@@injuredtabletennisplayer1474 Thank you for your comment !!! The first Ford is Already in service & Parked off Israel the. 2 nd Ford Goes into service in 2024 as they come on- line the older Nimitz class will be retired or maybe mothballed no info available !!!
What’s amazing about this is that, aside from Britain’s Royal Navy, the rest of the world cannot even produce a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier and the US Navy considers the Nimitz Class obsolete.
I remember coming out of my hotel room in San Diego one morning at around 7AM and watching an aircraft carrier silently gliding by my room at around 80 yards away. Very impressive. Total silence with sailors on deck at parade rest.
When they retire the ship and after they strip it down they usually send them to the Philadelphia navy yard where they sit in case of an emergency like with other naval ships. If need be these ships can be brought back to service in an emergency within a year.
Not a nuclear powered ship, the cores must be closely monitored and supported when shut down, the end of life of the ship is defined by those reactors. Specifically, the reactor vessel over the 50 year life has become too radiation embrittled to operate safely. And is too integrated into the hull to economically replace.
Jono - when you eventually see an aircraft carrier it will be even larger and more impressive than you imagine. As a now retired American diplomat, I had the fantastic opportunity to visit three carriers during my career. The first was the Nimitz itself making a port call in Haifa, Israel. But infinitely better were visits to two carriers at sea, the Independence in the Pacific and the Enterprise - the first nuclear carrier - in the Atlantic. (Both ships have now been decommissioned.) You fly out from land and make a tailhook landing on the carrier, decelerating from 140 mph to zero in about three seconds. Very intense physically; I thought my brain was going to squirt out my ears. Then a day observing flight operations on the humongous deck, visiting the hangar deck, the bridge, several other operating units depending on your security clearances, crew quarters, a nice lunch, and eventually a catapult launch for home - more on that to come. Several high points of the visits: the WWII carrier Enterprise was the most decorated US Navy ship of the war. When it was scrapped, a large section of bulkhead, or wall, was saved and welded into the nuclear Enterprise that I visited. I was quite emotional seeing and touching the bulkhead, recalling all it represented. On the flight deck during ongoing air operations, the intense training of the crew is clearly evident. Each function has its own color shirt to instantly differentiate crew members. Visitors, always accompanied by a safety officer, can stand within about twenty feet of a fighter jet being catapulted off the deck while on afterburners. First you feel the concussion of the thrust, then a moment later the heat of the afterburners. Damn. E ticket all the way. Finally, the catapult take-off, which requires training to avoid injury. The last instruction is to put your feet up on the seat in front of you; if you don't your legs will be broken smashing into that seat due to the G forces of zero to 140 mph in three seconds. My best analogy is that being catapulted off the deck of a carrier is like being smacked with a baseball bat for three seconds - whomp, whomp, whomp - and then you leave the deck, are in regular flight, and the whomping stops. Sorry for the length of my comment but with your intense interest in carriers I thought you'd enjoy a bit of personal observation.
I was in a fighter squadron during Vietnam, two war time Westpac cruises, 1967-1969. Our sister carrier that we deployed with was the Enterprise, I was on the USS Ranger (Top Gun) fame.
Jim - thank you from this citizen for taking the oath and serving by its responsibilities. Good man. Were you flying the F-4 Phantom off the Ranger? IMO, best looking fighter ever. It just dripped menace. (Best looking air breathing aircraft - SR-71.)
@@wayneg9040 No I was not a pilot. I was a radar tech. Actual rate was an AQ, fire control technician. The F4 phantom was a beast. It looked like it was going 1,000 mph just sitting still. Being in a wartime theatre is quite an experience. Working 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Night or day ops. Exciting stuff. Being 40 feet away from a launch or a recovery is hard to describe. I tell you though I really enjoyed it. Being part of something like war is tiring but very rewarding. Giving the pilot (driver) a good radar system that will function when it is needed to launch a missile against a bogey or bandit is a good feeling. Just did my job like many others did. My pleasure to serve.
When you come to Texas you should go to Corpus Christi. They have the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier museum. It was used in WW2, obviously not as big as this but you can basically go everywhere inside the aircraft carrier and see all the different areas of the ship. Definitely worth the trip.
If there's time, there's also Battleship Cove in Fall River Massachusetts which features the USS Massachusetts battleship, a destroyer, a sub, a PT boat and more. My best friend's dad when I lived there was a volunteer for WWII vets of destroyers. With that connection, when he went to Battleship Cove for some reason, we'd go with him and get access to just about everything. We were about 12, and we walked all around the Massachusetts, even up into the tower where regular tourists couldn't go.
you have to be aware that an aircraft carrier never travels alone. there are usually NINE other crafts with it at ALL TIMES, which includes TWO silent running submarines... AND each carrier has around 5000+ personal onboard....
I was born in the 90's, i grew up with the Nimitz already well proven. Even today the Nimitz class is just awe inspiring. Then you look at the Ford and it feels like we've been final countdowned. You definitely need to do one on the new Ford class if you're impressed by the Nimitz
With all the kinks in the ground up redesign getting worked through it's getting scarier too. The Ford class is insane. You're either incredibly naive or extremely stupid if you provoke a strike group into getting deployed to your vicinity.
I have to tell you that you really help my day with your love and curiosity. I may be 72, but I too am enthusiastic and in wonder of the absolute authority of these carriers. When the man spoke regarding tools for eliminating swimmers, at the same time I said to my daughter, " what kind of idiot would want to go against any carrier". I am new to your channel but must say, I really love it. Willum
They go a lot faster then 30knots.... there's a few times, where they needed to get somewhere...and their escorts were at 100% speed while the carrier needed to slow down, so they can keep up...
I was on the USS Enterprise CVN-65 from 1973 to 1977. The first time you actually see one of these behemoths your first question is always - "How can you make that much steel float?" The video you reacted to was a very brief overview of a USN carrier. A couple of fun facts they left out are: It takes a crew of between 5000 and 6000 officers and men to operate a carrier. With at sea replenishment, a carrier can stay on station for months at a time. Which means that the cooks needed to prepare at least 15,000 meals a day. In addition to the forklifts you counted (yes, there are more) the ship has 2 full sized fire trucks, one on the hanger bay, one on the flight deck and Tilly - the mobile crane on the flight deck. On Enterprise there were 4 barber shops, 4 stores, a library, a chapel, 2 large mess decks with 2 serving lines each, a 100 bed hospital including surgery suites and an ICU, and a 6 chair dental department and about 85 aircraft. During flight operations, the air space around the carrier and on the flight deck is busier than Chicago O'Hare airport. When running at full speed, it takes about 1 to 2 miles to stop a carrier. I was a nuclear power plant operator, so I spent most my time down in the engine room. My record was 26 days that I stayed below the hanger bay and never saw the sun.
