Whether good weather, day or night, or on the most violent seas, our Navy’s armadas are ready for action. Here you will see some rarely captured hi-definition videos of our Navy personnel accomplishing their routine daily tasks with finesse and skill the likes of which should make one both proud and thankful. Much of these first two videos is taken onboard the pre-Nimitz Class USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered U.S. Aircraft Carrier.
The newest Nimitz Class Carriers are the largest warships ever built and have over 6,000 personnel (crew and aircrews). They displace over 102,000 Tons and have flight decks as long as three football fields. These huge ships have their own post office, hospital, dental clinic, barbershops, athletic facilities, chapels and much more. They are virtual floating cities with some 18 levels, including eight above the hangar bay and ten more decks below. These behemoths are designed to last half a century with only one scheduled refueling, in mid-life.
These clips will bring you up close and personal with the sailors of the US Navy as they prepare their thunderous F-18 Super Hornets for flight, and then retrieve them when they return from their missions. You will also witness the launching of the Navy’s Grumman Utility C-2 “Greyhound” utility-cargo planes, and even see at sea ship-to-ship cargo transfers take place.
Video Credits: Stacy Atkinsricks, Thomas Gooley, Janine Jones, Cody Deccio. Derivative Work by Daily Aviation Archive. Music credit: Green Leaf Stomp – – – Jingle Punks.
Make sure your sound is on and go to full screen to appreciate this high-definition videography. This first video is 10:40 long.
Below is a hi-definition video showing how our large carriers replenish their supplies while underway on the high seas. Since all U.S. carriers are nuclear powered, they need no refueling for their own power requirements, but they do occasionally need to take on Jet-Fuel and large quantities of other supplies for the needs of their onboard equipment and personnel. This clip is also courtesy of the Daily Aviation Video Archive. The video is 12:41 long.
This next video is onboard the newer Nimitz Class Nuclear Carrier, Theodore Roosevelt, (CVN-71) nicknamed, the “Big Stick.” As in the first video above, this clip shows daily life aboard the huge fighting machine, but it also depicts actual night operations and the launching and capture of one of the Navy’s new Jet-Powered Drone aircraft. It is 17:47 in length.
And, these last two (2) videos are of the nation’s newest dreadnaught, the Gerald R. Ford, CVN-78. Although similar in overall size to the older nuclear-powered Nimitz Class Carriers, seen above, this new 13 Billion Dollar vessel has many advanced systems and newer technology on board.
It is also the first of a new 21st Century class of Carrier, known as the Ford Class. It will be the world’s first carrier to employ unique high-powered magnetic jet-launching catapults, rather than the steam-powered devices found on all of its earlier sister ships. Its huge nuclear propulsion engines are 250% more powerful than those of the Nimitz class. Because of many internal design changes from the earlier Nimitz Class carriers, and also because of the ship’s higher level of technology and automation, the actual number of crew members required to efficiently operate the Ford is substantially less than that required aboard the Nimitz ships.
After its commissioning and during its first sea trial-runs, the ship encountered some unexpected magnetic-launch problems, but those have now been ironed out as you will see in this 1st Ford video, which is 4:16 long.
This second video on the USS Ford, is longer (22:59 in length), but it shows more detail behind its construction, as well as of its shake-down cruise operations.
