I've been curious about this for a little while now. I've never seen an aircraft carrier been hurt by bad weather, and I was wondering how they would handle it. Any sailors have first hand experience with this? Say if there was a hurricane headed towards a ship, how would it deal with it
2007-02-13 13:54:45 · 6 answers · asked by arkainisofphoenix 3 in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Yes, they deal with all kinds of weather problems, not just hurricanes/typhoons.
All aircraft carriers have a fully functioning weather office staffed by an experienced meteorologist and at least 4 fully qualified weather forecasters. They also have about a dozen meteorological technicians.
The ship's weather office is capable of launching and tracking weather balloons, launching and tracking bathythermographs, tracking weather satellites and downloading complete computer prediction gridded fields from the navy's weather center in Monterey, CA.
They can copy radio teletype and radio facsimile from weather centers around the world. In addition, the navy has a secure, satellite communications for weather information.
2007-02-13 16:51:05 · answer #1 · answered by Yak Rider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was in the West Pacific. Out at sea ships ride out hurricanes. I have been in many hurricanes and it really sucks. Aircraft carriers are no different. As many planes as possible are taken below decks. The rest are tethered to the flight deck. Navy ships have gyroscopes that help them stay level with the horizon during inclement weather. But there is only so much man can do against a hurricane. In this particular instance the USS Midway did have planes blown off the flight deck and into the ocean. Again, there is only so much that can be done. The SOP in the Navy is if your ship is tied to a pier and a hurricane is approaching, you are supposed to sail out to sea and ride the storm. Staying tied to a pier would just beat the hell out of the pier and the ship. I was on a ship for thirteen months that was out of Subic Bay Philippines. We did this quite a bit.
2007-02-13 14:09:49 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Aircraft carriers do have to deal with very bad weather. If possible the carrier task force would try to avoid the hurricane depending on strength. It would certainly launch all of it’s aircraft to avoid the storm. And then retrieve the aircraft once the storm threat is gone. Some of the smaller support ships may not take the storm as well.
2007-02-13 14:01:53 · answer #3 · answered by R M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They sail around as much of it as they can. The massive size does help some. But given that the primary mission is to land and launch planes and it is incredibly difficult to land a plane on the deck of a carrier in good weather and it is next to impossible in foul weather carriers avoid major weather systems as much as is practicable.
2007-02-13 14:06:12 · answer #4 · answered by C B 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They have enough speed and weather prediction to sail out of the hurricane...they avoid it in modern times...else batton down the hatches
2007-02-13 13:59:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no-----they have a magical aura that deflects all bad weather
2007-02-14 02:47:05 · answer #6 · answered by mcspic63 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