John - as I noted in my original posting, CV 65 was one of two carriers that I visited at sea. I assume the bulkhead from the WWII Enterprise will be removed from "your" Enterprise. Do you know if it will be fitted into the new Enterprise, CVN 80? I really, really hope so. As a aside, I had the honor of meeting then-former President Gerald Ford in 1979. With his WWII service in the Navy Reserve, he would be well honored by the Ford class of carriers.
Several years ago, I was invited on a friend's and family day cruise aboard the U.S.S.Bush. It was truly amazing from the time we left till we got back, even that was exciting, like a huge ballet.The Bush is the last of the Nimitz carriers. Unless you were on the flight deck or could see outside, you weren't even aware of movement. I'm sure it isn't always the case. The dress whites aren't for everyday, just formal occasions. We were told the ship is fast enough to ski behind. Of course getting up on your skis will take awhile from a dead start.
So Ford gets his own class of carrier and Bush, who flew off carriers in WW2, gets the last Nimitz? Why didn't Bush get the new carrier named after him? BTW, they had one of Bush's old Navy aircraft at the Pensacola NAS along with his grade book from flight school. He got low marks for leadership, so the museum quietly removed the grade book from the display. I guess he studied hard and improved himself after the war.
Depending on many factors, retired vessels meet many different fates. Some are mothballed, sold, turned into museums, training vessels, gunnery targets where they are often sunk to help construct a reef, and some are broken up as scrap.
Ttue . The decommissioned carrier USS America was sunk by the US Navy in a SINKEX Operation . This was to discover how much damage a US carrier can withstand before sinking , and how to build their future carriers to withstand more battle damage than previous classes .
If I remember correctly the U.S. has not sold a retired U.S. carrier to any other Nation after WW2 in order to protect its technology and to keep its designs from falling into unfriendly hands. The U.S. does not even trust its allies with a retired U.S. aircraft carrier. As far as the U.S. is concerned, you want an aircraft carrier, you design and build it on your own. If a U.S. carrier is to be scrapped. It must be scrapped in the U.S..
Due to the nuclear reactors on the Nimitz class, they will most likely just be cut up for scrap once the fuel is removed and the reactor compartments are removed. That kind of "surgery" basically turns the rest of the ship into so much floating junk, and it is just sold for scrap. Note that part of the decommissioning process is to remove as many useful parts for other ships as possible, such that the only thing remaining afterwards is the hulk of the ship.
I grew up reading about WW2 and the carrier war was so central. Fascinating time in history. Some of the carrier task forces toward the end of the war in the pacific were amazing. I like your channel.
Cool video man! I was lucky enough to get a grand tour onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt some years ago when it was just coming back to service after a major overhaul. Really cool to see it all in person. Visited the hangar, mess, flight deck, tower, etc. Even sat in the captains chair and saw the Theodore Rooselvelt room with cool artefacts he had collected. And when leaving they gave us small picture books where one pic was with us on the ship. sneaky and cool stuff. I highly recommend to anyone who is interested to see if it possible to visit one.
I was in the Navy on a Destroyer and I can tell you when we traveled as a squadron and destroyers are there to help protect the Aircraft Carrier. You are right they are freaking HUGE... you feel like a small little ant next to them. They are like an small city and have more crew than a lot of cities have for population
One thing to note, when they decommissioned the carrier previous to the Nimitz class they were going to make one an artificial reef. Since it had a similar design to the Nimitz they decided to try to see what it takes to sink it. They bombed it, shot it with torpedo's the works. No matter what they threw at it they couldn't sink it. They had to send in navy demo team to set explosives to get it to sink.
I was in Pensacola,Fl when they did it 25 miles out they just opened up the whole ship and controlled shaped charged when I sunk it went down perfectly on its keel it's probably a nice reef by know since that was in 2006
A classmate of mine from high school was on the U.S.S. Nimitz. Sadly he developed a drinking problem and the Navy ordered him to rehab and to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. To give you an idea of just how big the Nimitz is they had 5 AA chapters on that boat.
I travelled in the USS Eisenhower when we deployed into Haiti. We were able to fit a Battalion of Infantry, all associated support groups, and all of their gear on the hanger deck...It was an awesome experience.
I was stationed on the Carl Vinson, you have no idea how big those ships actually are. The flight deck is 4.5 acres and is about 100 feet above the water. When they want to move, they can cross a time zone in a day.
P.S. the most confusing was when the “Sled” (Midway) engines stopped working and none of the 4 diesel generators worked. Just bobbing in the ocean like a big dead cork. I was informed the “Sled” wasn’t “dead in the water,” but rather: “Under Way, Not Making Way.” as an Airedale, still seemed like dead in the water to me.
Can you imagine, all of the planning, and engineering that goes into the development of one of these also. Determining all of the raw materials needed, etc.
I served on the Dwight D. Eisenhower, worked on the flight deck while out to sea. They are truly massive, walking alongside it when it's at the pier, it feels like a space ship from Star Trek just landed in the water. And I too have massive fear of drowning, deep water in particular terrifies me. But the thing is so damn big, that it makes you forget that fear. Because short of a MASSIVE attack, that big girl ain't sinking lol, so it doesn't really bother you.
While you're not likely to get to go aboard one, if you come to the US, you can go on several of the Essex Class carriers which are preserved as museum ships. Several battleships are also museum ships, so it's quite possible to get tours of those. The sheer size of them is astounding.
Agreed! The Yorktown in Savannah, GA, the Lexington in Corpus Christi, TX, and the Intrepid in New York City would all make amazing places to stop. Additionally, the USS Midway is on display in San Diego as well.
When decativated, they sometimes put them on display, such as in NYC the USS Intrepid or the USS Midway in San Diego. Another Carrier was sunk off the coast of Florida to be used by recreational divers and an artificial reef like the USS Oriskany.
I was stationed on a destroyer. Back in 1984 while we were in the Mediterranean, I got to land on the USS Eisenhower in a dual prop COD plane. I stayed for two weeks at sea until I was flown to shore in a helicopter. Landing scared the shit out of me, but I'm glad I I had that experience. I got lost several times. Going from a destroyer with a crew of around 300 crew members to a carrier with 5,000 was quite an adjustment. While I was onboard the USU put on a concert on the hanger deck. It included the band Cheap Trick and Crosby from Crosby Stills and Nash. What a blast! I didn't want to go back to my little destroyer after that.
I've been on one down in Norfolk Virginia. You can't even imagine how big until you see one in real life. If you get a chance to visit one jump on it. That's thing about America is you have so much badass military stuff around. In my little city we have tanks,helicopters and fighter jets that you can check out. They're decommissioned though but I'm 30 miles from the largest Air force base in the world. Wright Patterson. They let you visit and check out the crazy jets and stuff but there is a part off limit. Supposedly its where the aliens were taken from Roswell lol. I believe we have more aircraft carriers than what he mentioned. But they want like half or 11 in action at all times.But we have like 20 or 22 total.
