So You Want To Serve on a Supercarrier Quiz

Answer: ten

The United States Navy commissioned a total of 10 Nimitz-class aircraft supercarriers during the construction period of that vessel class.

Throughout the 20th century, supercarriers were the largest warships afloat, and represented the impressive warfare superiority of United States Military and Naval Forces.

Nimitz-class supercarriers are identified by the navy designation "CVN". "CV" identifies the ships as being aircraft carriers, and "N" denoting the fact that they are nuclear powered.
The vessel hulls are numbered consecutively, starting with the number 68, and through the number 77.

The 10 supercarriers commissioned by the United States Navy and their home ports (as of 7/1/2009) were:

** CVN-68, USS Nimitz _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ San Diego, CA.
** CVN-69, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower _ _ _ _ _ _ Norfolk, VA.
** CVN-70, USS Carl Vinson _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Newport News, VA.
** CVN-71, USS Theodore Roosevelt _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Norfolk, VA.
** CVN-72, USS Abraham Lincoln _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Everett, WA.

** CVN-73, USS George Washington _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Yokosuka, Japan
** CVN-74, USS John C. Stennis _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Bremerton, WA.
** CVN-75, USS Harry S. Truman _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Norfolk, VA.
** CVN-76, USS Ronald Reagan _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ San Diego, CA.
** CVN-77, USS George H.W. Bush _ _ _ __ _ _ _ Norfolk, VA.

Should the need or a threat arise, The United States Navy can respond to any point on the globe within days, bringing a sovereign mobile military combat airport into international waters.

The Nimitz-class supercruisers were unrivaled as far as 20th century military firepower, and could be rapidly deployed.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
The Nimitz-class aircraft supercarrierss were the largest warships ever constructed during the 20th century.
The first ship of this class, USS Nimitz (CVN 68), was commissioned for active duty on May 3, 1975. The 10th and final ship of the class, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), was commissioned for service on January 10, 2009.

Answer: False

The supercarriers can hold their own on the high seas.

Each supercarrier is equipped with a number of defensive and offensive resources.

Supercarriers can deploy countermeasures as defense from submarine attack.
An electronic "decoy" can be released and towed behind the ship. The decoy device is designed to attract torpedoes fired from enemy submarines.

Each supercarrier is equipped with several "NATO Sea Sparrow" missile launchers, a short range anti-air and anti-missiles defensive weapons system.

Supercarrier also maintain what is known as the "Rolling Airframe Missiles", a surface-to-air missile defense system that counters anti-ship cruise missiles.

Considered as their last "line of defense", a number of "2mm Phalanx CIWC Mounts" are positioned in various location around the deck of the supercarrier. This computer controlled weapons system operates 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling Guns, capable of firing between 3000 and 4500 rounds per minute. The guns will automatically lock onto an anti-ship missiles or anything that threatens the integrity of the ship, and will literally blow the threat into pieces.

Aircraft launched from the ship, both fixed wing and rotor aircraft, can deliver additional defensive countermeasures.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
All ten of the United States supercarriers were built by the Newport News Shipbuilders of Virginia.
The average construction cost for each of a supercarrier was about 4.5 billion (American) dollars.
The averaged construction time (from date laid out until date launched) is three year and eight months. The shortest construction time was 2 years and 8 months for the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) from 3/13/91 until 11/11/93. The longest construction time was 5 years and 2 months for the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) from 8/15/70 until 11/11/75.

Answer: aviation ordnance personnel

Aviation Ordnance personnel are responsible for the maintaining and the final placement and arming of weapons, missiles, and bombs on the aircraft just prior to them being launched from the supercarrier.

Ordnance is stored in munition magazines located below the flight deck. As they are needed, ordnance personnel will bring the required munitions to the flight deck, using specially designated elevators.
Once on the flight deck, the munitions are loaded and activated by the "red shirts".

Color coded shirt worn by crew members on the flight deck will identify the specific task of each person on the flight deck.

The color coded shirts includes:

* Red Shirts - worn by Ordnance personnel.

* Yellow Shirts - worn by Aircraft Directors, who are responsible for the movement of planes from the hanger deck to the flight deck, and around the ship.

* Green Shirts - worn by catapult and arresting gear personnel, who are responsible for securing the front landing gear of an aircraft into the catapult shuttles prior to launch, and securing the arresting wires following the landing of an aircraft on the flight deck.

* Blue Shirts - worn by members of the flight deck crew. Their responsibilities includes physically pushing aircraft in position, the chocking and chaining of aircraft, and the maintenance of the flight deck.

* Brown Shirts - worn by plane captains, who are responsible for supervising maintenance and preparation of their assigned aircraft.

* Purple Shirts - worn by crew members (sometimes referred to as "Grapes") are assigned to handle fuel and the refueling duties for the aircraft and vehicles aboard the supercarrier.

