All language subtitles for Worlds.Greatest.Warships.S01E03.The.Aircraft.Carrier.1080p.HDTV.H264-UNDERBELLY

Warships of the ultimate
symbol of a nation's military might.

These things are monsters.

One of technology.

Enormous vessels
crewed by thousands

wrestling with massive
guns and powerful aircraft

they can deliver terrifying

destruction turned the tide of.

The chef fulfill to win the war.

There was no other reason.

From the beginning
of the twentieth century

to the present day.

These at a stories
of classic warships.

From dreadnoughts to Bismarck.

Japan monster
see warrior yamato.

The American super
ships Wisconsin

Lexington and enterprise

to today's cutting edge
royal Navy carriers.

These are the world's
greatest warships.

September eleventh
two thousand and one.

The aircraft carrier USS enterprise is
in the arabian Gulf on her way home.

Without warning she is
order to turn around and

head to the coastal
waters of southwest Asia.

Nine eleven terrorist attacks of shocked
the world and prompted the American

government to declare
that war on terror.

As part of that war.

Enterprises aircraft will fly hundreds of
missions against the Taliban and all qaeda

in the remote and distant
mountains of Afghanistan.

This is just the latest chapter
in the story of enterprise.

A story that already stretches
back some forty years.

The story of the aircraft carrier
goes back a lot further than that.

So how did the aircraft carrier
grow from humble beginnings

to become the decisive
weapon in the second world war.

The ultimate instruments of military
and political strategy in the cold war.

And as we enter a new era.

Promise to rule the
waves for decades to come.

They are still today.

The most complex

expensive pieces of design
and engineering on the planet.

Within a decade of
the first manned flight in

the earliest years of
the twentieth century.

Naval strategies were thinking
about launching aircraft at sea.

For direct military engagement
was not that primary concern.

Dave Morris is a
historian of naval aviation.

The whole reason in many ways
for the Navy to become involved with

aviation and aircraft and
taking aircraft onto their ships

is

Effective the extending
the view over the horizon

was a reconnaissance
was really where

a whole of naval aviation begin.

When the first world war
broke out in nineteen forty.

The need to fight ways to fully
combine the air and sea power intensified.

So the stars at
the first world war.

It's in its infancy aircraft are incredibly
basic there is no means of actually

launching an aircraft
from the deck of the shape.

Basic catapults basic
arrested systems.

Platforms for on
the front of ships.

All of it was an.

Ad hoc experiments
all marriage flying by

said to get pants trying

something new for
the very first time.

It was britain's royal Navy
that lead this experimentation

and the reserve collection of
the fleet air arm in somerset

house is one of the few
remaining examples of

an early attempt at
launching aircraft at sea.

The sea plane lighter.

A seaplane lighter.

It is a toad vessel and
it is not just doesn't have

an engine it's not a powered
draft as a toad vessel.

Capable of
transporting in this case

and aircraft and this
craft could be towed

and extend the
range of a seaplane

before it could
be launched to fly.

Crucially as the name suggests.

The seaplane lighter was
only launching seaplanes.

Not fighter aircraft.

But in the early years
of world war one.

Britain desperately needed
fighter aircraft at sea.

Since nineteen fifteen

dozens of being killed in raids on towns
and cities along england's east coast.

The raids were carried
out by German zeppelin's.

Huh Jack ships carrying
up to two tons of bombs.

And aircraft launch from
land of a little defense.

It would take.

Sopwith camel typically

forty five to fifty minutes to spiral up
to the sixteen seventeen thousand feet.

That the zeppelin
would be operating at.

A maybe only have five
minutes at most on target

before but then have to

return to its base possibly
gliding because it was out of fuel.

Salvation lay in
the seaplane lighter

but not before some
serious trial and error.

What if we put a wooden
deck on top of this craft

what if we told the
whole contraption.

At fifteen to twenty knots into a
fifteen to twenty not sea breeze.

Get an equivalent crossed deck
wind speed of around forty knots.

Could they launch a
camel from a toad lighter

and then take.