So good to see you reacting to our navy's arsenal. My dad was a WWII naval officer, 2 of my 3 brothers and I were all sailors in the 70s, with my one brother part of the Nimitz's carrier strike group. He even got shot in Italy as he was exiting the ship for some well deserved r & r. He's fine - they only shot him in his leg. Here's a fun fact! Nimitz class carriers have a complement of about 5,000 men & women, and I imagine the GRF class will have about the same size crew. It's truly a small city on the ocean.
I used to do a lot of sailing on the east coast, and down in the Caribbean. One night, one of these approached me at night. I saw the lights come over the horizon. Got a hail from it almost immediately. I was essentially told to move out of the way. I changed course to sail on a 90 degree alteration from of the ships heading. Sails up and engine on, they went by me only a half mile away. I didn’t bother to seep that night. Quite a learning experience for me. I never saw anything that big move that fast
If you ever come out to San Diego, California - we've got an older generation aircraft carrier on display as a museum. The USS Midway. And just across the harbor, you can see the other active carriers and ships docked at the Navy base on Coronado Island.
After the carrier has lived its useful life they are either scrapped ( my ship USS Franklin D Roosevelt was sold for scrap), sunk to make an artificial reef, or converted for use as a floating museum.
I use to be an xray welder, i mainly worked out in the field,i helped build the USS RONALD REAGAN, WORKED ON IT FOR ALMOST A YEAR, IT WAS FREAKING AWSOME.LORDY LORDY HOW THE YEARS HAVE FLOWN BY
Carriers are also very useful in rescue operations. Such as after earthquakes and hurricanes. They can provide a base of operations. They can provide food and water. They can provide medical assistance. They have the helicopters to transport food, water, and medical to areas that may be impossible to reach otherwise. They can provide security, cause sometimes bad people want to steal stuff. They can provide power to a hospital, and to a base of operations. Of course, there are other ships, and personnel, that can help. The carrier is just the most obvious.
Corpus Christi, Texas has the carrier Lexington as a tourist attraction. It was used in the Gulf of Mexico by the naval air station for training pilots on carrier landings and takeoffs.
20yrs in the Navy, I flew off KENNEDY, and EISENHOWER, Ship's company on ROOSEVELT, and Admiral Staff on REAGAN. Now retired, I still am both proud and amazed to this day to have had the opportunity to serve on all four. Truly impressive!
Also, those whites look clean and pristine from afar. You're better off buying a brand new pair of whites the first oconus base you hit, and tip $50-$100 to "get the rush sewsew" job on them hoes. You want to be squared away and be spotless.
There is the “Ghost Fleet”. These ships are pulled from active duty and held in inactive reserve fleet. The Ranger The America and the Kitty Hawk were reserve carriers. As the Nimitz class gets retired they will replace the ones in the Ghost Fleet and those will either be so,d as scrap, sunk as an artificial reef or the off chance purchased and made into a museum ship.
I had the privilege of seeing/hearing both the 20mm and 30mm Gatling gun test fire at the GE range in Vermont many years ago. Even from 100' (30m) away with ear protection, it felt like someone beating on my chest. Shockingly violent. The 20mm was about 100 rounds per second, and the 30mm was about 60 rounds per second. They each only fired for about 2 or 3 seconds. Firing much longer melts the barrels.
That aircraft carrier will never travel alone, always with a strike group to monitor above and below. Very productive in a show of determination of cause.
Agree with the other comments. Would love to see you check out the Ford class carriers that are replacing these relics. 😁 (think you would enjoy the watch)
There’s a photo from the summer in the Pacific where the combined strike group contained 2 US aircraft carriers along with the standard support ships, along with the navies of Japan, Australia & New Zealand. Quite impressive.
The funny thing is that the limit on the speed Nimitz class Carriers can travel is not its propulsion, when they test the Enterprize, they ran her like they stole here, and the Hull Warped slightly, since then they have limited the speed more for Hull stability than actually capability. When they were returning the Enterprize to Port the final time under her own power, they raced along the Florida Coast Highway(speed limit 55 mph), they were outpacing Semi trucks, and letting out a Rooster Tail nearly as high as the flight deck.
Look up sinking an aircraft carrier on youtube , it shows them sinking the USS Oriskany carrier and turning it into a reef and a dive site off coast of Florida In the Gulf of Mexico , im sure some are scrapped for the metals they contain . My son is in Navy a Lt. Commander on a Submarine , cant say which boat as he can't even tell me.
Most of the decommissioned ships are kept in special storage moorings. They call it "mothballing" (like packing clothing away for long term storage with mothballs to keep the bugs out). They cover all the metal with oils and other rust preventive coatings, and as mentioned, they prep the power plant for storage as well. Most of these ships are kept as a "just in case"... if there's a large scale war, we can rapidly pull hundreds of ships from storage and have them up and running quickly. Same thing applies to fighter jets, tanks, etc. Even though these are older technology, they are still more capable than most nation's current military hardware. Likewise, we could also use all this to equip an ally in the event they are at war and need equipment.
You can tour several aircraft carriers in the US. One is in San Diego, CA. Another is in Corpus Christi, TX. My father was in the Navy during the Korean War. He was on an aircraft carrier. We have taken him to the one in San Diego once, and he's been on the one in Corpus Christi at least 3 times. I went with him last year. He is in his 90s and wished to go to the aircraft carrier one last time. My brother contacted of a company and that company sent their private jet to pick us up at our local airport (in the middle of the US). They flew us straight to Corpus Christi. The people at the ship personally took him down to the parachute room where my dad worked. We were back home in time for dinner. I'll NEVER forget that experience with my Dad!!! And...interesting thing. My dad and his younger brother served on the SAME ship during wartime. That was about unheard of at that time. They may have seen each other 1 time on the ship. But they did take shore leave together in Japan. Their SISTER was stationed in Japan at the time!!! 3 Okies had a family reunion in Japan!!!
NY City has a retired WW2 carrier museum, the USS intrepid, huge to us yet still far smaller than modern carriers. You can walk topside and inside the belly of the ship, planes parked on the deck.
If you come to New York City at some point, check out the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier & Museum. It's nowhere near as big as it's from WW2....but even then it's still MASSIVE and breath-taking.
Did you not see the Aircraft carrier a few years ago that was laying just outside of the harbour in Cape Town? I went to see it from Blouberg beach and even though it was about 10km from the shore it was really, really impressive, even from that distance it was huge, can’t even imagine how it must look when you stand right next to it or on it..
I toured the USS Hornet in San Francisco (Alameda I think nearby) and you can walk through the engine compartment as it is a WW2 carrier. The engines on a WW2 carrier use superheated steam at 800 degree Fahrenheit and the engines, even from back then, look like something a wizard made.
