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Watch a 100,000-ton US aircraft carrier make hairpin turns and do doughnuts at surprising speed

Alex Lockie
Jun 24, 2017, 5:24 AM AiirSource Military via Youtube

US Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are some of the biggest Navy ships ever built, but they’re surprisingly fast and agile as is evident by new footage of the USS Abraham Lincoln basically doing doughnuts in the open ocean.

Measuring nearly 1,100 feet in length, housing as many as 6,000 sailors, and supporting more than 70 aircraft, these ships are some of the most complex and imposing machines ever made by man.

But they’re anything but hulking behemoths. These titans can do almost 35 miles per hour at full steam thanks to their nuclear power plants.

Because aircraft carriers are such high-value targets, they have to be able to make tight turns to avoid collisions or enemy torpedoes, though their strike groups would likely fend off any threat to approach them.

Watch the USS Abraham Lincoln swerve across the high seas below:





aircraft carrier defense defense-us military uss abraham lincoln