America’s First Nimitz Class 100,000 Ton Supercarrier Marks 45 Years in Service

The U.S. Navy’s first Nimitz Class supercarrier, the USS Nimitz, has marked 45 years since its commissioning on May 3rd 1975. Entering service just a few days after the end of the end of the Vietnam War and fall of the pro-Western government in Saigon, the Nimitz provided a revolutionary improvement to American power projection capabilities. Displacing 100,000 tons, the carriers remain the largest warships ever built to this day - tied with their successors the Gerald Ford Class the first of which entered service 42 years later in 2017. The warships succeeded the Kitty Hawk and Enterprise Class ships - both of which were first laid down in the late 1950s - and had unrivalled endurance with the benefit of two two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors.

Ten Nimitz Class carriers are currently in service, and alongside a single Gerald Ford Class ship this provides the U.S. Navy with a fleet of eleven supercarriers - the only service in the world to deploy supercarriers. A number of features of the Nimitz design, however, have left them at a considerable disadvantage relative to newer designs such as the Gerald Ford and the Chinese Type 002 and Type 003 Classes - all of which have far more modern sensors, far greater automation facilitating smaller crews, and most importantly electromagnetic rather than steam catapults providing aircraft taking off from their decks with a considerable advantage. While the U.S. Navy initially planned to replace all Nimitz Class ships with Gerald Ford Class ships, issues with the Ford Class design and considerable costs mean the program could be cut to just four ships.