Tri-Service

EXCLUSIVE: The US Supercarrier On The Frontline Against Daesh

Forces TV has gained unique access to the US Navy aircraft carrier on the frontline in the battle against Daesh.

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived last month in the Arabian Gulf and began launching airstrikes across Iraq and Syria.

Simon Newton is the first British journalist to visit the ship, known as 'Ike', since those strikes began.

In this special report, he talks to those at the forefront of Operation Inherent Resolve.

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower: By Numbers

Named after the United States' 34th President, who served as a five-star general in the US Army during World War Two, and afterwards as the first Supreme Commander of NATO, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1977.
She's the second of 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers in service, and has been overhauled twice to bring her up to the standards of the ones constructed more recently.
Constructed at a cost of $4.5 billion, she weighs 101,600 British tons (113,800 US), is 1,092 feet (333m) long, 244 feet (74m) high and can travel at over 30 knots (35 mph, or 56 km/h).
Her flight deck is 252 ft (77m) wide, with an area of 4.5 acres (18,200m²).
She has an unlimited range over 20–25 years and a ship's company of 3,200 personnel (as well as a 2,480-strong Air Wing contingent). 15,000 meals are served on her each day.
Protection, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Sea Sparrow and RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles, along with her 90 fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. Armour isclassified.

If you'd like to find out how fellow US Nimitz-class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt sizes up against her British counterparts, meanwhile, click here...