As someone who has done 2 cruises on USS Harry S. Truman, we also had ships from other countries as part of our group. On my last cruise in 2018, we had 2 frigates, one from Norway and Germany. Their roles were more specialized, as in they specialized in RADAR and SONAR. As in their RADARs and SONARs were way better than ours, more range i believe and just better overall
I highly recommend the “Brintey” Spier Gangnam Style “Shooter” video here on UA-cam. It’s short but takes a highly dangerous and highly skilled job and makes it fun. It’s been around for a long time but it always makes for a good chuckle. Shooters have a very high stress job and earn that very competitive role on and aircraft carrier.
Yep. At 30 knots all ships data was blacked out to everyone. Some higher level engineers gave us a hint of 50+ knots. They are capable of outrunning all the support ships.
0:15 Large container ships are longer than the longest aircraft carriers (400 m vs 342 m). The crew size on the carriers is amazingly more than 5000 while it is less than 50 on the container ships. I've been fortunate to sail two months on a container ship. It was "only" carrier size 335 m long, but it was a lot of fun. I was surprised how calm it felt sailing in a storm.
Carriers have to be fast so they can generate the correct air across the flight deck so they can always launch aircraft. One of the fastest ships in the US Navy believe it or not.
The standard response when talking about the capabilities of our vessels is normally "in excess of" x knots. When they say "in excess of", they mean it.
Where I live we have an old destroyer warship named the U.S.S. Kidd, you can visit it at anytime and even sleep on it if you choose to, but soon its leaving to have maintenance done
Here in NYC we have the Intrepid Museum. The fee is about $36 dollars for an adult and $26 for children(5-12) according to their official website. You could probably find cheaper admission online or pricier admissions depending on extra experiences you would like to participate in, like the helicopter ride of lower Manhattan to see the scenery. As NY residents we get a discount which is nice i gues lol. The Intrepid features an Air Carrier, a submarine, a space shuttle and a British Airways Boeing. Those are the permanent attractions but there is always extra attractions depending on the time of the year or if there some type of commemoration for something related to airships, boats, military equipment or the likes. It is an amazing experience. I dont know if there are any other elsewhere in the country but being all my life here and being the only one i have been to all i can say its a fantastic place to see those amazing pieces of engineering and history.
there are more floors below the water line lol. best time was in the north atlantic during a nor easter storm we were all over the place scary but exciting if that makes sense. about 8 thousand folks on a carrier , the planes are not part of the ship those are squadrons based on land bases that get assigned to the ship so its separate personnel but when the ship is deployed its a assigned squadrons etc. i was assigned to the Stennis 74 wasn't even completed yet felt like i was walking up to the enterprise ship from star trek because i arrived to it at night in the ship yards and it was pitch black only construction and ship lights.
I've been a Navy buff my whole life. I grew up glued to my television watching the early days of the space program. My earliest recollection of television was watching Gus Grissom blow the hatch of his Mercury capsule after splashdown, and being picked up by navy divers for transport to the US carrier nearby. US carriers featured heavily each time a mission returned from space. All those carriers struck me as incredibly impressive, stupendous symbols of the US as THE world superpower. All of them predated the Nimitz class. Then came the Nimitz. It was brand spanking new and the most gawd awful awesome thing I had ever seen! It was clearly built to utterly rule the seas for decades to come. And there was just one of them, with new ones to come every four years or so. It would take forever for the whole of the US fleet to field them! Oh so slowly, I watched as the US carrier strength grew with each new Nimitz replacing a venerable carrier of old. And now I look back, feeling my age, the Nimitz on the verge of retirement, a newer, even fancier carrier class now already in service. My whole life, the Nimitz, that most amazing beauty, is what kept me free. Now she shall rest. Her name will sail again. The future navy will build another Nimitz someday to sail again, perhaps among the stars.
top speed is actually closer to 42 knots it can out run all of its escorts after it launches or recovers its planes it has to slow down to allow them catch back up.
Had the honor of being able to spend 5 days on the now decommissioned ship the Enterprise. It was called a tiger cruise, my son in law was assigned for 4 years. Safest I’ve ever felt in my life
at 1:11 you can see a number of F22 aircraft on the deck. to put that into some measure of comprehension, each one is the size of a tractor trailer rig. 62 feet long with a 44 feet wide wingspan. now see how small they are on the deck ... i rode in spruance class destroyers when i was in the military and i first thought those were huge ... until you pull up next to a carrier ... and feel rather tiny in comparison hahah
The Nimitz class of Aircraft carriers is impressive yet the New Ford class is Absolutely scary with all their Advancements in Technology 😮😊
The video for the Ford class just dropped a few hours ago. ua-cam.com/video/qm13IO3-3OI/v-deo.html
Yeah, wait til the Ford hits.
@@injuredtabletennisplayer1474 Thank you for your comment !!! The first Ford is Already in service & Parked off Israel the. 2 nd Ford Goes into service in 2024 as they come on- line the older Nimitz class will be retired or maybe mothballed no info available !!!
All that technology and the British are still able to reload and launch more planes per hour than the Ford class 😂
What’s amazing about this is that, aside from Britain’s Royal Navy, the rest of the world cannot even produce a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier and the US Navy considers the Nimitz Class obsolete.
Decommissioned carriers sometimes end up as floating museums.
Or coral reefs
I remember coming out of my hotel room in San Diego one morning at around 7AM and watching an aircraft carrier silently gliding by my room at around 80 yards away. Very impressive. Total silence with sailors on deck at parade rest.
Did that a couple times between 06-11
When they retire the ship and after they strip it down they usually send them to the Philadelphia navy yard where they sit in case of an emergency like with other naval ships. If need be these ships can be brought back to service in an emergency within a year.
Not a nuclear powered ship, the cores must be closely monitored and supported when shut down, the end of life of the ship is defined by those reactors. Specifically, the reactor vessel over the 50 year life has become too radiation embrittled to operate safely. And is too integrated into the hull to economically replace.
Fellow Saffer brother here, writing from Colorado - lovely to see your channel. Looking forward to more content. Sterkte, my broer.
Jono - when you eventually see an aircraft carrier it will be even larger and more impressive than you imagine. As a now retired American diplomat, I had the fantastic opportunity to visit three carriers during my career. The first was the Nimitz itself making a port call in Haifa, Israel. But infinitely better were visits to two carriers at sea, the Independence in the Pacific and the Enterprise - the first nuclear carrier - in the Atlantic. (Both ships have now been decommissioned.) You fly out from land and make a tailhook landing on the carrier, decelerating from 140 mph to zero in about three seconds. Very intense physically; I thought my brain was going to squirt out my ears. Then a day observing flight operations on the humongous deck, visiting the hangar deck, the bridge, several other operating units depending on your security clearances, crew quarters, a nice lunch, and eventually a catapult launch for home - more on that to come. Several high points of the visits: the WWII carrier Enterprise was the most decorated US Navy ship of the war. When it was scrapped, a large section of bulkhead, or wall, was saved and welded into the nuclear Enterprise that I visited. I was quite emotional seeing and touching the bulkhead, recalling all it represented. On the flight deck during ongoing air operations, the intense training of the crew is clearly evident. Each function has its own color shirt to instantly differentiate crew members. Visitors, always accompanied by a safety officer, can stand within about twenty feet of a fighter jet being catapulted off the deck while on afterburners. First you feel the concussion of the thrust, then a moment later the heat of the afterburners. Damn. E ticket all the way. Finally, the catapult take-off, which requires training to avoid injury. The last instruction is to put your feet up on the seat in front of you; if you don't your legs will be broken smashing into that seat due to the G forces of zero to 140 mph in three seconds. My best analogy is that being catapulted off the deck of a carrier is like being smacked with a baseball bat for three seconds - whomp, whomp, whomp - and then you leave the deck, are in regular flight, and the whomping stops. Sorry for the length of my comment but with your intense interest in carriers I thought you'd enjoy a bit of personal observation.
