Climb down another ladder, and you arrive on the bridge, where the captain spends most of his time. On the port side is a comfortable elevated leather chair, which belongs to the commanding officer, and from which he normally cons the ship (flanked by computer screens). Over on the starboard side of the bridge are the actual conning stations, including the wheel, chart table, and positions for several lookouts. Even though the bridge is equipped with a GPS receiver, advanced radars, and all manner of electronic aids, human eyes and binoculars are still important to the safe conning of a carrier.
Just aft of Pri-Fly is arguably the most popular spot on board, "Vultures Row"-an open-air balcony overlooking the flight deck (and a good place to take in some sun). There anyone can safely watch the comings and goings below (bring your camera and earplugs!). It also offers a wide view of the whole ship, especially the defensive and sensor system.
From there you can see the sponson mounts for the eight-round Mk. 29 Sea Sparrow SAM launchers. The Nimitz-class carriers each have three of these systems, one forward on the starboard side, with the other two aft (port and starboard). The RIM-7M Sea Sparrow is a short-range SAM, designed to support the Mk. 15 CIWS mounts in defending the ship against any "leaker" aircraft or missile that makes it past the screen of Aegis missile cruisers and destroyers supporting the carrier group. Based upon the venerable AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile (AAM), Sea Sparrow was originally developed to provide small ships like frigates and destroyers with a short-range point-defense SAM at a reasonable cost. NATO adopted the system as the standard short-range SAM system for small escorts. Like its AAM cousin, Sea Sparrow utilizes a guidance system known as "semi-active" homing. This means that a Mk. 91 fire-control radar (each Nimitz-class carrier has three of these) "illuminates" an incoming missile or aircraft, much as a flashlight is aimed at an object in a dark room. The seeker head of the missile "sees" the targets reflected radar energy from the Mk. 91 radar. The guidance system of the missile then automatically provides it tracking to the target.[40]
Sea Sparrow is an excellent point-defense system that gives the ship good protection out to a range of up to 10 nm/18.5 km. Back in the 1980's, it was enhanced through the addition of a Mk. 23 Target Acquisition System (TAS) radar. This fast-rotating system can detect low-flying and high-angle targets, and then pass them along automatically to the Sea Sparrow system for engagement. The system's only drawback is that once the eight ready rounds have been fired from the Mk. 29, the launcher must be manually reloaded. Sea Sparrow is being improved through the development of the Enhanced Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) System, which marries the basic seeker system with a new airframe. This will give ESSM more range and performance than RIM- 7M, as well as the ability to be fired from both Mk. 29's and the Mk. 41 vertical launch system (VLS) launchers found on newer warships.
Unlike surface ships, flattops do not have many convenient spots for placing antennas for radios and sensors. This has to do partly with maintaining appropriate separation between emitting antennas, and partly with the need to avoid clutter on the flight deck during flight operations. For this reason, the island structures of American carriers have always been antenna farms. You'll also find a number of UHF/VHF radio antennas on the edge of the flight deck, placed on special mounts that rotate horizontally during flight operations. On Nimitz-class carriers there is additionally a large antenna mast just aft of the island, to hold those radar and communications antennas that need to be as high as possible. These masts and mounts hold a variety of sensors including:
• SPS-48E-A 3-D air-search radar that provides air traffic control and battle management functions. This high-resolution radar has a reported range out to approximately 60 nm/110 km.
• SPS-49(V)5-This is the best current Naval 2-D air-search radar. Extremely reliable, with a detection range of up to several hundred miles/ kilometers, SPS-49's are found on most major combatants in the U.S. Navy, as well as many foreign vessels.
• SPS-64(V)9-This is primarily a surface-search/navigation radar for keeping formation and operating close to shore. It is a development of the classic Litton LN-66 navigation radar.
• SPS-67-The SPS-67 is a general-purpose surface-search radar, designed to provide precise targeting data against surface targets.
• Mk. 23 Target Acquisition System (TAS)-This is a small, fast-rotating radar for detecting sea-skimming or high-angle missile attacks. It feeds data directly into the SYS-2 (V)3 weapons-control system, which can automatically activate the RIM-7/Mk. 29 Sea Sparrow SAM systems.
• Mk. 91 Fire Control System (FCS)-The three Mk. 91 FCSs provide guidance for the RIM-7M Sea Sparrow SAM launched by the three Mk. 29 launchers.
• SLQ-32 (V)4-The SLQ-32 is a family of electronic-warfare systems, which can be tailored to the protection requirements of a particular ship. The (V)4 version has a wide-band radar-warning receiver, a wide-band radar jammer, and a bank of Mk. 137 Super Rapid Blooming Chaff (SRBOC) launchers. These six-barreled mortars throw up a cloud of chaff (metal-coated Mylar strips) and infrared decoys to blind or confuse an incoming missile at the last moment prior to an attack.
• WRL-1H-The WRL-1H is a general-purpose wide-band radio/radar-warning /intercept receiver, designed to provide a basic intercept capability for everything from radio traffic to bearings on radar sets.
These systems give the carrier's commanding officer and battle group staff good situational awareness of the battle space surrounding their ship and the ARG. Along with the supporting sensor systems, the island also provides mounts for many of the ship's communications systems. While many of these are classified, they cover the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum and functions. The most interesting of these are the domed antennas for the satellite communications systems, which provide much of the high-reliability secure communications for the battle group.
Since they were originally designed primarily to transmit encoded text messages, even these systems have limits. Today, carriers need a lot more than just a relatively slow, secure means of receiving words. This problem surfaced with particular impact during Desert Storm, when none of the U.S. Navy carriers had the ability to receive the daily Air Tasking Order (ATO) from CENTCOM's air command in Riyadh. Every other air unit in the theater, including those of our allies, could get the ATO (which ran to hundreds of pages of densely formatted text), even if only by high-speed FAX machines over secure phone lines. But the Navy, having always planned on fighting on their own in the open ocean, was ill prepared for the communications required for joint operations with other services. As a result, the Navy did not receive its daily delivery of the ATO by high-tech satellite or data link, but by hand-delivered paper copies flown in by an S-3 Viking. As might be imagined, this was quite an embarrassment for the Navy, and as a result it began to put together systems to relieve this lack of joint connectivity.
40
The only known "live" service firing of Sea Sparrow occurred in 1992, when the USS