Fighter plane to see.

Landing was a totally different

problem to solve altogether it
could not land back onto the lighter

was not safe enough

long enough index-based
the landing would have to do

a controlled crash into the sea

alongside the lighter

and hopefully the
pilot would get rescued.

As pilots and sailors
begun to master the new

technology the seaplane
like to came into it so.

Only

nine days after the first
successful experiment.

And except with camel take
off from a seaplane lighter to

see.

Took the whole
contraption into the

into the center of the
north sea waited on station.

On and intercepted zeppelin fly I fifty
three and successfully shot at dine

shocking the German
zeppelin cruise and to realizing

they could be intercepted
by fighter planes

far as to say.

The aircraft have proven it could
be a viable see based weapon

and the British were keen
to scale up the technology.

How could they develop
that into a full sized crap

how could they effectively
take multiple aircraft

wherever they needed to go.

Round the world

to deliver their aircraft.

Almost like
taking their airfield.

Wherever they needed
it this was the key.

Final piece of the puzzle.

Launched in nineteen eighteen

hms August was a
reconditioned commercial

ship with a runway
built on top of her hope.

She was a real game-changer.

Hm azhar this

was the world's first
aircraft carrier by that

mean the ship
that was capable of

launching.

Aircraft from its flight deck and
recovering them onto the same deck.

With a hanger under that
deck in which they could be

stored.

Fueled and

and sustained in operations
for a considerable period.

I.

Have a lifting system to
get aircraft up and down

from a big hangar deck below

and you have an arresting system to
stop the aircraft is the land on the deck.

August can take twenty aircraft

anywhere wanted
anywhere in the world.

By the end of the wall.

The German fleet

was.

Spending nearly all its time
in Chile grades it's main base.

And the admiralty came
up with the idea of using

aircraft from August to
attack them in the harbor.

That practiced
operating from August.

They were ready to go.

In early November
nineteen eighteen.

But the armistice
happened before they

carry out emtek.

August may not have played
a leading role in world war one.

But the blueprint for the
aircraft carrier we know today

had been do raw.

And in the next war.

Carriers will be at
the heart of the actual.

As the world slid towards
war in the nineteen thirties.

Naval engineers were restricted by treaty
the size of battleship they could build.

Allowances for aircraft carriers

were far more generous.

So there's a strong incentive to

develop and build
aircraft carriers.

And what you see
is half built homes.

Of capital ships.

Mostly battle cruisers are converted
on the stalks into aircraft carriers.

The next step was to move beyond just
sticking a runway on top of an existing shit.

Actually ark royal

completed in
nineteen thirty eight.

Incorporated all the admiralty his ideas
on how aircraft should be operated at sea

from the trenches
and thirty she was big.

Was eight hundred feet long.

She had stowage
in her to hang has

won over the other.

The sixty or
slightly more aircraft.

I

Is a pioneering bullshit for the
British because she's the first

full size fleet carry that they
really build from the Kale up

so she's she's a a
world beater for the

European face when she comes.

At royals flight deck was nearly
two hundred and fifty meters long

and a full twenty
meters above the waves.

Her command and control
functions were housed

in an island on the
starboard side of the deck.

Become a feature of
aircraft carriers to this day.

Interior of the ark royal
which was truly revolution.

Andrew chung these curator of ships
plans at the national maritime museum.

This is the general arrangement drawing
for the aircraft carrier hms ark royal.

Showing her as completed.

Now it's an indicator of just
how complicated the ship was.

One of the secrets to ok royals very
impressive aircraft capacity was this new

enclose double storey hanger
that her designers built into a

in terms of the height of
the average person that's

effectively a four story
hang a divided into two

it was the first time that a proper
weatherproof to hangar of that size had been

built into a British
aircraft carrier

and unlike previous large
carriers in the royal Navy

this one was
designed to optimize

aircraft handling so

the lower hangar was given over
entirely to aircraft maintenance

whereas the upper hanger
was intended purely for real

arming refueling and preparing
planes for their next mission

to the admiralty believe that with this
arrangement they could come to a very

efficient turn
around and aircraft

and avoid a situation that they'd
experienced an older carriers were

ground crew doing one thing with one
aircraft would get in the way of ground crew

doing something entirely
different with another air croft.