Well I thoroughly enjoyed your comment, thank you.
Thanks for the feedback. @@kitkakitteh
I was in a fighter squadron during Vietnam, two war time Westpac cruises, 1967-1969. Our sister carrier that we deployed with was the Enterprise, I was on the USS Ranger (Top Gun) fame.
Jim - thank you from this citizen for taking the oath and serving by its responsibilities. Good man. Were you flying the F-4 Phantom off the Ranger? IMO, best looking fighter ever. It just dripped menace. (Best looking air breathing aircraft - SR-71.)
@@wayneg9040
No I was not a pilot. I was a radar tech. Actual rate was an AQ, fire control technician. The F4 phantom was a beast. It looked like it was going 1,000 mph just sitting still. Being in a wartime theatre is quite an experience. Working 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Night or day ops. Exciting stuff. Being 40 feet away from a launch or a recovery is hard to describe. I tell you though I really enjoyed it. Being part of something like war is tiring but very rewarding. Giving the pilot (driver) a good radar system that will function when it is needed to launch a missile against a bogey or bandit is a good feeling. Just did my job like many others did.
My pleasure to serve.
I've seen U.S. carriers many times while in the USCG, but the 1 ship that had me in awe was passing the battleship N.J. while heading into GITMO Cuba.
Had a chance to walk the deck of the USS Missouri when I was a kid
I live in Philadelphia and have been to see New Jersey docked at Camden. She is absolutely impressive.
When you come to Texas you should go to Corpus Christi. They have the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier museum. It was used in WW2, obviously not as big as this but you can basically go everywhere inside the aircraft carrier and see all the different areas of the ship. Definitely worth the trip.
If there's time, there's also Battleship Cove in Fall River Massachusetts which features the USS Massachusetts battleship, a destroyer, a sub, a PT boat and more. My best friend's dad when I lived there was a volunteer for WWII vets of destroyers. With that connection, when he went to Battleship Cove for some reason, we'd go with him and get access to just about everything. We were about 12, and we walked all around the Massachusetts, even up into the tower where regular tourists couldn't go.
was there a few months ago, i basically became a tour guide for about 50 people. They were from all over the world
you have to be aware that an aircraft carrier never travels alone. there are usually NINE other crafts with it at ALL TIMES, which includes TWO silent running submarines... AND each carrier has around 5000+ personal onboard....
I saw an aircraft carrier in New York a few years ago and I still can’t believe how massive they are
I was born in the 90's, i grew up with the Nimitz already well proven. Even today the Nimitz class is just awe inspiring. Then you look at the Ford and it feels like we've been final countdowned.
You definitely need to do one on the new Ford class if you're impressed by the Nimitz
With all the kinks in the ground up redesign getting worked through it's getting scarier too. The Ford class is insane. You're either incredibly naive or extremely stupid if you provoke a strike group into getting deployed to your vicinity.
I have to tell you that you really help my day with your love and curiosity. I may be 72, but I too am enthusiastic and in wonder of the absolute authority of these carriers. When the man spoke regarding tools for eliminating swimmers, at the same time I said to my daughter, " what kind of idiot would want to go against any carrier". I am new to your channel but must say, I really love it. Willum
Love your comment "if your seeing that coming towards you your in for a crappie time" so true Juno.
For a naval aviator the carrier is affectionately..with reverence & awe is called "the boat".
They go a lot faster then 30knots.... there's a few times, where they needed to get somewhere...and their escorts were at 100% speed while the carrier needed to slow down, so they can keep up...
San Diego California is probably the best place to visit if you want to see a carrier in person.
I was on the USS Enterprise CVN-65 from 1973 to 1977. The first time you actually see one of these behemoths your first question is always - "How can you make that much steel float?"
The video you reacted to was a very brief overview of a USN carrier. A couple of fun facts they left out are:
It takes a crew of between 5000 and 6000 officers and men to operate a carrier.
With at sea replenishment, a carrier can stay on station for months at a time.
Which means that the cooks needed to prepare at least 15,000 meals a day.
In addition to the forklifts you counted (yes, there are more) the ship has 2 full sized fire trucks, one on the hanger bay, one on the flight deck and Tilly - the mobile crane on the flight deck.
On Enterprise there were 4 barber shops, 4 stores, a library, a chapel, 2 large mess decks with 2 serving lines each, a 100 bed hospital including surgery suites and an ICU, and a 6 chair dental department and about 85 aircraft.
During flight operations, the air space around the carrier and on the flight deck is busier than Chicago O'Hare airport.
When running at full speed, it takes about 1 to 2 miles to stop a carrier.
I was a nuclear power plant operator, so I spent most my time down in the engine room. My record was 26 days that I stayed below the hanger bay and never saw the sun.
John - as I noted in my original posting, CV 65 was one of two carriers that I visited at sea. I assume the bulkhead from the WWII Enterprise will be removed from "your" Enterprise. Do you know if it will be fitted into the new Enterprise, CVN 80? I really, really hope so. As a aside, I had the honor of meeting then-former President Gerald Ford in 1979. With his WWII service in the Navy Reserve, he would be well honored by the Ford class of carriers.
"You're in for a crappy day aren't you." oh yeah!
Several years ago, I was invited on a friend's and family day cruise aboard the U.S.S.Bush. It was truly amazing from the time we left till we got back, even that was exciting, like a huge ballet.The Bush is the last of the Nimitz carriers. Unless you were on the flight deck or could see outside, you weren't even aware of movement. I'm sure it isn't always the case. The dress whites aren't for everyday, just formal occasions. We were told the ship is fast enough to ski behind. Of course getting up on your skis will take awhile from a dead start.
So Ford gets his own class of carrier and Bush, who flew off carriers in WW2, gets the last Nimitz?
Why didn't Bush get the new carrier named after him?
BTW, they had one of Bush's old Navy aircraft at the Pensacola NAS along with his grade book from flight school.
He got low marks for leadership, so the museum quietly removed the grade book from the display.
I guess he studied hard and improved himself after the war.
