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Posted on 06/29/2025 5:29:02 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
When it comes to aircraft carriers, the nation with the most is the United States. The U.S. Navy operates 11 nuclear aircraft carriers of various designs, and more are on the way as the service replaces its aging fleet of Nimitz-class carriers with the new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers. These are massive ships and the largest warships ever constructed in military history. Each Ford-class vessel displaces around 100,000 tons of seawater and measures 1,092 feet in length, with a flight deck width of 256 feet.
That's a lot of ship to move around, but despite its mass, a Ford-class carrier can sail along the ocean surface at an impressive 34.5 mph. Moving such a ship requires a great deal of power, and these carriers are fully equipped with two Bechtel A1B nuclear reactors capable of delivering around 700 megawatts thermal (MWt) each. These help the Ford-class carriers to make more than three times the electricity of legacy Nimitz-class carriers.
That energy is used to move the massive ships at a considerably high speed across the Atlantic Ocean, a journey that can take around a week. The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), the first of its class, made its first Atlantic crossing in 2022 during its maiden voyage, and it's done so multiple times since entering active service. It started in Halifax, Canada, and followed the same path its predecessors paved during World War II, though it did so at a much faster rate, as older carriers were slower and less powerful ships. More recently, the USS Gerald R. Ford set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in October 2023 to act as a deterrent in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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It’s a simple question with a simple answer. Why do I have to read down to the fifth paragraph to find the answer?
They need that power for the (dubious) electro-magnetic aircraft catapults versus the (more reliable) steam catapults on the Nimitz carriers.
Probably because he gets paid by the word, and you didn't look it up yourself.
Only 30 knots.
lol, sure.
How about taking old Carriers out of mothballs, redoing them and putting them in the fleet? Maybe develop a new class of carrier that uses drones only? Or bring back battleships but put flight decks on them so they can be combo Battleship-Carriers? Japan did that at the end of the last world war and they did well. They could serve until we get our ship building running well.
Their top speed is classified!!
Non of the escort ships are nuclear. CVs are just as mission capable as CVNs. Go back to CVs.
If it’s the USS Harvey Milk it takes forever. It’s always dragging in the rear.
I’m all for rebuilding, refurbishing, and upgrading to modern standards older ships. It just makes sense to me, rather than making targets out of them.
...IIRC, the dark shape on the right side of the water column is an aircraft carrier...
It took us 3 and a half days to get from Florida to the med... back in the ‘70’s
Because if it was on the first line you’d stop reading and the advertisements wouldn’t be seen, let alone time for all the popups and sidebar ads to load.
“They need that power for the (dubious) electro-magnetic aircraft catapults versus the (more reliable) steam catapults on the Nimitz carriers.”
But steam causes Global Warming, so it makes sense to build ‘more sustainable’ carriers.
And who's driving.
Thankfully, Hegseth just renamed that ship to an actual enlisted Navy Medal of Honer recipient (posthumous). It is now the USNS Oscar V. Peterson!
“It took us 3 and a half days to get from Florida to the med... back in the ‘70’s”
I believe they’re now limited to a more ‘sustainable’ speed, at least when Democrats are running the military.
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