The ark royal also
included touchable

to help launch
planes from her decks

and arrest of cables to slow
them down when they return.

She was about to be
put to the test against

the most fearsome
battleship on the machines.

Jewel in Hitler's naval crown.

The mighty Bismarck.

As

A quarter of a kilometer long and
crewed by over two thousand men.

Bismarck boasted fearsome
firepower and speed.

She terrorize britain's
vital Atlantic convoys.

Something needed to be.

One hunting of the Bismarck and.

Far as to see.

Demonstrates.

Again just the importance of the
Navy being able to take aircraft to see.

The Atlantic is absolutely
vast are trying to cover it all by

see.

Finding a needle in a
haystack it's still very difficult.

Doing it from aircraft.

Thought

you suddenly stopped
to increase the chances.

Of finding your target.

This market already
some hms hood

the biggest battleship
in the British fleet

when she was spotted on the
twenty sixth of may nineteen forty one.

Swordfish biplanes were
launched Vermont royal in pursuit

the justice show interest was able
to drop down to almost see height

level light

and approach

six the feet above the waves

and launch their torpedoes
against the Bismarck.

The damage they did to Bismarck.

Was.

Fatal.

One of the torpedoes.

Hit the rudder bright
aft and jammed it.

So no matter what they tried to do
with our engines bismol could only turn

encircled.

The ship was intact
apart from her ability to.

Head.

And so she could do nothing but wait for
the big guns of the home fleet to come up at

on the next day.

Although Bismarck was
ultimately some by battleships.

It was air power
that has crippled to.

Dr yan v it is an expert in German
naval strategy in the second world war.

Two certain extent.

You could call the
be smart the essence

of a battleship.

Bought at the same time.

She was a dinosaur.

She was the best almost the
best you could achieve chief and

she battleship shipbuilding but.

In strategic and also and
technical chops she was

out dated.

Because she.

Falls victim to a new weapon.

Ark royal may well have changed the
rules of engagement on the high seas.

But the British aircraft
carrier as an all round package

remained a work in progress
and challenges remained.

Principally.

How to build planes best suited
to this complex form of aviation.

It is probably would say the
most challenging full of flying.

So if you imagine.

Just the three biggest
challenges of trying to land on

take off from an
aircraft carrier.

The first thing is your
runway is absolutely tiny.

Second to your runways
moving up and down.

Say when you're trying to take off your
moving up and down when you're landing

moving up and down so your
aircraft have to be incredibly robust.

Because.

When you lie nanjing
slammed down on that day.

And the third point is
that your runway moves

say when you take off and go in
your mission then you've come back

your runway isn't
it'd be way you left is

so all of those things make
naval flowing incredibly difficult.

At the beginning of world
war two the royal Navy is

still using in many ways
quite outdated aircraft.

Gladiator biplane swordfish and.

Typical of the aircraft that
would be on the ark royal.

Skewer dive bombers

but still quite slow.

The the necessity
for a fighter aircraft.

Purpose built.

Was very very high.

The solution to all these problems
was a very British compromise.

Let's take an already
successful plane

and adapted for life
on the ocean wave.

While we have here is
the super marine shifa.

The modified naval eyes
version of of the spitfire aircraft.

Converted to go on ship's

deck with the folding wings they can enable
them to go into the hangar spacious below.

Had.

Take off catapult spools

fitted to strengthen
parts of the fuselage

had a deck hook

arrest of the hook fitted
to the tail of the aircraft.

But.

Are still compromises
the pilot is still sat very low

the pilot is still sat
quite a long way

rearwards behind the
engine which gives bad

visibility an approach
to the ships for landing.

The undercarriage is still.

Woefully week for an aircraft

has the punchline onto an aircraft
carrier deck and all wins and weather's

so.

