USS Nimitz (CVN 68)

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The Nimitz off San Diego, 2007
The Nimitz off San Diego, 2007
Overview
Order March 31, 1967
Keel laying June 22, 1968
Launch May 13, 1972
1. Period of service flag
Commissioning 3rd May 1975
Technical specifications
displacement

approx. 97,000 standard 101,600 tons (fully loaded)

length

317 meters (waterline), 332.85 meters (flight deck)

width

40.84 meters (fuselage), 76.80 meters (flight deck)

Draft

12.50 meters

crew

3200 crew
+ 2480 aircraft personnel

drive

2 nuclear reactors, 4 propellers

speed

30+ knots

Range

Theoretically unlimited, lifetime of nuclear fuel rods: 25 years

Armament

2 ESSM and 2 Rolling Airframe starters

Planes

up to 85

The USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is the first aircraft carrier of the Nimitz- class of the United States Navy named after it . As patron was Chester W. Nimitz selected, the commander of the Pacific Fleet in World War II was.

The ship was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company in Newport News , Virginia . The keel-laying of the USS Nimitz took place on June 22, 1968, and on May 3, 1975 US President Gerald Ford put the ship into service at Naval Station Norfolk , Virginia.

The ship is expected to be in service until 2025. The Carrier Air Wing Eleven (CVW-11) is stationed on the Nimitz .

history

Since 1976, the USS Nimitz has been in service mainly in the Mediterranean for 11 years. Then the aircraft carrier was stationed on the west coast of the USA and had its operational areas in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean

On July 7, 1976, the USS Nimitz sailed from her original home port in Norfolk, Virginia, for her first mission in the Mediterranean .

During their third mission in the Mediterranean from September 10, 1979 to May 26, 1980, von der Nimitz launched an ultimately unsuccessful rescue operation to free 52 Americans who were held hostage in the US embassy in Tehran . The use Operation Eagle Claw ended with a spectacular failure.

During an exercise on the night of May 25, 1981, an accident occurred when an EA-6B Prowler aircraft crashed on the flight deck while landing, killing 14 crew members; another 45 were injured.

On August 19 the same year two attacked Su-22 pilots from Libya two F-14 Tomcat of Nimitz in the Great Syrte and were shot down.

After the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 on 14 June 1985 by Lebanese terrorists was Nimitz to the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Lebanon sent.

Flag ceremony during a day of visiting friends and families on their return home in November 2003

After another mission in the Mediterranean, the ship reached its new home port in Bremerton , Washington on July 2, 1987 .

During her service with the 2nd US Fleet, she visited Wilhelmshaven four times in 1975, 1978, 1980 and 1986 .

Operations in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean

In September 1988, the USS Nimitz operated off the coast of South Korea to ensure the safety of the Olympic Games in Seoul . From October 29, 1988, the ship protected the shipping lanes of Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Arabian Sea .

On February 25, 1991, the aircraft carrier embarked on a war mission in the Persian Gulf to participate in the air war during Operation Desert Storm in the Second Gulf War. In 1993 the ship was in this water again.

In 1995 the Nimitz was stationed in the western Pacific , Indian Ocean , Persian Gulf and Taiwan when disputes arose between China and Taiwan .

On September 1, 1997, the USS Nimitz was supposed to leave for visits to ports around the world, but was again called to the Persian Gulf to support orders from the UN .

On May 26, 1998, the manufacturer Newport News Shipbuilding began a comprehensive general overhaul and modernization of the ship ( Refueling and Complex Overhaul ), which lasted until 2001. The fuels in the nuclear reactors were also exchanged.

On November 13, 2001, the USS Nimitz reached its new home port in San Diego, California. There the operational readiness of the ship was restored. After several exercises, the USS Nimitz was declared fit again on January 29, 2003.