Missed opportunity bro. You should have watched a video on the newer Ford Class carrier. About the same size, but far more advanced.
Depending on many factors, retired vessels meet many different fates. Some are mothballed, sold, turned into museums, training vessels, gunnery targets where they are often sunk to help construct a reef, and some are broken up as scrap.
Ttue . The decommissioned carrier USS America was sunk by the US Navy in a SINKEX Operation . This was to discover how much damage a US carrier can withstand before sinking , and how to build their future carriers to withstand more battle damage than previous classes .
If I remember correctly the U.S. has not sold a retired U.S. carrier to any other Nation after WW2 in order to protect its technology and to keep its designs from falling into unfriendly hands. The U.S. does not even trust its allies with a retired U.S. aircraft carrier. As far as the U.S. is concerned, you want an aircraft carrier, you design and build it on your own. If a U.S. carrier is to be scrapped. It must be scrapped in the U.S..
Due to the nuclear reactors on the Nimitz class, they will most likely just be cut up for scrap once the fuel is removed and the reactor compartments are removed. That kind of "surgery" basically turns the rest of the ship into so much floating junk, and it is just sold for scrap. Note that part of the decommissioning process is to remove as many useful parts for other ships as possible, such that the only thing remaining afterwards is the hulk of the ship.
I grew up reading about WW2 and the carrier war was so central. Fascinating time in history. Some of the carrier task forces toward the end of the war in the pacific were amazing. I like your channel.
10:49 😮 that formation is crazy 🤯
I couldn't believe how big they were when I saw one and I can't explain how big they are to friends who haven't seen one.
It’s weird as hell seeing them in person, you forget it’s a ship because it’s sooo massive.
If that battle group is coming for you to open a can of whoopass. You will never get close enough to see it in binoculars.
By then you are already DEAD.
Cool video man! I was lucky enough to get a grand tour onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt some years ago when it was just coming back to service after a major overhaul. Really cool to see it all in person. Visited the hangar, mess, flight deck, tower, etc. Even sat in the captains chair and saw the Theodore Rooselvelt room with cool artefacts he had collected. And when leaving they gave us small picture books where one pic was with us on the ship. sneaky and cool stuff. I highly recommend to anyone who is interested to see if it possible to visit one.
You can serve on deployment on a ship like this and not even meet half the crew during your whole deployment
that’s wild
I was in the Navy on a Destroyer and I can tell you when we traveled as a squadron and destroyers are there to help protect the Aircraft Carrier. You are right they are freaking HUGE... you feel like a small little ant next to them. They are like an small city and have more crew than a lot of cities have for population
DDG12, Qm and ships swimmer. Fueled underway from bird farms many times. Boy they are huge!
One thing to note, when they decommissioned the carrier previous to the Nimitz class they were going to make one an artificial reef. Since it had a similar design to the Nimitz they decided to try to see what it takes to sink it. They bombed it, shot it with torpedo's the works. No matter what they threw at it they couldn't sink it. They had to send in navy demo team to set explosives to get it to sink.
I was in Pensacola,Fl when they did it 25 miles out they just opened up the whole ship and controlled shaped charged when I sunk it went down perfectly on its keel it's probably a nice reef by know since that was in 2006
Wherever a carrier goes it becomes the largest air force in the area
I was on the USS Saratoga CV60 for 4 years. As big as it is, it starts to feel small after a few months at sea.
You need to watch how they feed all these sailors in one day! So entertaining!
A classmate of mine from high school was on the U.S.S. Nimitz. Sadly he developed a drinking problem and the Navy ordered him to rehab and to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. To give you an idea of just how big the Nimitz is they had 5 AA chapters on that boat.
Oops!? That was a troop of Boy Scouts on a 1 mile swim.
I travelled in the USS Eisenhower when we deployed into Haiti. We were able to fit a Battalion of Infantry, all associated support groups, and all of their gear on the hanger deck...It was an awesome experience.
I was on a cruiser -- the carriers are nice in that you can do your workout in one place. Smaller ships had "little here and there" kinda gyms.
"Enemy swimmers." 🤣🤣
I was stationed on the Carl Vinson, you have no idea how big those ships actually are. The flight deck is 4.5 acres and is about 100 feet above the water. When they want to move, they can cross a time zone in a day.
stationed “in” the Carl Vinson. It’s a vessel, things go in it.
(Coca-Cola isn’t shipped on the bottle).
@@Lightning613 No genius, I was on the Chucky V. On the flight deck. I worked outside. Nice attempt to be smart, well, not really.
@@aangelcg yes. You worked the flight deck, but was still “embarked in” the ‘Chuckie-V.’
P.S. the most confusing was when the “Sled” (Midway) engines stopped working and none of the 4 diesel generators worked. Just bobbing in the ocean like a big dead cork.
I was informed the “Sled” wasn’t “dead in the water,” but rather: “Under Way, Not Making Way.”
as an Airedale, still seemed like dead in the water to me.
Can you imagine, all of the planning, and engineering that goes into the development of one of these also. Determining all of the raw materials needed, etc.
I served on the Dwight D. Eisenhower, worked on the flight deck while out to sea. They are truly massive, walking alongside it when it's at the pier, it feels like a space ship from Star Trek just landed in the water. And I too have massive fear of drowning, deep water in particular terrifies me. But the thing is so damn big, that it makes you forget that fear. Because short of a MASSIVE attack, that big girl ain't sinking lol, so it doesn't really bother you.
I live in San Diego and I see them all the time. My brother-in-law was stationed on a carrier and retired with 24 years in the Navy.
While you're not likely to get to go aboard one, if you come to the US, you can go on several of the Essex Class carriers which are preserved as museum ships. Several battleships are also museum ships, so it's quite possible to get tours of those. The sheer size of them is astounding.
Agreed! The Yorktown in Savannah, GA, the Lexington in Corpus Christi, TX, and the Intrepid in New York City would all make amazing places to stop. Additionally, the USS Midway is on display in San Diego as well.
@@slycer2002 USS Hornet (CV12) is in Alameda CA.
if you could see a strike group approaching through binoculars, they're close enough that they've decided to let you live 15 minutes ago.😂
When decativated, they sometimes put them on display, such as in NYC the USS Intrepid or the USS Midway in San Diego. Another Carrier was sunk off the coast of Florida to be used by recreational divers and an artificial reef like the USS Oriskany.
I was stationed on a destroyer. Back in 1984 while we were in the Mediterranean, I got to land on the USS Eisenhower in a dual prop COD plane. I stayed for two weeks at sea until I was flown to shore in a helicopter. Landing scared the shit out of me, but I'm glad I I had that experience. I got lost several times. Going from a destroyer with a crew of around 300 crew members to a carrier with 5,000 was quite an adjustment. While I was onboard the USU put on a concert on the hanger deck. It included the band Cheap Trick and Crosby from Crosby Stills and Nash. What a blast! I didn't want to go back to my little destroyer after that.