When she for flying the spitfire stroke sci
fi it was still a very very capable fighter

but it still had many
many shortcomings

as a deck landing at.

The Americans made
no such compromises with

the planes they would
place on their carriers.

In america.

There was no air force.

And fighters and strike aircraft
were designed for the name Lee

by the Navy for
naval use exclusively.

Strategy will be brought
to life in purpose-built

carrier aircraft such as
the hell cuts and the corsair.

This was.

The

best that money could buy
at the time this was taking

a design from the drawing board

and

creating a carrier born aircraft

with all of the
things of that would

benefit from and require

a very strong undercarriage
very strong wing.

Powerful engine deck hook.

Designed

from the outset to be in the
best position on the aircraft.

Landing on carry a decks
and all wins and weather's

taking the rigors of.

Thumping onto the decks and and they
pulled to a whole by the arrest of wise.

Higher better visual
physician for the pilot.

The him parts of these
purpose-built American planes

was not lost on the British
Navy high command.

Who saw a solution
to that problem.

From nineteen forty one
the Americans came up with

what was called
to lend lease act.

Where they lintas

the aircraft for the
duration of the war.

And.

Indian thousands of aircraft
came to the royal Navy and that way

this was an enormous step
forward for aircraft for the royal Navy

at that time in the war.

But it wasn't only the royal
Navy who were keen on

maximizing the military
potential of naval aviation.

Late nineteen forty one.

Six Japanese carriers trouble three and a
half there was a miles across the pacific.

In total they launched
three hundred and fifty three

planes against the battleships
of the us pacific fleet.

And could at Pearl harbor.

In Hawaii.

Hull battleships were sunk.

For more heavily damaged.

Nearly two and a half
thousand Americans died.

Well hello.

Showed for the first time.

That carry has had a
strategic role as a striking force.

That could travel
considerable distances.

Attack targets

and cause a lotta damage
when they got their.

Wealth Pearl harbor was a
stunning triumph for the Japanese.

Who would have
unforeseen repercussions.

Not totally how the u s Navy's one
aircraft carriers escape the attack.

With america's response
would herald the arrival

of arguably the greatest
carriers in history.

After Pearl harbor there was no doubt that
the capital ship of the second world war.

Was going to be the aircraft carrier
there was no one of the battleship.

The centerpiece here
was the ethics class carrier.

These were very
large ships thirty eight

thirty nine thousand
tons full load displacement

they had.

Capabilities.

To receive a lot of punishment

they were very survival
all because of that

and also because of
their large any aircraft.

Battery

but most of all they
could cure a very large air.

In total an astonishing twenty
four ships of this class were built.

Each ship could carry up to one hundred and
ten aircraft housed in three thousand six

hundred square
meters of hangar space.

From a.

By more than two and
a half thousand men.

They had a range of twenty eight
and a half thousand kilometers

equivalent of traveling
from los Angeles to Tokyo

three times.

With a top speed
of thirty three not

the essex class carriers dominated
the world's biggest ever battlefield.

The pacific ocean.

Xx class aircraft carriers

can fairly claim to be the finest
aircraft carriers produced by any nation.

They.

Captured that and balance of
aircraft capacity protection Ian.

Both passive and active

and high speed better than any
other carry a design that was produced

and as significantly.

The united states was able
to produce them in numbers.

The essex class carrier

program was one of the biggest
industrial achievements of the war.

Eleven of them had been
ordered by nineteen forty

and in the end.

There were twenty four

of them completed
before the war had ended.

When you think of that in
terms of shipbuilding it's huge.

Shepherd built to win the war.

There was no other reason.

In nineteen forty one.

Japanese airplanes and
launched a devastating

attack on the u s
fleet at Pearl harbor.

UK s Navy was
reeling from the attack.

But it was about to take delivery of the
most iconic aircraft carriers in history.

The essex class.

USS Lexington was one of
the first ethics class Korea's.

Launched in
nineteen forty three.

Kenneth Cole step was a goner on board
during his first deployments in the pacific.

They wanted to have
two squadrons of aircraft.

On the ship.