Preparation for launching an F / A-18F

On March 3, 2003, the aircraft carrier set out for the western Pacific and served in the third Gulf War until September . As part of Operation Iraqi Freedom , the USS Nimitz has flown over 6,500 combat missions. For the first time, two-seater F / A-18F Super Hornet aircraft were used in these missions . 318 tons of cargo and 5,500 passengers were transported to the Nimitz by air .

After stopping over in Singapore and Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , the USS Nimitz entered San Diego Bay on November 5, 2003 and had covered 63,500 nautical miles since March .

On February 9, 2008, a Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bomber flew over the US aircraft carrier and another Tu-95 bomber at an altitude of only 600 meters in the Pacific south of Japan. According to Russian information, the aircraft were on a patrol flight. The aircraft carrier docked in Sasebo , Japan on February 12 .

In late 2010, a 15-month, $ 239 million overhaul began at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . In March 2012, the ship's home port moved to Naval Station Everett . In the spring, training trips and flight operations took place off the west coast. On June 11th, the Nimitz left Everett to participate in the multinational exercise RIMPAC et al. a. with the amphibious assault ship USS_Essex_ (LHD-2) . She returned to her home port after 70 days. She spent the rest of the year doing more practice drives. The MV-22 Osprey was also tested as a replacement for the older C-2A Greyhound . On November 21, the Navy announced that the operation in the Pacific and the Arabian Sea, planned for early 2013, would be postponed because a cooling pump was defective. The necessary repairs were completed in spring 2013. The Nimitz then left her home port on March 30th. After a final exercise off the coast of Southern California, the aircraft carrier set course for the peninsula in the wake of the tensions between North and South Korea, where in May the port city of Busan was first visited and then a maneuver with the South Korean Navy was held. From June the ISAF coalition forces in Afghanistan received support in the Arabian Sea . At the end of August, the Nimitz was replaced by the sister ship USS Harry S. Truman in this task. She then passed the Suez Canal in the direction of the Mediterranean on October 20 , escorted by the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG-61) , after the Ghouta gas attack in Syria . The planes were supposed to take part in the military strike announced by President Obama, which ultimately did not take place. After visiting the port in Italy, the Nimitz set course for the Arabian Sea again and reached her home port again on December 16, via stops in Pearl Harbor and San Diego.

As part of the testing of the F-35C Lightning II , the first carrier landing of this version took place on November 3, 2014 on the Nimitz off the coast of San Diego.

Missions (summary)

The Nimitz in the media

In the Hollywood film The Final Countdown (original title The Final Countdown ) from 1980, the Nimitz is inexplicably transported into the past and is therefore on December 7, 1941 in the Pacific near Hawaii. The captain of the Nimitz, Matthew Yelland, played by Kirk Douglas , is determined to stop the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with the strong fighting power of his ship and thus intervene in history. At the last moment - his flight formations can already see the approaching Japanese air squadrons - he is brought back into his presence by the same storm that carried his ship into 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor is taking place as we know it.

literature

  • Tom Clancy : Carrier. A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier. English edition Berkley Publishing Group, 1999 ISBN 0-425-16682-1
  • John F. Schank: Planning and Executing the Refueling and Complex Overhaul of the USS Nimitz. Lessons for the future. English edition RAND Corporation, 2002 ISBN 0-8330-3288-7
  • Stefan Terzibaschitsch : US Navy aircraft carrier . Bernard & Graefe, 2nd edition, Munich 1986. ISBN 3-7637-5803-8
  • Stefan Terzibaschitsch: Sea power USA . Vol. 1. Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997. ISBN 3-86047-576-2
  • Time Magazine, June 8, 1981: Night of Flaming Terror. A tragic crash kills 14 aboard the world's biggest warship . P. 26f.

Web links

Commons : USS Nimitz (CVN-68)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ stj / dpa / AFP: Pacific: Russian fighter planes provoke US military. In: Focus Online . February 12, 2008, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ NIMITZ COMPLETES SEA TRIALS, HOMEPORT CHANGE ( Memento from February 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Deployment of USS Nimitz delayed until Saturday ( Memento of March 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive )