Possible to build a modern submarine aircraft carrier?

Originally posted by jimboman
You couldn't use it like a conventional carrier, but for small 'surprise' surgical strikes it would be useful. Stick an Osprey or a Blackhawk on it and special forces could use it as well.

Submarines have long been used for special operations - carrying commandos, reconnaissance teams, and agents on high-risk missions. Most special operations by U.S. submarines are carried out by SEALs, the Sea-Air-Land teams trained for missions behind enemy lines. but in most scenarios only submarines guarantee covert delivery.

Completely impractical at the moment of course, but if somebody wants to write a sci-fi novel...

Originally posted by Dimitry
The picture is either Scinfaxi or Hrimfaxi, Yuktobanian carriers.
Ace Combat 5 - Great Game.

Supercavitation could completely change the nature of undersea warfare, says Galeotti, turning the traditional cat-and-mouse game, with vessels sneaking around as quietly as possible, into a cacophonous dogfight. "If we do get supercavitating vehicles, we're not going to be talking about big submarines," he says. Small supercavitating craft might instead be sent out by a mother ship on short-range attacks, wheeling about to get a good line of sight for their underwater machine guns. "It is like a shift into airborne warfare," says Galeotti.

Scientists at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island demonstrated in 1997 a fully submerged launch of a supercavitating projectile (with air injected in its nose) with a muzzle velocity of 5,082 feet (1,549 meters) per second, making it the first underwater weapon to break the sound barrier. More recently the U.S. unveiled supercavitating bullets. That program was inspired by the menace posed by harbor mines during the Gulf War. The slow and dangerous job of disarming mines often falls to divers because bullets lose momentum and direction after traveling a few feet through water, which is thousands of times denser than air. But supercavitating bullets fired from planes or helicopters could pierce and detonate mines from a safe distance.

while the aircraft carrier is submerged by sending it off in the same way we currently launch torpedoes from submarines, through compressed air.