How many aircraft carriers are in the US? The names and types of US aircraft carriers

The navy is, of course, an object of special pride for any modern naval power. To date, the world's most powerful flotilla unconditionally possess the United States of America. It is this country, which actively claims to world domination, pays the closest attention to the technical development of its ships, performing a variety of combat missions in all corners of the planet. In this article, the current US aircraft carriers will be considered.

As an introduction

In our modern time in the world there are only ten states that have aircraft carriers as part of their naval forces. Unconditional leaders of the conditional rating are precisely the Americans, who have 11 aircraft carriers. The second place was shared between Italy and Spain. These countries have two such ships. This is followed by China, Russia, France, Brazil, India, Thailand, Great Britain. All these states have one aircraft carrier.

Appointment

Modern aircraft carriers of the United States - in fact, a vivid symbol of power and power. US admirals refer to these ships as the "backbones" of the entire navy of their country. In principle, this is easy to explain, since these vessels are able to stand autonomously for several months in the open sea or ocean, away from their land bases, and also to travel to any point on the planet with great speed, to take part in hostilities against Absolutely any opponent and at the same time to be away from him at a tremendous distance, thus ensuring a high level of his own security.

The core of the team

Despite how many aircraft carriers in the US now and how many will be in the future, these ships were, are and will be the basis of the carrier-based strike group. At the same time, any such vessel does not have its own powerful defensive weapons and is not adapted for carrying out independent actions. The aircraft carrier moves on the water surface under the cover of other ships. A distinctive feature of the strike group is its ability to travel a distance of almost 1500 kilometers per day and at the same time to remain unnoticed for a potential adversary.

Wartime tasks

Considering the combat missions of aircraft carriers, it is advisable to get acquainted with the mission of the entire aircraft carrier strike group, which was created for:

• Attacks on various objects that are located both on the coast and on land.
• Aviation cover and support for the landing party and land units that conduct their operations in the coastal zone.
• Conquering and retaining absolute superiority in the airspace in the area of the planned military operation.
• Providing air defense of other ships, assault, convoys while driving them on the sea.
• Blockade of the coastal line of the enemy.
• Tactical aerial reconnaissance.

Strictly speaking, in peacetime, the United States, through the use of air strike groups, shows the whole world its power and strength in key regions of the planet, politically important for the country.

American Titans

So, let's take a closer look at how many aircraft carriers in the US. As already mentioned above, there are eleven of them. The list of US aircraft carriers is as follows:

• "Nimitz".
• "Dwight Eisenhower."
• Theodore Roosevelt.
• "Carl Vinson."
• "Abraham Lincoln".
• "George Washington".
• John C. Stennis.
• Harry Truman.
• "George Bush".
• "Ronald Reagan."
• "Gerald R. Ford."

Now let's get to know them better.

The sixth ship of the Nimitz type

This is the account for the aircraft carrier George Washington. The vessel was launched in July 1990. The technical capabilities of the ship allow it to carry about 90 aircraft and helicopters, for the lifting of which directly on the deck are used four freight elevators. The total area of the deck is 18,000 square meters. The aircraft carrier is capable of placing on its board about 6250 people. To stop the ship uses two anchors, each weighing 30 tons.

The ship was the first vessel for the US to have a nuclear power plant, which was permanently stationed on a military base in the territory of a foreign state. This happened in 2008, when the aircraft carrier was seconded to Japan. In the same year, an emergency occurred on the ship - a violent fire. The crew was able to completely extinguish the fire in only 12 hours, and the amount of damage was about 70 million dollars. At the same time, 37 people were injured.

The ship of presidents

"Carl Vinson" - the aircraft carrier, which was commissioned in May 1982. The ship is named in honor of the congressman, who for 29 years was the head of the Committee for Armed Services. The main place of service of the ship was the Indian and Pacific Ocean, as well as the Persian Gulf. The vessel was involved in the filming of the film "Best shooter".

After the destruction of Osama bin Laden in the spring of 2011, his body was delivered to this aircraft carrier, and then sent to the waters of the Arabian Sea. And six months later, Barack Obama and his wife visited a basketball match between student teams, which was held on the deck of this sea giant.

Ship for women

In fact, there is nothing insulting in this phrase for men sailors. Just the aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" became the first of its kind ship, on which women were allowed to serve. Unfortunately, there was a tragedy here. In October 1994, during the approach to the landing after the training flight, officer Kara Haltring was killed.

During the combat operation in Iraq in 2003, more than 16,500 sorties were flown from the ship.

The aircraft carrier is the place where everything is subject to very precise coordination and order. Since the length of the runway is only 150 meters, the take-off aircraft use a so-called catapult, which, it can be said, literally throws the aircraft into the air.

