Aircraft Carriers III

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member

This is a video of a US Navy Carrier Strike Group in 1/350 scale containing two US Navy Nuclear aircraft carriers. One is a Nimitz class, the USS Ronald Reagan, CVN-76, and the other is a new Ford class, USS Enterprise, CVN-80.

The Enterprise is undergoing initial design and module construction. The 1st Ford class, the USS Gerald Ford has already been launched and commissioned. the 2nd, the USS John Kennedy, CVN-79, is nearing completion in building and should launch in about a year.

Alll US nuclear carriers are capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft of all types. The 5th generation F-35C aircraft are currently being integrated into the fleet. A few years after the Enterprise launches, the 6th generation aircraft will be building to embark on US carriers in the late 2020s or early 2030s.

With their large air-wings and their awesome capability, and with their strong support ships, particularly the AEGIS destroyers and cruisers, which ar shown in this video, along with the nuclear attack submarines, there is no stronger or more powerful naval force in the world at this point...not even close, though the French, the British, the Chinese, and the Russians (the French and Russians only have one carrier each, the British and Chinese currently have two) all have powerful CSGs themselves.

Ultimately the Chinese intend to have up to six carriers and after their fourth, they intend to build similar carriers to the US Navy carriers with nuclear power, and larger airwings which will make them very powerful indeed.

In this force we include the two carriers (and you can see separate videos about each of the carrier on my channel) and three AEGIS Burke destroyers, two AEGIS Ticonderoga cruisers, two Freedom class LCS or frigates, and two nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) one a Virginia class, the USS Texas, and the other the USS Sea Wolf. Each of those are the most powerful nuclear attack submarine classes in the world.

The five AEGIS ships shown include a total of 542 vertical launch cells for anti-aircraft missiles that can defend the ships and carriers in several layers with probably about 400 of those cells used for defense out to well over 100 nm from the vessels, and with about 160 ESSM missiles (quad-packed in 8 cells on each ship for defense out to 4-=5- nm, and then the RAM missiles, not in VLS but in 21 missile canisters on the carriers and the frigates, a total of six times 21 missiles with ranges out to 12-15 miles. The ships also include the Phalanx CIWS with their six-barreled 20mm Gatling guns to defeat incoming missiles aout to 3+ miles. A total of nine or ten of those weapons systems are in the group.

The AEGIS system can be configured to interface with all ships in the group and automatically calculate the best defense from all ships, principally controlled by the Ticonderoga cruisers, or any of the AEGIS ships. That defense can be over-ridden at any time by the judgement of the officers and have manual attacks added to the mix as deemed necessary.

All in all, an awesome package, and, as I say, the most powerful and advanced in the world to date.

See my Jeff Head Channel on YouTube for many other videos of individual modern ships in 1/350 scale and various groupings of ships in 1/350 scale too.
 
related to Jul 12, 2017
I don't care about "fully functional" because that's just words; I care about the first deployment, and what's funny to me I predicted 2022
Jul 26, 2016
while I had been unaware of the official, which is LOL 2022:
"... first deployment, which is slated for 2022, according to Navy documents reviewed by Navy Times ...":
Navy accepted the carrier Ford into the fleet, with commissioning set for this summer
June 1, 2017
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is (dated May 25, 2018)

"... The ship is scheduled to arrive at Newport News in mid-July for the correction of remaining problems and installation of combat systems. It’s expected to remain there for about a year."
New $12.9 billion warship heads back to Va., already needs fixes
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I thought for a moment the reply was aimed at me as it appeared after mine. NOBODY insults my English language skills, I AM English! I've been speaking the lingo for 48 years, quite eloquently by all accounts too! Yes, you handled it well my friend. May the Force be with you!
thanks, it's Military forum, not English Grammar forum here, but why not to have some extra fun LOL
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Yes I know we have a CV-16 thread and a CV-17 thread.... However these photos are very important and a glimpse of the future of the PLAN. In 2005 when I discovered the PLAN future carrier if anyone had told me we would see what this pictures show I would have told them to quit smoking that "wacky tabaccy".

Both of China's carriers are in Dalian China shipyard where they were built/refit. These photos are dated May 27th, 2018. CV-17 is in drydock after her shakedown cruise.

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Photos courtesy of Henry K on twitter.
 
Yes I know we have a CV-16 thread and a CV-17 thread.... However these photos are very important and a glimpse of the future of the PLAN. In 2005 when I discovered the PLAN future carrier if anyone had told me we would see what this pictures show I would have told them to quit smoking that "wacky tabaccy".

...
let me add this: for almost five last years I've been following the USN, and what I saw was its game changers LCSs, Zumwalts, Fords changing the game indeed
 
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