With minimal modification, each Wasp can carry 24 Harriers. Marine corps landing force and have full-length carrier-like flight decks.Įach ship can carry 10 MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor transports, 4 CH-53E heavy transport helicopters, 3 UH-1 Huey helicopters, 4 AH-1Z attack helicopters, and 6 AV-8B Harrier jump jets. The ships are designed to carry air and land elements of a U.S. These ships are 843 feet long and displace roughly 40,000 tons. In addition to the Nimitz-class, the United States Navy also operates nine landing helicopter dock ships of the Wasp and America classes. The ships are built with high-tensile steel for protection, with layers of Kevlar over vital spaces.Įach Nimitz typically carries an air wing consisting of 24 F/A-18C Hornets, 24 F/A-E/F Super Hornets, 4 to 5 E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, 4 E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft, 2 C-2 Greyhound transport aircraft, and 6 Seahawk helicopters. Each ship is propelled to speeds in excess of 30 knots by a pair of nuclear reactors, giving them nearly unlimited range. The Nimitz carriers are 1,092 feet long and weigh a whopping 101,600 tons-60 percent larger than their nearest counterparts, the Queen Elizabeth class. The United States now operates 10 Nimitz-class "supercarriers," aircraft carriers that dwarf all other flat-tops worldwide both in size and capability. Navy, which boasts 19 of the 36 such ships currently plying the world's waters Not surprisingly, it's dominated by the U.S.
Others are a half-century old or older, carry just a handful of obsolete planes, and rarely leave base. Some of the world's carriers are new, bristling with planes and capable of circumnavigating the globe without refueling. They form an exclusive club, one whose members who have decided their interests stretch so far from their own waters they need to put air power at sea.īroadly speaking, there are three kinds of aircraft carrier today: larger aircraft carriers that carry both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, smaller carriers that operate helicopters, and amphibious ships that have full-length flight decks, hangars, and carry helicopters. Only a handful of countries have aircraft carriers in their arsenals.
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