QWS Nicolau Silvestre

QWS Nicolau Silvestre, February 2021
History
QuetanaQuetana
Name:	QWS Nicolau Silvestre
Namesake:	Nicolau Silvestre
Operator:	Quetanan Navy
Ordered:	10 April 2007
Cost:	Programme cost: Q6.1 billion Unit cost: Q3 billion
Laid down:	7 July 2008
Launched:	17 July 2010
Christened:	4 July 2012
Commissioned:	7 December 2013
In service:	2013
Homeport:	QNB Vongane
Motto:	Semper Eadem ("Always the Same")
Status:	In active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Vasso-class aircraft carrier
Type:	Aircraft supercarrier
Displacement:	65,000 tonnes (64,000 long tons; 72,000 short tons)<
Length:	280 m (920 ft)
Beam:	39 m (128 ft) (waterline) 73 m (240 ft) overall
Draught:	11 m (36 ft)
Decks:	9 decks below the flight deck
Propulsion:	Integrated electric propulsion powered by two Marine 36 MW MT30 gas turbine alternators and four 10 MW diesel engines
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km)
Boats & landing craft carried:	2x (36 man) passenger transport boats 2x 24 RHIBs
Capacity:	1,600
Troops:	250
Complement:	679
Sensors and processing systems:	S1850M long range radar Type 997 medium range radar UI Series 2500 Electro Optical System (EOS)
Armament:	3 x Phalanx CIWS 4 x 30mm DS30M Mk2 guns (for but not with) 6 x Miniguns
Aircraft carried:	Planned carrier air wing of 24 to 36 Z-14 and 14 helicopters for the ship's first deployment in 2013 (65+ aircraft carried at surge capacity) Z-17 Condor TAH-473 Egret TAH-60 Kingfisher Marlin H4 and HC4 Abecro AH1 and HMA2 Airo Crowsnest AEW
Aviation facilities:	Hangar below deck Two aircraft lifts Refuelling and re-arming facilities Ski jump

The QWS Nicholau Silvestre is the lead ship of the Vasso-class of aircraft carriers and the Fleet Flagship of the Quetanan Navy. Capable of carrying 60 aircraft including fixed wing, rotary wing and autonomous vehicles, she is named in honor of Nicholau Silvestre, the second President of Quetana and an admiral of the Quetanan Navy who served in the 1910 Quetana Revolution. She was ordered in 2007, launched in 2010, and commissioned in 2013. She was initially launched as the first of two Vasso-class carriers, but the National Assembly cut military budget to ensure only one would be built. She replaced the only other aircraft carrier in the Navy, the QWS Gieu Arnauda, which was decommissioned and scrapped in 2014. A sister ship, the QWS Arsenio Fontes, was launched on October 14th, 2023.