Rather than one

for each division
that is fighter.

Dive bomber and torpedo bomber.

Is a very flexible type of
strike force with your have.

You can be going out after ships
were you're using your torpedo bombers

and they typically.

Would do a sandwich
Chinese attack where the

torpedo bombers were
come in from low altitude

and the guy bombers
are in from high altitude.

Thus they're splitting the
defensive guns of the enemy.

Has got a handle
both in the same time.

Variety of aerial firepower was critical
in overwhelming the Japanese fleet.

Gave Lexington on a
fellow essex cost carriers the

starring role in the u s
advance towards Japan.

Nikkei forty three the Americans began
an island hopping campaign in pacific.

On their way to Tokyo

and their centerpiece
of this campaign

was the first
carrier task force.

The task force how
to aircraft carrier

at its core.

These will be surrounded
by battleships and

destroy us to keep the
enemy at arm's length.

Allowing the carriers
to launch aerial attacks.

Lexington lead
task force fifty eight.

It's first major engagement
was at the truk lagoon

Japanese carry a base
in the central pacific.

Japanese get their first taste of what the
essex glass carriers can do when they raid

truk lagoon in February nineteen forty
four in the very aptly named operation

hailstone.

This Japanese bastion is effectively
destroyed as a front line base

over the course
of a series of raids

most of its aircraft destroyed either in
the air on the ground any shipping are lucky

enough to be caught
in the lagoon has sunk.

And the Japanese never
used truck again they can't

it they they've had noticed
serve to them that their

premier

central pacific bastion
is no longer an option.

Americans called
the big blue blanket

which was the air cover
they gave to the amphibious

operations that
captured the islands.

That moved west across
the pacific to the very shores

of Japan.

They could stay at sea for
weeks even months on end.

Because they had
logistics support groups.

With oil tankers
ammunition stick ships

stools ships.

They could even provide
replacement aircraft and pilots

it's

one of the most

powerful expressions of naval
power and the free nuclear.

Terror.

Four months after
flattening Chuck lagoon.

Lexington joined fourteen

the u s carriers in
the Philippines see.

What will become the decisive
engagements of the war in the pacific.

This was the largest aircraft
carrier battle of the pacific war

we brought fifteen aircraft carriers to
the battle in the Japanese brought night.

And there's no other battle.

That have that many
aircraft carriers and.

They hold this false that
the new us carrier fleet in the

in the hope that they can
turn the tables on the u s Navy

and it's a complete
disaster the u s

remembers it as the great
Murray honest Turkey shoot were.

Dozens of Japanese
planes are last

for each American
pilot shop down.

Battle effectively

ends the Japanese
carrier fleet for good.

At it means that in the
later battles the Americans

confidently.

Come up with this

huge aerial superiority which
the Japanese simply cannot match.

Since victory at Pearl
harbor in nineteen forty one.

Japan's Navy had been
outmaneuvered and

fought by the u s Navy

the wall was slipping away

the Japanese employed a final desperate
tactic to knock out us carriers as

the kamikaze attack.

Planes packed with explosives

and carrying only enough
fuel for that would journey.

Would be flown directly into
enemy targets in suicide attacks.

Designed to cause
maximum damage.

Lexington defense was her
Beau falls on t aircraft guns.

That downtown.

This is the largest machine
god produced in the world.

It was made in Sweden.

Utilized by almost every
country in the world.

And it fires one hundred and twenty rounds
a minute and what's unique about the gun.

Is you had a.

Trainer who said on
this side of the pointer

over there who as
actually fired the gun.

As the gun training.

Each operator the
pointer and a trainer.

Would have to coordinate

the brain the gun.

In the position.

As he's coming around.

It was a pointers responsibility

man on the left side of the gun

to actually fire it.

When he was in possession
he would push his travel

with his left foot

and the gun would fire.

What's a kamikaze threat was a
acknowledge and everyone knew

that these people
were out to kill him.

The gutters had to stay on
their toes not only were to

they defending

the ship but they were
defending their home.