In San Diego the USS Midway had been converted to a museum! Definitely worth a visit!
I've been on one down in Norfolk Virginia. You can't even imagine how big until you see one in real life. If you get a chance to visit one jump on it. That's thing about America is you have so much badass military stuff around. In my little city we have tanks,helicopters and fighter jets that you can check out. They're decommissioned though but I'm 30 miles from the largest Air force base in the world. Wright Patterson. They let you visit and check out the crazy jets and stuff but there is a part off limit. Supposedly its where the aliens were taken from Roswell lol. I believe we have more aircraft carriers than what he mentioned. But they want like half or 11 in action at all times.But we have like 20 or 22 total.
So good to see you reacting to our navy's arsenal. My dad was a WWII naval officer, 2 of my 3 brothers and I were all sailors in the 70s, with my one brother part of the Nimitz's carrier strike group. He even got shot in Italy as he was exiting the ship for some well deserved r & r. He's fine - they only shot him in his leg. Here's a fun fact! Nimitz class carriers have a complement of about 5,000 men & women, and I imagine the GRF class will have about the same size crew. It's truly a small city on the ocean.
As a kid every time we passed through Mobile, Alabama we would stop to see the USS Alabama battleship, it takes hours to see everything.
I used to do a lot of sailing on the east coast, and down in the Caribbean. One night, one of these approached me at night. I saw the lights come over the horizon. Got a hail from it almost immediately. I was essentially told to move out of the way. I changed course to sail on a 90 degree alteration from of the ships heading. Sails up and engine on, they went by me only a half mile away. I didn’t bother to seep that night. Quite a learning experience for me. I never saw anything that big move that fast
I was assigned to two aircraft carriers. It was fun meeting people who became good friends.
Its not just the carrier but all the destroyers etc that accompany them as well.
If you ever come out to San Diego, California - we've got an older generation aircraft carrier on display as a museum. The USS Midway. And just across the harbor, you can see the other active carriers and ships docked at the Navy base on Coronado Island.
After the carrier has lived its useful life they are either scrapped ( my ship USS Franklin D Roosevelt was sold for scrap), sunk to make an artificial reef, or converted for use as a floating museum.
I use to be an xray welder, i mainly worked out in the field,i helped build the USS RONALD REAGAN, WORKED ON IT FOR ALMOST A YEAR, IT WAS FREAKING AWSOME.LORDY LORDY HOW THE YEARS HAVE FLOWN BY
Carriers are also very useful in rescue operations. Such as after earthquakes and hurricanes. They can provide a base of operations. They can provide food and water. They can provide medical assistance. They have the helicopters to transport food, water, and medical to areas that may be impossible to reach otherwise.
They can provide security, cause sometimes bad people want to steal stuff.
They can provide power to a hospital, and to a base of operations.
Of course, there are other ships, and personnel, that can help. The carrier is just the most obvious.
Does not take long to hook a ship up to provide power and fresh water to the shore. Pretty sure a carrier can function as a hospital
Corpus Christi, Texas has the carrier Lexington as a tourist attraction. It was used in the Gulf of Mexico by the naval air station for training pilots on carrier landings and takeoffs.
20yrs in the Navy, I flew off KENNEDY, and EISENHOWER, Ship's company on ROOSEVELT, and Admiral Staff on REAGAN. Now retired, I still am both proud and amazed to this day to have had the opportunity to serve on all four. Truly impressive!
I worked at the Newport News Shipyard from 1978 thrum 1982.
In 2004 I parked in front of two Nimitz class, parked bow to bow. Pretty amazing sight.
Also, those whites look clean and pristine from afar. You're better off buying a brand new pair of whites the first oconus base you hit, and tip $50-$100 to "get the rush sewsew" job on them hoes. You want to be squared away and be spotless.
Entertaining
👍👍👍👍
What’s mind blowing is to walk between two of these when there in port at Norfolk Virginia.
There is the “Ghost Fleet”. These ships are pulled from active duty and held in inactive reserve fleet. The Ranger The America and the Kitty Hawk were reserve carriers. As the Nimitz class gets retired they will replace the ones in the Ghost Fleet and those will either be so,d as scrap, sunk as an artificial reef or the off chance purchased and made into a museum ship.
I had the privilege of seeing/hearing both the 20mm and 30mm Gatling gun test fire at the GE range in Vermont many years ago. Even from 100' (30m) away with ear protection, it felt like someone beating on my chest. Shockingly violent. The 20mm was about 100 rounds per second, and the 30mm was about 60 rounds per second. They each only fired for about 2 or 3 seconds. Firing much longer melts the barrels.
That aircraft carrier will never travel alone, always with a strike group to monitor above and below. Very productive in a show of determination of cause.
I have to say your comment about the number of forklifts you can see on the flight deck is VERY relevant.
Agree with the other comments. Would love to see you check out the Ford class carriers that are replacing these relics. 😁 (think you would enjoy the watch)
Proud to have served on the USS Constellation (CV-64) my years in the Navy.
Dude, you only have to “pristine” during work. You can be you the rest of the time. Love the hat, man! Take care and be safe.
If you happen to ever visit Charleston SC, you can visit an old WWII era Aircraft carrier at Patriot's Point.
There’s a photo from the summer in the Pacific where the combined strike group contained 2 US aircraft carriers along with the standard support ships, along with the navies of Japan, Australia & New Zealand. Quite impressive.
The funny thing is that the limit on the speed Nimitz class Carriers can travel is not its propulsion, when they test the Enterprize, they ran her like they stole here, and the Hull Warped slightly, since then they have limited the speed more for Hull stability than actually capability. When they were returning the Enterprize to Port the final time under her own power, they raced along the Florida Coast Highway(speed limit 55 mph), they were outpacing Semi trucks, and letting out a Rooster Tail nearly as high as the flight deck.
Look up sinking an aircraft carrier on youtube , it shows them sinking the USS Oriskany carrier and turning it into a reef and a dive site off coast of Florida In the Gulf of Mexico , im sure some are scrapped for the metals they contain . My son is in Navy a Lt. Commander on a Submarine , cant say which boat as he can't even tell me.
Most of the decommissioned ships are kept in special storage moorings. They call it "mothballing" (like packing clothing away for long term storage with mothballs to keep the bugs out).
They cover all the metal with oils and other rust preventive coatings, and as mentioned, they prep the power plant for storage as well. Most of these ships are kept as a "just in case"... if there's a large scale war, we can rapidly pull hundreds of ships from storage and have them up and running quickly.
Same thing applies to fighter jets, tanks, etc. Even though these are older technology, they are still more capable than most nation's current military hardware. Likewise, we could also use all this to equip an ally in the event they are at war and need equipment.
You can tour several aircraft carriers in the US. One is in San Diego, CA. Another is in Corpus Christi, TX.