* White Shirts - worn by the Landing Signaling Officer (LSO), who are aviators charged with controlling safe landings aboard the supercarriers.
White shirts are also worn by both safety and medical personnel.

* Black and White Checkered Shirts - worn by the inspectors who conduct the final quality control and safety checks on aircraft just prior to their actual launch.

The design pattern of the trousers worn by flight deck personnel also indicates their respective ranks:

* "Woodland Camouflage" pants are worn by Junior sailors and Petty Officers.

* "Desert Camouflage" pants are worn by Chief Petty Officers, Warrant Officers, and Commissioned Officers.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
Each supercarrier is powered by two A4W Nuclear Reactors with four shafts.
A supercarrier can cruise at over 30 knots, and has an unlimited range.

Nuclear powered supercarriers can operate continuously for 20 to 25 years before refueling is required.

Answer: True

This qualification is also true for the Air Officer (Air Boss).

Having the personal knowledge and experience as a pilot increases the awareness and knowledge of key personnel to the critical challenges of flight operations.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
From the keel to the Mass, a supercarrier measures about 244 feel, roughly the size equivalence of a 24 story building.
The length if a supercarrier is averages about 1,092 feet (332.85 meters) roughly the length of three football fields.

Answer: The Air Officer

The Captain is ultimately responsible for flight operations as he is responsible for everything on the ship, but he designates the Authority to conduct flight ops to the Air Officer.

Commonly referred to as the "Air Boss", the Air Officer is responsible for all aspects or aircraft operations. Their authority covers the hangar deck and flight deck aboard the carrier, as well as any airborne aircraft within five nautical miles of the supercarrier.

The Flight Officer (Air Boss) operates from the Flight Control Center, located on the top level (tower) of the aircraft carrier, and maintains visual control of all aircraft in the carriers control zone.

The Flight Control Officer is assisted by subordinate officers in the Flight Control Center who are known as "Mini Bosses".

Supercarrier Tidbit:
To accommodate the needs of the crew during a deployment, typically found aboard a supercarrier are 2,500 telephones, 3,000 television sets, a 53 bed hospital/medical facility, five dentist, six medical doctors, three chapel with interdenominational chaplains, and one barber shop. The barber shop routinely performs an average of about 1,500 haircuts per weeks.

Answer: six thousand

A typical deployment compliment of crew might consist of:

* 3,200 Naval ship personnel, including about 205 officers, and
* 2,800 Naval personnel assigned to the Air Wing, including 365 officers.

As a Nimitz-class supercarriers, is often referred to as a "cities on the sea", Naval ship personnel perform a wide assortment of duties not associated with the flight deck operations.
Other shipboard jobs includes a mess and galley staff, responsible for preparing meals for all personnel aboard the supercarrier, a deck or "boatswain" crew responsible for resupplying the supercarrier during cruises, a full medical staff, including doctors, dentist, and hospital staff members, security personnel, and staff to manage the numerous office administrative duties, including a postal staff for the ships post office. The post office aboard a supercarrier routinely handles over one million pounds of mail annually.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
To accommodate the basic needs of the crew, a supercarrier must have a food supply storage capacity for refrigerated and dried foods sufficient to feed the crew of 6,000, four complete meals daily, for 70 day period.

To replenish the supercarriers inventories of supplies and aviation fuel, they are resupplied, usually on a weekly basis, by naval supply ships that perform the hazardous duty of transferring cargo to the supercarriers while both ships are underway.

Answer: False

Each supercarrier maintains an assigned Air Wing, and the aircraft tail code will identify from which carrier the plane was assigned.

Listings for Air Wings (as of 7/1-2009)were:

Carrier_____Tailcode______________Assigned to_______________Air Wing
Air Wing___Designation________Supercarrier_____________Home Base

CVN-2_______'NE'___________USS Abraham Lincoln_______NAS Lemoore, California
CVN-3_______'AC'___________USS Harry S. Truman_______NAS Oceana, Virginia
CVN-5_______'NF'___________USS George Washington_____NAS Atsugi, Japan
CVN-7_______'AG'___________USS Dwight D. Eisenhower__NAS Oceana, Virginia
CVN-8_______'AS'___________USS Theodore Roosevelt____NAS Oceana, Virginia
CVN-9_______'NG'___________USS John C. Stennis_______NAS Lemoore, California
CVN-11______'NH'___________USS Nimitz________________NAS Lemoore, California
CVN-14______'NK'___________USS Ronald Reagan_________NAS Lemoore, California

__________CVN = Carrier Air Wing______________NAS = Naval Air Station

Supercarrier Tidbit:
Each type or class of aircraft aboard the supercarrier requires a specific power setting for catapult launch. The steam pressure for the catapults, which is generated by the ships reactors, will launch an aircraft at a speed that accelerates the aircraft from 0 to 165 miles per hour in two seconds. During a typical launch cycle, the supercarrier can launch an aircraft every 30 seconds.

