Characteristics of the aircraft carrier "Nimitz". The aircraft carrier "Nimitz": description, photo

Aircraft carriers such as "Nimitz" are some of the largest and most dangerous warships in the world. Each of them has its own nuclear power plant. Their main purpose is to conduct a variety of military operations as part of air strike groups, whose main task is to defeat surface targets of any size, as well as to provide air defense for US warships.

Basic data

The aircraft carriers "Nimitz", the total mass of ammunition which is 1954 tons, are considered to be one of the most powerful warships in the world.

The main armament of these ships is the deck aircraft in the fighter, helicopter and military aircraft, thanks to which the aircraft carrier easily copes with such tasks as:

• Electronic warfare ;
• Detection of the enemy at a significant distance;
• transportation.

At the same time, if the aircraft carrier is attacked at the moment when all air equipment will be involved in carrying out an operation, he can easily repel an attack with his own anti-aircraft, missile and artillery systems that are installed on his aircraft.

In fact, aircraft carriers like "Nimitz" favorably differ from other warships. For example, their body is made entirely of steel sheets, and all the key elements, including the deck used for flights, are made of armored steel.

In this case, the structure of the ship is designed in such a way that not only improves the running characteristics, but also allows for more rational placement of the steering and steering system.

Features of the structure

When creating the aircraft carrier "Nimitz", the developers focused on the design of the flight deck, making it one of the main elements of the ship. It played a key role not only in the appearance of the aircraft carrier, but also allowed to place on it a record number of fighters and various technical means. The useful area of the flight deck is divided into three main zones:

1. Take-off - in this part of the ship there are 4 steam catapults with a weight of 180 tons and a length of up to 100 m. They make it possible to ensure the unproblematic take-off of combat aircraft, whose weight reaches 40-43 tons with a speed of acceleration up to 300 km / h.
2. Landing.
3. The park.

Each part of the aircraft carrier is equipped with all the necessary systems used to service fighters and helicopters. On some ships like "Nimitz" these zones are combined due to the limited size of the flight deck.

Protection measures

Since most of the aircraft on board are equipped with jet engines to protect people working on the ship and the equipment and weapons there are from the action of gas jets, special reflectors are provided on the deck. At the same time, to ensure that the surface of the deck, which is under almost constant influence of various technical means and tools, does not overheat, special deck panels are made, which are naturally cooled as a result of the continuous impact of water coming directly from the side.

In order to ensure greater stability of the flight deck, which must withstand the huge weight of fighters and associated equipment (especially in the area of side, overhanging sections), the aircraft carrier is provided with a special gallery deck. On some ships in the space that remains under it, equip an additional hangar with two-layer protection.

In addition, this deck accommodates the crew cabins and most of the command rooms. Access to the upper deck is provided by bypass bridges. In addition, the military can, without climbing from the gallery deck to the top, move along the front of the ship from nose to stern on a special through passage.

On the remaining decks are placed special mechanisms that allow moving fighter planes for more rational distribution of spaces. In addition, there are also cabin crew officers and medical offices. Here also there are canteens of personnel, which, if necessary, can be immediately converted into zones for the assembly of aviation munitions.

In the hold are equipped cellars used for storage of ammunition, tanks with fuel for aviation equipment and pantries for various purposes. In addition, freezers and refrigerators for storing food are also located here, so the team, without much difficulty, can stay in the open sea for a long time.

Protection of the aircraft carrier

The system of the aircraft carrier "Nimitz" includes two main degrees of protection:

• Surface - consists of 3 decks, the compartments between which are used for filling with water or fuel.
• Onboard / underwater - protects the ship from the sides and bottoms of contact explosions of torpedoes and various projectiles. These elements of the ship are equipped with armored decking and armored cross baffles.

The first ship of the Nimitz type

The aircraft carrier "Nimitz", whose photo is presented in this article, became the first and, as a consequence, the main ship of this series of warships. He was repeatedly used in various military operations, including operations in Yugoslavia and Iraq.

"Nimitz" - aircraft carrier, received its name in honor of the admiral of the American fleet. His name is Nimitz William.

The aircraft carrier "Nimitz": characteristics

To date, "Nimitz" is a universal military ship, which has the most modern weapons on board, which can be successfully used not only for attack, but also for defense. The maximum speed that the Nimitz nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can develop on two nuclear reactors and four steam turbines is 31.5 knots (58.3 km / h).

The ship's operational lifetime reaches 50 years, after which the obsolete aircraft carrier is replaced by a more modern ship of this type.

Series composition

It is noteworthy that the American aircraft carrier "Nimitz", like all vessels of this type, has a personal airborne number.

So, for example, the first ship of this type has the number CVN-68, which stands for:

• C - Cruiser.
• V - Voler (French fly).
• N-Nuclea (English nuclear).
• 68 - Serial number.

Armament

The aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class is armed with three S-Sparrow missile systems and four 20-mm antiaircraft artillery complexes Vulkan-Falanks. In the future, it is planned to install on each of the aircraft carriers several three-tube 324-mm torpedo tubes designed to combat torpedoes guided along the wake.

"Nimitz" is an aircraft carrier whose weapons usually include up to 86 combat aircraft and helicopters of several types of deck aircraft. So, for example, on the aircraft carrier CVN-71 - Theodore Roosevelt, who sensed in the fighting against Iraq in January 1991, the air wing included 78 aircraft.

Crew

"Nimitz" is an aircraft carrier whose crew is 6286 people:

• The size of the staff is 3184 people.
• Airwing service - 2800 people.
• The marching headquarters - 70 people.

Features of the control system

The US aircraft carrier Nimitz is equipped with a large number of innovative systems that allow to manage military equipment with little or no human involvement. So, for example, to land an airplane in poor visibility, when the pilot does not see the runway, an automatic landing system called ACLS is used.

As soon as the visibility starts to be less than 1000 m, the system independently requests and processes all data on flight parameters from the TACAN air navigation system and other aircraft devices, encodes information and sends signals to the on-board autopilot. After that, the aircraft is automatically output exactly to the angle of the angular deck of the aircraft carrier without participation in the pilot landing process.

Transactions performed

The strike aircraft carrier "Nimitz" in 1980 participated in a failed operation called "Eagle's Claw". Its main goal was to release the hostages of the US embassy in Tehran. During the operation he stayed for about six months.

In addition, Nimitz is an aircraft carrier that provided security for the 1988 Olympic Games held in Seoul in 1988. In 1991, he took part in Operation Desert Storm, and since 2003 he has been actively used by the US Armed Forces in the war against Iraq.

The cost of an aircraft carrier

The cost of building an aircraft carrier depends on many factors. First of all, the number of deck ships, the type and number of aircraft on board, as well as the availability and type of weapons. The construction of the first aircraft carriers of this class was spent about several hundred million dollars. At the same time, the cost of the last aircraft carrier called "Bush" was already about $ 6.5 billion.

Since on board each new aircraft carrier they install the most advanced weapons and high-class technological equipment, the share of innovative equipment on board the latest aircraft carriers is 50%, which could not but affect the increase in their cost.

With regard to the timing of construction, from the time of the laying of such a ship before launching, it usually takes up to 8 years. The aircraft carrier has a complex structure and control system, as a result of which it takes much longer to build it than to create a conventional ship.

Conclusion

To date, the US military leadership considers it impractical to increase the number of ships of the Nimitz type, considering that it is necessary to maintain 10 existing aircraft carriers and one training vehicle in the system, replacing them only as needed, when the life of one of the ships will come to an end.