Nimitz class aircraft carrier

The Nimitz class supercarriers are the largest warships in the world. All of the ships in this class are nuclear-powered carrier vessels (CVN). These ships are numbered with consecutive hull numbers starting with CVN 68.

Nimitz (CVN-68), the lead ship of the class, was commissioned in 1975. As of 2004, George H. W. Bush (CVN-77), the tenth and last of the class, is being built by Northrop Grumman Newport News and will enter service in 2008. Bush will be the first transition ship to a new class of carriers (CVN-21) to start construction in 2007 and will incorporate new technologies including a new multi-function radar system, volume search radar and open architecture information network, and a significantly reduced crew requirement. Also to lower costs some of the new technologies were incorporated into the Ronald Reagan, though not nearly as much that will be involved with the Bush.

Because of construction differences between the first three ships (Nimitz, Eisenhower and Vinson) and the latter seven (Theodore Roosevelt on), the latter ships are sometimes called Theodore Roosevelt-class aircraft carriers, though the US Navy officially holds no difference between the two groups.

By tonnage, the Nimitz class compose by far the largest class of carriers ever built. When Bush is completed, the ten ships of the class will total just under a million tons combined displacement.

Nimitz was the first to undergo its initial refueling during a 33-month Refueling Complex Overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, in 1998.

General characteristics