An Air Wing assigned to a supercarrier usually consist of nine squadrons with a total of 70-80 aircraft.

Answer: A-10 Thunderbolt II

The "A-10 Thunderbolt II" is a close air support ground attack aircraft PRIMARILY used by the U.S. Air Force. It is NOT listed as a "carrier based aircraft.

The "EA-6B Prowler" is a twin jet engine aircraft primarily used as an "electronic warfare aircraft". The aircraft has the ability to jam enemy radar and to intercept enemy communications. The aircraft can also be used for the gathering of electronic intelligence.

The "E-2 Hawkeye", sometimes nicknamed "Super Fudd" or the "Hummer," is an early warning aircraft. It can provide electronic surveillance information, and with its highly advanced radar systems, can monitor activities of enemy threats and relay time sensitive and classified information to the air wing, constantly keeping the fighter jet aircraft updated on enemy activities. The computerized sensors provides threat analysis data and information to direct counteraction against air and surface targets.

The "SH-60 Seahawk" is a twin engine helicopter that serves primarily to detect and neutralize enemy submarines and to perform search and rescue missions should the need arise.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
Each supercarrier has the storage capacity for 3.3 million gallons of high-grade "JP5" aviation fuel to accommodate its fleet of aircraft and shipboard vehicles.
The supercarriers maintains a laboratory section where the fuel technician (purple shirts) continually perform fuel purification procedures and testing of the fuel to insure that the fuel maintains the required high quality. Nearly 200 fuel samples from the storage tank are tested daily.
The weight of the stored fuel also serves as additional ballast for the supercarrier.
JP5 aviation fuel has the high flash point of aviation fuels, and is used almost exclusively by aircraft carriers as an additional means to reduce the risk of shipboard fires.

Answer: False

The aircraft approaches the flight deck at near full power, attempting to hook the number three (of four) arrest wire. The pilot goes to full throttle at the anticipated moment of landing on the flight deck. Should the pilot miss all four of the arrest wires with the landing gear "tail hook" the aircraft will have sufficient power to continue flight off the deck, circle around, and attempt a second landing.

During the final landing approach to the carrier, the pilot visually lines the aircraft on the landing glide slope. The pilot is assisted by the visual signal lights of the "Optical Landing System" located on the rear of the ship, which are controlled by the Landing Signal Officer (LSO), who indicates to the pilot whether or not the aircraft is in proper position to continue the approach onto the flight deck. After the pilot has spotted the visual lighting display, he will verify his sighting by verbally informing the LSO, or "calling the ball". At that point, the LSO will assume control authority of the aircraft and issue final landing clearance, acknowledging control of the landing by advising the pilot with "roger ball".
Should the landing condition (approach path, wind conditions, aircraft speed) not meet the approval of the LSO, they have the authority to signal the aircraft to "waive off" (abort) the landing, and instruct the pilot to "go around" to make another landing attempt.

Supercarrier Tidbit:
Prior to the landing of each aircraft on the deck of the carrier, the specific tension setting, based on the size and weight of the aircraft, is programmed into the arresting gear engines, to insure that the aircraft will be brought to an immediate stop.
At the time of hooking (trap) the arrest cable, the plane which is traveling at full throttle, is brought to a complete stop in less than three seconds.
A plane that fails to trap and continues to fly off deck is known as a "bolter".

Under normal safety operating procedures, each arresting wire is replaced after 100 landings or traps.

Answer: False

Flight operations on a supercarrier continue on a 24 hour basis.

Night operations on a supercarrier creates an added challenge to Naval Aviators, as lighting on the flight decks are kept to a bare minimum, to conceal the location of the supercarrier to the enemy, and landings are accomplished with the aid of the instrumentation aboard the aircraft.

A night landing on a moving vessel, in the middle of the rolling, pitching sea is considered one of the most difficult and most dangerous task for any aviator to accomplish, but it is a task that is accomplished time and time again, almost a matter of routine by the highly trained and skilled aviators.


Reference source material for this quiz included:

Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers
en.wikipidia.org/wiki/nimitz_class_aircraft_carriers

Supercarriers - Giant Aircraft Carriers
www.battle-fleet.com/pn/his/supercarriers

HowStuffWorks Supercarriers
video.howstuffworks.com/discovery/3190 weapons_that_changed_the_world_supercarriers

HowStuffWorks Aircraft Carriers
science.howstuffworks.com/aircraft_carriers

Aircraft Carrier CV, CVN Fact File
www.navy/mil/navydatafact-disp