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Nuclear carriers, when not conducting air ops, and in a hurry to get somewhere can crank it up to 35 knots plus. The only naval vessels capable of staying up with a nuclear carrier in a hurry is a nuclear attack sub running submerged.

It is more like this. Carriers restrick thier speed to the speed of thier escorts. The problem is physics. vesseles can only go as fast as the square root of thier waterline lenght times a varying factor which could be between 1.1 and 1.9. Any faster and the vessel just drives itself deeper into the water and would sink. (planing hulls excepted). When we had nuc cruiseres the speed of the escort group was a bit faster but not much.

SS Guy

That formula works for surface ships.

It's not quite correct for subs, who's water resistance doesn't include a wave factor at the bow - Aircraft aerodynamics relationships are better for subs: think of a "solid blimp" "flying" at low speed in super-dense air for the best comparison.

Truthfully, submarine speed relationships to the aircraft carrier depend on the chosen sonar search speeds: at high (sprint) speeds NOBODY (even US subs) can listen. Worse, at high sprint speeds, EVERYBODY (even US subs) makes a LOT more noise.

So, the sub (in a carrier escort situation, would be more likely to run fast for while, get way ahead (several hundred miles ?) of the carrier escorts, then slow and put out the towed array for several hours. Listen, clear the area, then pull in the towed array, go back to high speed, and slow and listen someplace else for a few hours. The carrier, in turn, tries to keep to its overall average speed and course.

Long, high-speed transits? Can't listen, can't slow down, can do very much of anything. So ya just catch up at the end.

The enemy can't catch the aircraft carrier either with anything but a cruise missile or tactical nuke warhead anyway.

Carriers restrick thier speed to the speed of thier escorts. The problem is physics. vesseles can only go as fast as the square root of thier waterline lenght times a varying factor which could be between 1.1 and 1.9.

Nimitz class nuclear carriers exceed 1000 ft. in overall length ... around 900 ft. at the waterline. As I stated in my earlier posts they are capable of speeds easily in excess of 35 knots. When they need to haul ass to get on station their escort vessels can't keep up ... that's a fact ... excluding nuclear powered attack submarines. As far back as 1980 the Eisenhower, deployed from Norfolk, VA, was on station in the Arabian Sea 14 days later ... she averaged 35 plus knots 24 hours a day for two weeks. The Eisenhower was sent in to back up, and eventually relieve, the Nimitz during the dust-up with Iran over the hostage crises in Tehran. Also, pal ... you might try hitting the spell check before posting.