To this day a Japanese
flag marks the spot where

a kamikaze pilot crushed
into the Lexington.

Having avoided the hail
of bullets from the bow.

Machine guns.

Kenneth Cole stat
was on board dot day.

The election was off
the Philippines plan

to kamikaze these
dropped out of the clouds.

Going

from left to right across
the bow of the ship.

Radars had picked up the
contacts as they were coming

in back defensive patrol
was unable to find them.

They probably saw the ship at
the same time to ship saw that.

Ship started turning right to
keep the guns focus found that.

We got the first one.

With the second
one get boring on him.

And he was coming down
from about five thousand feet.

He got hit several times

but.

He just kept gone coming in.

Gasoline on the aircraft
spilled over the crew which

were out in the open
an incinerator all of them.

Which was really horrible.

As a result.

The last forty eight people

and one hundred and
thirty two were wounded.

Pilot had obviously intended
to hit the flight deck and

make a large all on the flight
deck which would have put

Lexington out of service

but he hit this area instead.

Spite of that.

The horror of the desk
and the wounded work

that happen.

He did not seriously
damage the she.

Pilot.

Was flying the aircraft that
crashed into the election.

Was probably one of the
original a kamikaze pilots

of selected.

Amazingly

the whole incident was captured in a
series of extraordinary photographs.

This photo album.

Was made by.

Sailor on board the
ship and and nineteen.

Forty four.

He was photographer
on board and his name was.

Daniel John connally.

He took all the original
photos of the kamikaze

strike on five November
nineteen forty four

and during the attack.

Standing
approximately right here.

And he.

Received a bronze star.

For photographing the
aircraft coming straight in attic.

And it was a some point that
he said well gotta get outta here.

Even a direct hit from a kamikaze pilots
could slow down the mighty Lexington.

By the end of the war
Lexington a shot down

three hundred and
seventy two enemy aircraft.

Destroyed a further four
hundred and seventy five or.

She had some cova three
hundred thousand tons of shipping.

And not one essex class
Korea was sung during the war.

Well without the essex
class carriers are difficult to.

Say what alternate
history would have been

but we definitely would not
have had this striking power.

That we had during
the second world war.

When the second world war
finally ended in nineteen forty five

the victorious allies would
redraw the map of Europe

and in turn Usher
in the cold war.

The cold war was played
out not against one opponent

although obviously the
Soviet union was behind.

Everything going on
in the communist world

but sometimes
you have to fight the

surrogates north Korea.

North Vietnam.

And other countries.

Carriers were invaluable

in that they could provide.

Power.

The pulse of.

Bigger than most and forces.

In order to cover the big
blue blanket again if you like.

Wherever.

Western foreign policy dictated.

The aircraft carrier that was
built to meet this new challenge.

Was something special.

This is a biggie.

The enterprise.

The first nuclear
powered aircraft carrier.

The largest ship in the world.

Enterprise was a
giant in every sense.

See was long to them for
jumbo jets laid end to end.

Before and a half acres of deck space was
the equivalent of three football pitches.

She could accommodate
ninety aircraft.

And how is a crew
of nearly six thousand.

Enterprise was powered by eight
nuclear reactors which gave her a

limited range.

In her fifty one year service.

Enterprise cover nearly
two million kilometers.

Projecting u s power to
every corner of the globe.

USS enterprise impresses
me from her sheer scale.

At the time she was completed
in nineteen sixty one the u s Navy.

Point out that she is the largest
mobile object ever built by man.

David silva was a damage
control officer on board enterprise.

He remembers well
long stretches that see.

Because it was nuclear power
there was nothing to stop it.

From continuing underway.

He's just getting food.

In stores for the crew.

You know so even if you
loaded it all out just for the crew.

You could just keep going for years
and years long as you could keep

bringing book on more stores.

Do you knew that something
special was happening

when they throw out
steaks and lobster tail.

Not always a good announcement was coming
it's like okay guys now we're going to stay

out on their way for another two weeks
we're not getting that port visit but we're

going to give you steak
and lobster for dinner.

