# Aircraft Carrier top speed a State secret? Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954 "2003-05-28T04:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/41 "2013-07-26T15:47:28Z")
You might think that an aircraft carrier is pretty big. Compared to a typical bulk carrier, they are canoes with a flat top. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/42 "2013-07-26T15:52:37Z")
I’d look at it the other way around. What is the advantage of disclosing the speed? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/43 "2013-07-26T17:03:33Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I think most of you are missing the point. You NEVER, EVER give your opponent an advantage, especially when you aren’t sure whom you may be fighting. This. Why _would_ you tell people when it costs you nothing not to? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/44 "2013-07-26T17:35:58Z")
OTOH, it’s not like it’s that [hard to derive](http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-028.htm). Ironically, if the linked report is correct, the USN declassified the top speed data in the late '90s. There’s a funny anecdote, IIRC, the wargame designer and military historian James Dunnigan told about trying to find good data for the performance of U.S. platforms and weapons. (It may have been Larry Bond instead.) He was having a devil of a time trying to figure out the actual top speeds, ranges, etc, for a variety of things for a new wargame or book he was trying to put together, and was constantly running into the “35 knot +.” problem. He tried all of his publicly available sources: no dice. A short time later, he was in the Russian-language section of a used bookstore in Manhattan, where he found a Russian publication like Jane’s. In it were exact numbers for all of the figures for the U.S. platforms, which later turned out to be pretty much on target. All of the Soviet platforms, OTOH, had “+” or “classified” next to their stats… So it goes. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/45 "2013-07-26T18:09:03Z")
> [@spanna](#): > > ## Whenever you see shows or written reports on the capabilities of current US aircraft carriers they mention that its real top speed is a secret. Why? > > Hmmm seems to me the real question should be if you give out all the other information and allow shows to be made giving it out why this single piece of information is so much more secret. Surely it would be more appropriate to say nothing at all. Seems to me that if you want to confuse the enemy, it would be better to give a false (low) number than to say it’s classified. A smart enemy will have to work just as hard to get the true number, but a dumb one might just accept the false number. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/46 "2013-07-26T18:22:25Z")
Did you ever wonder if a carrier could outrun a submerged enemy submarine? I’ll bet our enemies wonder too. That might be another reason. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/47 "2013-07-26T19:47:31Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > A smart enemy will have to work just as hard to get the true number, but a dumb one might just accept the false number. I suspect that the dumb enemies are not the ones we’re worried about being able to defeat. ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/48 "2013-07-26T19:57:19Z")
I can’t tell you the top speed of any of the Nimitz Class Carriers. I can, however, tell you the top speed of the USS Midway…between 31 and 32 knots. I’m no expert, but I find it hard to believe even the newest of the NCC (USS Ronald Reagan, CVN 76) could do 40 knots. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/49 "2013-07-26T20:36:50Z")
Kinda silly-the fact is, an aircraft carrier is a huge target-it cannot be made “stealthly”-it has a huge IR heat signature, and a huge radar cross section. You can even track them from space, via the bow wave that they generate.They are the “sitting ducks” of the 21st century-akin to the armored battleships in 1914. They are protected by very sophisticate weapons systems, true, but they are vulnerable to surface skimming cruise missiles, and from ballistic missiles. In the future, drone submarines will be developed that will attach mines to their hulls, and detonate them on command. There goes a $5 billion ship and 4000 lives. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/50 "2013-07-27T06:39:29Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Beyond that I think it is a foregone conclusion that a carrier is faster than any other blue water ship afloat…if it is running almost not other ship will catch it > [@Doomtrain](#): > > Though I believe carrier speed is limited to the speed of its escorts or supply ships. Is it so? I wouldn’t have assumed that carriers were the quicker ships. At the contrary, I woudl have suspected thta small ones, like destroyers and such were quicker. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/51 "2013-07-27T14:26:47Z")
I think that mostly comes down to power. Carriers are powered by nuclear reactors, which have plenty of power. Most other ships are still powered by burning chemical fuel (probably diesel, but the exact fuel matters little). ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/52 "2013-07-28T01:17:50Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Is it so? I wouldn’t have assumed that carriers were the quicker ships. At the contrary, I woudl have suspected thta small ones, like destroyers and such were quicker. The sustained speed of a battle group is limited by the escorts; operating at full speed is much, much less fuel efficient than a cruising speed of 20 knots or so. Even with conventionally powered engines aircraft carriers have a much longer range than thier escorts as they have much larger fuel tanks, so much so that carriers would usually refuel thier escorts while at sea. Since the range provided by nuclear reactors is unlimited for practical purposes, an advantage of a fully nuclear powered battlegroup is there is no need to travel at a more fuel efficient cruising speed. The US sent an all nuclear battle group on a round the world cruise in 1964 in [Operation Sea Orbit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea_Orbit). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954/53 "2013-07-28T02:50:56Z")
While threat avoidance is I’m theme here, I heard it said while I was serving aboard _Kitty Hawk_ (CV-63) that she would go fast enough that the bow would plain up making the launch and recovery of aircraft impossible. Makes the point of a carrier useless. As a Navy vet (credential questionable in this context), insessent war game player, and having played in hundreds of paintball senario games, I’ll also reiterate the point of never volenteering any info to anyone ever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aircraft-carrier-top-speed-a-state-secret-why/177954.md?page=2)