My father was in the Navy during the Korean War. He was on an aircraft carrier. We have taken him to the one in San Diego once, and he's been on the one in Corpus Christi at least 3 times. I went with him last year. He is in his 90s and wished to go to the aircraft carrier one last time. My brother contacted of a company and that company sent their private jet to pick us up at our local airport (in the middle of the US). They flew us straight to Corpus Christi. The people at the ship personally took him down to the parachute room where my dad worked. We were back home in time for dinner.
I'll NEVER forget that experience with my Dad!!!
And...interesting thing. My dad and his younger brother served on the SAME ship during wartime. That was about unheard of at that time. They may have seen each other 1 time on the ship. But they did take shore leave together in Japan. Their SISTER was stationed in Japan at the time!!! 3 Okies had a family reunion in Japan!!!
NY City has a retired WW2 carrier museum, the USS intrepid, huge to us yet still far smaller than modern carriers. You can walk topside and inside the belly of the ship, planes parked on the deck.
30 knots is 34.5 mpk or 55.5 kph. For moving t hat many tons, that is amazing.
If you come to New York City at some point, check out the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier & Museum. It's nowhere near as big as it's from WW2....but even then it's still MASSIVE and breath-taking.
Did you not see the Aircraft carrier a few years ago that was laying just outside of the harbour in Cape Town? I went to see it from Blouberg beach and even though it was about 10km from the shore it was really, really impressive, even from that distance it was huge, can’t even imagine how it must look when you stand right next to it or on it..
I toured the USS Hornet in San Francisco (Alameda I think nearby) and you can walk through the engine compartment as it is a WW2 carrier. The engines on a WW2 carrier use superheated steam at 800 degree Fahrenheit and the engines, even from back then, look like something a wizard made.
You can find video of the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier visiting Oslo fjord.
Watch the A-10 Warthog only plane built around a Chain Gun! Best Air support for troupes on the ground plane ever built!
As someone who has done 2 cruises on USS Harry S. Truman, we also had ships from other countries as part of our group. On my last cruise in 2018, we had 2 frigates, one from Norway and Germany. Their roles were more specialized, as in they specialized in RADAR and SONAR. As in their RADARs and SONARs were way better than ours, more range i believe and just better overall
I highly recommend the “Brintey” Spier Gangnam Style “Shooter” video here on UA-cam. It’s short but takes a highly dangerous and highly skilled job and makes it fun. It’s been around for a long time but it always makes for a good chuckle. Shooters have a very high stress job and earn that very competitive role on and aircraft carrier.
Seeing that during a time if war and knowing there's a sub lurking about as well would be enough for me to go underground.😱
Just so you know, 30 kn is the top release speed. They are significantly faster than that if need be
Yep. At 30 knots all ships data was blacked out to everyone. Some higher level engineers gave us a hint of 50+ knots. They are capable of outrunning all the support ships.
0:15 Large container ships are longer than the longest aircraft carriers (400 m vs 342 m). The crew size on the carriers is amazingly more than 5000 while it is less than 50 on the container ships. I've been fortunate to sail two months on a container ship. It was "only" carrier size 335 m long, but it was a lot of fun. I was surprised how calm it felt sailing in a storm.
Typical crew compliment is 5000~ when deployed. It's maximum crew capacity is over 7000....... (prior navy here, Served on the Nimitz for 4 years).
Carriers have to be fast so they can generate the correct air across the flight deck so they can always launch aircraft. One of the fastest ships in the US Navy believe it or not.
i am 62 an old USCG i thank the new vets who stand guard for me and the USA
I served a board the USS Forrestal, CV 59, I was on board for about two years, and I never saw the whole ship
The standard response when talking about the capabilities of our vessels is normally "in excess of" x knots. When they say "in excess of", they mean it.
Where I live we have an old destroyer warship named the U.S.S. Kidd, you can visit it at anytime and even sleep on it if you choose to, but soon its leaving to have maintenance done
Here in NYC we have the Intrepid Museum. The fee is about $36 dollars for an adult and $26 for children(5-12) according to their official website. You could probably find cheaper admission online or pricier admissions depending on extra experiences you would like to participate in, like the helicopter ride of lower Manhattan to see the scenery. As NY residents we get a discount which is nice i gues lol. The Intrepid features an Air Carrier, a submarine, a space shuttle and a British Airways Boeing. Those are the permanent attractions but there is always extra attractions depending on the time of the year or if there some type of commemoration for something related to airships, boats, military equipment or the likes. It is an amazing experience. I dont know if there are any other elsewhere in the country but being all my life here and being the only one i have been to all i can say its a fantastic place to see those amazing pieces of engineering and history.
there are more floors below the water line lol. best time was in the north atlantic during a nor easter storm we were all over the place scary but exciting if that makes sense. about 8 thousand folks on a carrier , the planes are not part of the ship those are squadrons based on land bases that get assigned to the ship so its separate personnel but when the ship is deployed its a assigned squadrons etc. i was assigned to the Stennis 74 wasn't even completed yet felt like i was walking up to the enterprise ship from star trek because i arrived to it at night in the ship yards and it was pitch black only construction and ship lights.
Jono those uniforms were Dress, we have working uniforms as well. I spent four years on 2 carriers.
I've been a Navy buff my whole life. I grew up glued to my television watching the early days of the space program. My earliest recollection of television was watching Gus Grissom blow the hatch of his Mercury capsule after splashdown, and being picked up by navy divers for transport to the US carrier nearby. US carriers featured heavily each time a mission returned from space. All those carriers struck me as incredibly impressive, stupendous symbols of the US as THE world superpower. All of them predated the Nimitz class.
Then came the Nimitz. It was brand spanking new and the most gawd awful awesome thing I had ever seen! It was clearly built to utterly rule the seas for decades to come. And there was just one of them, with new ones to come every four years or so. It would take forever for the whole of the US fleet to field them! Oh so slowly, I watched as the US carrier strength grew with each new Nimitz replacing a venerable carrier of old.
And now I look back, feeling my age, the Nimitz on the verge of retirement, a newer, even fancier carrier class now already in service. My whole life, the Nimitz, that most amazing beauty, is what kept me free. Now she shall rest.
Her name will sail again. The future navy will build another Nimitz someday to sail again, perhaps among the stars.
top speed is actually closer to 42 knots it can out run all of its escorts after it launches or recovers its planes it has to slow down to allow them catch back up.
Had the honor of being able to spend 5 days on the now decommissioned ship the Enterprise. It was called a tiger cruise, my son in law was assigned for 4 years. Safest I’ve ever felt in my life
at 1:11 you can see a number of F22 aircraft on the deck. to put that into some measure of comprehension, each one is the size of a tractor trailer rig. 62 feet long with a 44 feet wide wingspan. now see how small they are on the deck ...
i rode in spruance class destroyers when i was in the military and i first thought those were huge ... until you pull up next to a carrier ... and feel rather tiny in comparison hahah