The Power of Aircraft Carriers

An aircraft carrier is a large naval vessel with a flight deck that supports the takeoff and landing of military aircraft. Aircraft carriers are the most important warships operated by the navies of the world. Their mission is the operation of aircraft in an ocean environment, which provides air cover to other warships and supports operations ashore where an air base is unavailable. Aircraft carriers are easily recognizable by their large size and distinctive shape, characterized by a continuous flat deck running the length of the ship.

Carriers are a powerful and extremely flexible part of a nation’s defense. A carrier is flexible in a way that armies and air forces are not because it can influence events merely by being seen. The power of an aircraft carrier can act as a visible deterrent to enemy aggression. A carrier is also flexible because it operates on the ocean. Unlike a land air base, no other country has to be consulted about where a carrier can go and what it can be used for because most of the ocean is considered international water and not part of any one country. This freedom allows carriers to move from one trouble spot to another quite easily. Carriers operate with a number of support and supply ships; this flotilla of ships is referred to as a carrier battle group.

Since World War II, carriers have primarily been used to influence world events and to support troops ashore. When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, United States Navy carriers were the only military airpower immediately available to engage the enemy. U.S. Air Force units were unable to respond for several months. Aircraft carriers were also the first American units to arrive on the scene during the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War.

While carriers are important, they are also quite expensive, so there are only a few patrolling the world’s oceans today. Approximately 40 carriers of all types are currently in use or are being built. Of these, over half are in service in the U.S. Navy. A typical American nuclear powered aircraft carrier can cost well over $4 billion and take five years to build.

The Evolution of this Design

Each U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has a variety of aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and aircraft for airborne surveillance and early warning, electronic warfare, antisubmarine warfare, and logistics. Carriers stand as the most capable warships at sea. The carrier is the core of a large group of vessels known as a carrier battle group, which includes 12 to 15 other vessels, including destroyers, cruisers, and supply ships.

A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier weighs about 90,000 metric tons and carries 85 to 90 aircraft. By comparison, a Russian aircraft carrier weighs about 61,200 metric tons and carries about 20 aircraft. A typical load of aircraft for a Nimitz-class carrier consists of the following: F/A-18 Hornets for air-to-air combat or ground attack; F-14 Tomcats for air defense of the carrier; FA-6E Intruders for all-weather bomber attack; E-A6B Prowlers for electronic warfare; S-3A Vikings for antisubmarine warfare; and SH-60 Sea Hawks for search-and-rescue and for antisubmarine warfare.

Other aircraft on board might include support airplanes and the AV-8B Harrier—the vertical takeoff and landing attack aircraft used by the Marines. This array of aircraft can strike enemy aircraft, surface ships, or submarines, as well as ground targets deep in enemy territory. Some of the carrier’s aircraft employ electronic warfare, using special electronics to jam enemy communications and to cloak U.S. forces from detection by the enemy. Because of its varied and long-range fighting capabilities, the aircraft carrier also serves a central role in maintaining sea control.

Carrier-based airplanes are a specially modified type of land plane designed for takeoff from and landing aboard naval aircraft carriers. Carrier airplanes have a strengthened structure, including their landing gear, to handle the stresses of catapult-assisted takeoff, in which the craft is launched by a steam-driven catapult; and arrested landings, made by using a hook attached to the underside of the aircraft’s tail to catch one of four wires strung across the flight deck of the carrier.

The central Pacific thrust was slower in getting started. The southwest Pacific islands were relatively close together; airfields on one could furnish support for the move to the next; and the Japanese navy was wary of risking its ships within range of land-based aircraft. In the central Pacific, however, the islands were scattered over vast stretches of ocean, and powerful naval forces were needed to support the landings, particularly aircraft carriers, which were not available in sufficient numbers until late 1943.

The first central Pacific landings were in the Gilbert Islands, at Makin and Tarawa in November 1943. Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll, 117.8 hectares of coral sand and concrete and coconut log bunkers, cost the 2nd Marine Division 3000 casualties in three days. More intensive preliminary bombardments and larger numbers of amphibian tractors capable of crossing the surrounding reefs made the taking of Kwajalein and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands in February 1944 somewhat less expensive.

The most important naval ships of modern times, aircraft carriers are massive vessels equipped with flight decks to support the takeoff and landing of military aircraft. The largest and most advanced carriers in the world belong to the Nimitz class. Nimitz carriers stretch 333 m (1,092 ft) in length and carry 85 aircraft. Their crews number more than 3,000, and they also house aircrew and support teams numbering almost 2,500. They are powered by a two-reactor power plant.