Step Aboard the Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier: A Reason for US Navy Dominance?

bySebastien Roblin

Giant aircraft carriers have become synonymous with U.S. military power, but many do not realize just how exceptional these vessels are.

These floating air bases are loaded with dozens of advanced war planes and can launch up to 150 sorties per day. No other nation has deployed a nuclear-powered supercarriers of comparable size and striking power—and the United States Navy operates eleven of them.

All but one of those carriers belongs to the Nimitz-class, a design which until 2017 was the largest vessel ever built, with hulking displacement exceeding 113,000 tons loaded and a ship’s company of 3,200.

Named after Chester Nimitz, legendary commander of U.S. Pacific forces during World War II, the Nimitz was then only the United States’ second nuclear-powered carrier when she was commissioned in 1975 with hull number CVN-68.

The preceding USS Enterprise employed eight nuclear reactors, but the Nimitz generated nearly as much power (190 megawatts) using just two Westinghouse A4W reactors to turn four steam turbines. Those turbines crank four bronze propellers in the stern that can propel the 330-meter long vessel—that’s longer than three football fields—up to speeds of thirty knots (thirty-five miles per hour), adequate to outrun most diesel-electric submarines. The reactors only require refueling every twenty years, thought that process is lengthy, expensive, and usually combined with a major overhaul.

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