Some aircraft carriers have doubtless been among the worst ever built, be it for design flaws, crew incompetence, or dismal combat records. As one delves deeper into this retrospective, it makes one realize that all these vessels were children of their time—the brainchild of technological limitations and strategic thinking of those times. However, while the failures that befell them may have been partially excusable for the period in which they were constructed and implemented, they still serve as cautionary tales in the evolution of naval warfare.
The Shinano: A Colossal Failure on Maiden Voyage, November 1944, when the Imperial Japanese Navy’s huge battleship-turned-aircraft carrier, Shinano, met a tragic fate during her sea trials near Yokosuka Naval Base. This 69,000-ton giant, carrying 1,435 officers, enlisted sailors, and civilians, was hit by three torpedoes from the American submarine USS Archerfish and sank within seven hours of the attack. According to the reference article, “69,000 tons and 1,435 officers — including the skipper, Capt. Toshio Abe — enlisted sailors, and civilians, down the drain.” Its demise before ever engaging in combat made the Shinano one of the worst carriers ever built.
Taihō: A Floating Time Bomb: The IJN Taihō, Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa’s fleet flagship, succumbed to a single torpedo hit from the American submarine USS Albacore on June 19, 1944. According to the reference article, “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.” Right after, a catastrophic explosion burst out and sealed the Taihō fate with an exclamation that drew on the constitution of crew incompetence.
The Graf Zeppelin: A Wonder That Never Saw Battle Even though the battle fleets that will be addressed consist of these battleships, battlecruisers, and U-boats were performing decently enough for Germany’s Kriegsmarine during the Second World War and its aircraft carrier program was a complete failure for that matter. It never became seaworthy due to extended delays because of the outbreak of war “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.” This marvel of engineering never saw combat and came to symbolize all that might have been in Germany’s 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, the INS Vikramaditya, highlights the challenges of operating Soviet-era carriers. Originally commissioned by the Soviet Navy’s Admiral Gorshkov in 1987, India purchased the vessel from post-Soviet Russia in 2004. Since then, the Vikramaditya has been plagued by incidents, including “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 a 3.5-year span,” as detailed in the reference article. These recurring issues underscore the inherent flaws in the Vikramaditya’s Soviet design.