But the most important element of the runway is the brake cable. During landing, the pilot of the aircraft must be able to hook on the hook for one of four such locking elements. In this case, the aircraft lands at full speed. This is due to the fact that in case of failure he will be obliged again to go for an emergency take-off. By the way, the ship has a so-called red room, in which the pilots are on duty in full combat readiness around the clock, being ready to fly at any moment to complete the assignment.

An interesting fact: two times a day, absolutely every member of the deck crew goes to the march. All these military men go closely to each other and examine the deck in detail in order to find various foreign objects that can cause extremely undesirable mechanical damages to an expensive turbine.

Wrestler with Igil

The aircraft carrier Harry Truman was launched on July 25, 1998 with the participation of then-US President Bill Clinton. Construction of the ship cost the country's budget 4.5 billion dollars. It is also worth noting that this American aircraft carrier has a secret booking and a resource of working capacity, designed for 20-25 years.

The first military campaign for the ship was a swim in the Persian Gulf in November 2000. At the end of December 2015, the aircraft carrier took an active part in the operation against the terrorist organization "Islamic State". From the deck of the ship, combat sorties of planes were made to carry out strikes against militant positions. The ship and its air wing interacted with the French naval forces, who also participated in the operation in Syria.

The ship of the future

The "Ford" type aircraft carrier is an American combat ship, which has already replaced the morally and physically obsolete ships of Nimitz. The commissioning of a new aircraft carrier is planned for 2017.

A distinctive feature of the new vessel is the presence on it of an electromagnetic catapult, which operates using a linear electric motor. The catapult makes it possible to accelerate the fighters more smoothly and neatly, which allows reducing the overloads acting on the steel structure of each such expensive aircraft board.

In addition, a pair of new reactors designed specifically for this aircraft carrier have the ability to produce 25% more electrical energy than previous similar power plants. The resulting power reserve allows the ship to perform a quicker recharge of the catapult much faster. The number of service personnel has also decreased, which now amounts to 4,660 people. This allows you to reduce the burden on the budget, since this American aircraft carrier will cost the country cheaper by 4 billion than its predecessor.

Fortieth President of the United States

The aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan became a full member of the fleet in July 2003. The ship has a couple of significant differences from its "fellow". The first is the presence of three (and not four) high-strength brake cables. Second - the bow of the ship has a bulbous shape, which is made to increase the stability of the entire aircraft carrier.

"Ronald Reagan" is able to carry on board about ninety helicopters and aircraft. The main strike force of the ship is the F / A-18 Hornet broad-range military aircraft, which have already been repeatedly tested in practice in various US combat operations.

"Dirty" aircraft carrier

The "George Bush" ship was given such a nickname not by accident, but all because the vacuum system of toilet flushing on the ship very often fails. That is, simply put, all 423 toilet bowls of the ship are hammered. The first problems with them arose in 2011, when the aircraft carrier made his trip to the Persian Gulf for the performance of a combat mission.

However, there are positive qualities of this ship. So, in particular, the system of electronics and communications has been modernized. Also, the filling process is displayed at semi-automatic level. On the deck gas deflectors have been updated.

Active participant of special operations

Studying the current US aircraft carriers, you can not ignore the "Theodore Roosevelt." This ship was the first of the existing aircraft carriers, which was assembled using a modular design. Each module was built separately from each other, and the assembly of all these parts was made already at a single point by welding. This principle of construction of the vessel made it possible to significantly reduce the initial terms for the execution of construction works. As a result, on October 25, 1986 the ship was accepted for military service and became a full member of the US Navy. Starting from January 16, 1991, the aircraft carrier took part in the fighting in the Persian Gulf. From its deck, 4200 sorties were flown, which enabled them to drop almost 5 million pounds of ammunition into the enemy's territory.

After the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, the ship went on a military campaign against Al-Qaeda, based at that time in Afghanistan. On October 4, 2001, the aircraft carrier was hit by destructive missile strikes from the Arabian water area on the positions of militants. As a result of the operation, the ship spent 159 days at sea, which set a record of the stay of ships on the high seas after the Second World War.

Regardless of how many aircraft carriers in the United States are in combat duty, each of them necessarily undergoes regular thorough repairs on a regular basis. Theodore Roosevelt was no exception in this matter. From the summer of 2009 to the summer of 2013, he stayed at Newport News Shipbuilding (Virginia). Thanks to this reconstruction, the ship will be able to stay in the ranks of the US Navy for another 23 years. The total cost of work amounted to 2.6 billion dollars.

Ship of Peace

In conclusion, when we consider the number of aircraft carriers in the United States, let us pay attention to a ship of this type called Dwight Eisenhower.

This combat ship was commissioned in 1977. In the period 1985-1987 the ship stayed at its first planned reconstruction, and the second one fell on 2001-2005. Almost twenty years the aircraft carrier was "peaceful" and did not take part in any military operations. However, in 1991 he was involved in the war zone - the Persian Gulf. In 2000, the ship provided no-fly zones in Iran during the execution of Operation Southern Watch.