The ship's company
of nearly six thousand.

The enterprise was
not so much a warship

as a small city at see.

Like any city.

Keeping it going was a
complex logistical operation.

Always the public works department
there was an electrical officer auxiliaries

officer and we all worked
for the chief engineer.

We all had division ns
of people underneath us

with a lot of experience we had war and
officers we had chief petty officers that ran

the enlisted troops of various
different backgrounds and experiences.

More than any
of the ship before.

Enterprise have perfected
the art of see power.

Huge size and immense cream and

good launch multiple deadly

strikes against targets
all over the world.

One each aircraft came
down and was hot and

then released off its
tail hook then they would.

Move those aircraft
off to their parking areas

so you had.

Aircraft handlers you
had playing captains you

had the catapult
officers in the catapult pro

they're all out
there on the deck

he add fuel or she had order
and it's man you had everybody

in different colored
shirts and helmet.

Designating what their job was.

Some of them are and
radio communication

some of 'em it's
just all hand signals.

You've got a blast
from the jets coming off.

Before an aircraft would launch they'd put
up these jet black the electors behind them

and then a drop its with the next
aircraft had come up on the catapult.

It's a very hot windy
dangerous place to be.

One of the many aircraft
enterprise carried in her early days

was the a five vigilante bummer

which had a nuclear
strike capability.

The combination of
them limited range the

vigilantes ability to
deliver nuclear weapons.

By the USS enterprise the most
powerful piece of military hardware.

The world.

I carry is like the enterprise

the greatest influence

believe on the cold war was to show the
Soviet union and Warsaw pact and allied

Navy's just what the
united states could produce

and what the united states
could produce a numbers

with their carrier battle
brutes all over the globe.

Although the u s would
switch to launching nuclear

weapons from submarines
rather than carriers.

Enterprise has been at
the sharp end of every major

u s military maneuver
over the last fifty years.

In nineteen sixty one when
the USS enterprise was

brand new she took part
in the Cuban missile crisis.

Nearly made the cold war hawk.

She carried out a number of

tours of

north Vietnam.

From nineteen sixty six
to nine to seventy three.

She operated in the pacific

mediterranean the Atlantic.

Her aircraft took part in
strikes against him to be

against Bosnia.

Iraq of took

part in the no flies zone
coverage either Iraq.

In the early stages of conflict.

In the persian Gulf.

She didn't finally

pay off as an operation warship
until two thousand and eleven.

And with more than
fifty one years of service.

At twenty five deployment.

He has always.

Answered the call to serve.

It's a direct descendant
of the source of power.

That can be projected by
the u s Navy and world war two

and in the era of the cold war.

All it takes is for a us carrier battle
group to appear on the horizon.

For the demands of the united
states to be taken says seriously.

The lesson of the
enterprise was clear.

Any nation consider the
first rank military power

needs an aircraft
carrier capability.

It was a lesson britain

the country that had pioneered
the use of air and sea power

at all but forgotten.

But today something truly extraordinary
is being built to Scottish shipyard.

The queen Elizabeth class.

Is.

I.

Royal Navy had pioneered
aircraft carrier technology.

It had been the first to combine
air and sea power in battle.

And

develop the first recognizably
modern aircraft carriers.

Since the defining
battles of world war two.

It had been left behind by
the u s and other nations.

New British queen
Elizabeth class comprises two

ships queen Elizabeth
which is carrying out to

attractive sea
trials of the moment

and her sister
ship prince of wales

stooge came to see in late

two thousand and nineteen.

Biggest warships of
built for the royal Navy.

Nine hundred and
nineteen feet long.

There are one hundred
feet longer than above.

They were built in precise.

Dup can't just
north of Edinburgh.

Three years ago here in recife

the naming of hms
queen Elizabeth.

Was a strategic awakening
for the united kingdom.

The moment when we proved
to the world and to ourselves.

That we still have what
it takes to be a great

maritime industry nation.

What they gave britain is

a strategic reach that this
country has not had since the older

ark royal class carriers
with the commission.

The key feature of
these chips his size.

