AIR POWER AT SEA

206 for the break. Roger 206 clear [Music] 5.0 45 knock down the angle. Watch your lineup. [Music] home. 1,000 ft of steel deck, a length of braided cable, and a yellow shirt to get you out of the way safely, quickly. Because 30 seconds later, they do it again and again in roundthe-clock training exercises that make up the day in and dayout scenario aboard a nuclearpowered carrier at sea. 17 stories from superructure to engine room with a population of more than 6,000 specialists who run this city. and manage its airwing of some 90 aircraft. [Music] The carrier is the big punch in the most awesome array of offensive and defensive weaponry ever put together. The United States Navy Battle Group. [Music] with guided missile cruisers for close-in defense of the battle group against air, surface, and submarine threats. Guided missile destroyers, the outer defensive ring of the battle group. Nuclear attack submarines to sweep a clear sonar path ahead of the surface ships with the help of supply ships and escort frigots. It's a formidable task force. second to none. At the heart of it all, the 90,000 ton super carrier. Nuclearpowered for unmatched operational flexibility, sustained high speed and maneuverability with enough fuel for 13 years at sea. [Music] It's a self-sustaining mobile fortress. Its primary role to project US air power. Nothing more, nothing less. [Music] Aboard the carrier, a strategic mix of aircraft to counter the full spectrum of air, surface, subsurface, and land-based threats. Two squadrons of F-14 Tomcats with the speed and firepower to intercept hostile aircraft and missiles hundreds of miles from the carrier. Three attack squadrons of A6E Intruders and A7 Corsaires. close air support and attack bombers which can carry the fight to the enemy. Early warning E2C Hawkeyes for detecting threats hundreds of miles away and directing fighter aircraft to the intercept for anti-ubmarine operations. The long range S3 Viking carries a variety of sensors as well as torpedoes and sonobois. Close in, the Sea King helicopter uses electronic sensors and dipping sonar for submarine detection. To counter the growing threat of electronic warfare, EA6B Prowers jam enemy radar in support of the carrier strike aircraft. [Music] And finally, a utility transport moves men and supplies on and off the ship. It's always welcome because it also picks up and delivers the mail. Who moves all this hardware about, carries out the choreography for this floating airport, handles every launch and every recovery. young men for the most part. The average age of the deck crew is less than 20. The flight deck is a hard school, unforgiving and unrelenting. [Music] Roles are clearly defined. The color of the shirt tells the function of the man. Yellow shirts direct all the airplanes on the flight deck. Nothing moves without their say so. The white shirts inspect the aircraft as they approach the catapults for launch. Green shirts hook them up to perform all maintenance. Purple shirts fuel the aircraft. Blue shirts chock and chain them. Red shirts handle ordinance. Silver suits are firefighters. If an airplane crashes, their job is to rescue the crew. The brown shirts are the plane captains responsible for the care of each airplane. [Music] Below deck in the hangar bay where as many as 50 aircraft can be stowed. Maintenance crews work night and day to keep them flying. Hundreds of other skilled technicians and ships personnel fill a variety of important jobs throughout the carrier. [Music] For everyone aboard the carrier, each day is a day of practice, a day of training. All right, chance. This is it. This is for real. You got a job to do. To the carrier's air crews, being prepared means flying at least once a day, sometimes twice. The missions practice radar intercepts, air-to-air combat, strafing towed targets, bombing land targets, practice anti-sub operations. Practice, practice, practice. No matter what the missions, the aircraft that carry them out are a tough breed. Launched from steam powered catapults, yanked off the deck in a couple of hundred feet. [Music] You go from 0 to 160 knots in 2 and 1/2 seconds with no runway left over. [Music] Although this may be practice, they play it for real here. And they play to win. This day, A6 intruders carrying a bomb load second only to the B-52 are headed for a tank farm 100 m inland. Accompanying them, an EA6B Prowler. His job, jam the enemy radar so they can't find the intruders. Meanwhile, the E2C Hawkeye on patrol miles from the carrier has picked up an unidentified bogey. The information is relayed to the ship's combat information center via data link. Computers talking to each other. Operating at 30,000 ft, the E2C's radar can detect potential threats long before the ship's radar, giving the battle group the critical advantage of time. Two F-14 fighters on station are vector toward the bogey. [Music] 270 for bogey one. Roger. 270 for bogey. 1 02 your bogey heading 1 3 0 speed 380 1 2 roger and 1 2 steady 270 [Applause] 300 m away. The diversity and flexibility of carrier air power will soon be felt in an offensive mode as the Navy bombers cross the beach on this practice mission. [Music] Heat up here. mission accomplished. One2 has a contact one niner zero at 7 miles. So that is your bogy. Roger Judy 27. Fox two. FOX 2 1 FOX TWO GRAND SLAM. [Music] On the way back to the carrier, the F-14 will practice a refueling hookup with one of the ship's A6 tankers. [Music] And now it's home again. [Music] Putting 20 tons of airplane on a patch of heaving rolling carrier deck quickens the pulse of even the most experienced pilots. You watch the landing aid system or meatball for glide path corrections. You don't watch the deck. A 50tonon pull on the tail hook brings the airplane to a complete standstill in 2 seconds. At night or in bad weather, it's even tougher. From about 10 mi out, your flight is directed by the Carrier Air Traffic Control Center. [Music] As you near the carrier, you're looking for a pattern of light about 3/4 of a mile ahead to set up your approach. If you hit a gust of wind, the airplane will climb or descend on you, and you've got to make a glide slope correction or go around again. Sometimes it's so black you have absolutely no reference, no depth perception. It's as if you're in an endless tunnel, groping for daylight, until you suddenly hit the deck. Ongoing operational exercises blur night into day, day into night. Below deck, lights are always on in this community of compartments where there's less privacy than you'd like, but also the opportunity for camaraderie and building friendships. Here it is. 12-hour shifts allow little time to be bored. There are appointments to keep, things to take care of. [Music] Not for a moment, however, are you likely to forget where you are or why. Training for emergencies is conducted with all the urgency and concern of the real thing, especially general quarters when everyone reports to their assigned duty stations on the double. fires and accidents. Special teams are trained to respond to these deckside emergencies. Everyone on deck helps during emergency landings, erecting a barricade of nylon webbing that can stop a disabled airplane at 140 knots. Nothing is held back during these drills because there's always a possibility that this time it isn't just a drill. [Music] It's all part of a philosophy of training that goes to the core of what it really means to be prepared to know how to deal with less than ideal situations. On the carrier, nothing is taken for granted. Thus, we maintain a vigilance on three oceans with the carrier battle group, the first line of defense, a guarantee of open sea lanes around the world, and the most powerful, readily deployable asset to our global maritime strategy, imposing enough to keep the peace or turn the tide of conflict, and above all, always ready [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]