramaditya went through a series of incidents, starting with “a toxic gas leak occurred during maintenance work in the vessel’s sewage treatment plant compartment, resulting in two deaths,” followed by “three fires in 3.5 years,”, as described in the reference article. That there are many recurring problems even in this fact is proof that Vikramaditya’s Soviet design is.