Future prints them because
they're designed to last fifty years

we didn't know
aircraft will be around.

In fifty years'

time

but we do know that the
present generation will last

long the Internet.

Size you can cope with change.

Is is

is as sophisticated as
as any aircraft carrier.

The you will find
anywhere in the world.

Everything about the modern aircraft
carrier has taken everything we've learned

in the previous
hundred years is now.

Cemented into one package.

Everything about the
new carriers design is

intended to improve on
all that have gone before.

The principles and
queen Elizabeth.

Very very different to most

obvious passive this
difference is the fact

that have to islands
what they've done these

is taken those to traditional
bates that you have

to have in any aircraft
carrier to make it work

the controls the shit.

At the controls the flying

and of completely
separated them out

so that makes them visually very distinctive
but it also means that there is much

less confusion in the
way they operate the ships.

The islands will hold some of the most
advanced military equipment ever installed.

Including a revolutionary radar system which
allows each ship to track eight hundred

objects in a two
hundred kilometer radius.

At thirty five be fighter jets will
be the crucial component to the

capability.

For planes can be delivered from hanged
at a flight deck in just sixty seconds.

In the carriers do it all
with a much smaller crew.

An American carrier
as a ship's company of.

Roughly four thousand men

to operate in a group
of about seventy aircraft.

Queen Elizabeth with

a full air group
adopt as expected to.

Have about one
thousand six hundred

sailors on board.

Plus two hundred and fifty
marines if their inbox so.

Considerably less.

To do that.

They use the sort of
computer controlled automation

that.

Supermarkets and Amazon.

Would use.

In other words one
man with a touch screen.

Can control the
robot to go and collect.

A bomb off a shelf in a magazine

and bring it via railway line to a bomb left
and then bring it up to the flight deck.

Wear armor as can take it
feels it and put it on an arab.

We've never had anything
with that degree of automation

before.

And they've got it.

Projection is that by the
end of the day working life

they won't even be operating
manned aircraft they'll all be Jones.

So don't

even really know what the full capability
the ship's is going to be going forwards.

The queen Elizabeth
classes designed to build on all

the lessons of the aircraft
carrier through history

to be fearsome and
of to project power

but flexible enough to perform
multiple tasks in peace time to.

They are very much
multi-mission vehicles

so they can function
as aircraft carriers

they can function as anti
submarine warfare ships.

They can form the core
of a battle fleet or act in

conjunction with say a
u s carrier battle group.

They can also take part in
more peaceable activities.

Pacification an anti piracy

and even disaster relief which was
the sort of thing that we have used an

amphibious landing
ships for in recent years.

I think there's no better pretty freely
to the carrier is still there is as the

apogee of naval power than the fact
that the britain's royal Navy has invested

vast sums in building
to stay to the all carries

because there's nothing really to beat a
carrier as a means of power projection.

It's a piece of your
own real estate.

You can take any
where in the world

to deploy in support of land
forces to control the oceans

to protect trade.

The incredibly versatile assets.

It's been over one hundred
years since those early

experiments are combining air
and sea power in world war one.

One hundred years in
which aircraft carriers have

featured in the iconic
battles of world war two.

At least the world
during the cold war.

And remains to stage
to the present day.

They are still today

perhaps arguably
the most complex

expensive pieces of
design and engineering

that humans are putting
together on the planet.

Even in an age of of airliners

and spacecraft.

The captain of the
nineteen seventies.

Oil.

Captain fell.

Once made.

I think a very good statement.

He said.

The role of my ship.

Is to go anywhere at high speed

and do anything the British government
wants me to do when arrived.

And think about that

that's precisely
what they can do.

And the royal Navy's commitment to
the queen Elizabeth class carriers stands

a testament to the enduring importance
of these multifaceted fighting machine.

Were turning back o'clock to when
Europe's busiest airport was built

and review some of
its present day secret in

brand new Heathrow April
any man Tuesday meet.

Next night roof to Milan for fight night
on five life than a tomorrow with no been.

Taking on any party.

And.