Meet The Nuclear-Powered USS Eisenhower| Warship | Spark

hms ocean is the flagship of the royal navy [Music] she's britain's biggest warship she's a special lady and she's a one-off i think that's why everybody secretly falls in love with ocean she's also a floating village [Applause] fighting the war against dust her 1 000 strong crew has spent the last eight weeks preparing to take control of an american-led task force in the persian gulf start ahead starve an engine a third of her sailors are at sea for the first time got a postcard from my nan see every morning it makes me happy and the old ship keeps throwing up problems manual work take out the strainers clean them now they're approaching the climax of their mission will the ship and her crew be up to scratch [Music] our cameras have been following ocean to see what it takes to run a major warship [Music] early evening november the 6th an hms ocean is 2 000 miles from home with the port of dukkham in oman tomorrow she'll be heading for the gulf and the most sensitive part of her mission so the crew has got one last evening to relax below deck in the women's mess seventeen-year-old apprentice engineer kira parry is providing the night's entertainment [Applause] i had my rap tonight so i performed live for the mess that was good that was awesome despite the high spirits ocean's crew has a testing time ahead to get to the gulf ocean has to navigate one of the most hostile stretches of water on earth a 20-mile wide choke point separating iran and the gulf states the strait of homuz [Applause] an encounter with the iranian navy is almost guaranteed ocean's operations officer adam ridett is in charge of intelligence what we've got here is a video from the u.s warship that went through the strait of hormuz earlier in 2016. what she's videoing is four iranian republican guards naval boats that come close and this is something we fully expect to see because this is effectively iran's backyard so we've seen stories in the past about iranian cruise missiles and swarms of small boats coming out to to attack but arguably not since the 70s has there ever been shots exchanged so if something does happen it will be a miscalculation a mistake we don't want to escalate that and frankly nor do the iranians [Music] it's 6am an ocean is approaching the [Music] chokepoint we're just going through the traffic separation scheme of the uh straight forward moves so a road in the sea where we have to stay on this path the iranians like to poke everyone with a sharp stick as they go through so it's a place of disciplined restraint on track so far everyone's behaving themselves and the sun is out it's a good day for the rest of the ship the day begins as normal breakfast is being readied in the galley [Music] and at 6 30 the call the hand signal is piped through the tannoy [Music] as ocean comes to life captain pedro takes the bridge here about 170 degrees on his poor power because of the potential for trouble ocean has been assigned an american destroyer as an escort it's a narrow strait of water through which most of the oil in that region flows it is used sometimes as a political football uh between um iran and the rest of the gulf states and it's inevitable that that will always be the focal point for some form of tension with the uss hopper riding shotgun down in the mess halls the breakfast news has an appropriately american dimension we're going to get to work immediately for the american people yes donald trump maybe i would vote for him do you reckon about the election school don't watch it back home in something son i thought oh man listen [Laughter] there it is they've got it with the acg that's a great vessel back on the bridge and an hour into the transit ocean has got company fast moving contact true bearing at three one nine are tracking left to right range approximately five miles all reports on service an unidentified vessel is tracking their transit it's navigator mark hewitt's job to identify the mystery craft segments watch can you label the whodong on there as an iranian vessel so irn it's an iranian attack boat a hudong built in china so the hudong class is a basically it's a fast attack craft that the iranians and a number of other nations operate because of her speed and because of that missile capability it makes them quite versatile certainly in these literal waters it means she can maneuver very quickly getting close and could engage with their missile systems although that is entirely unlikely where we're operating but it's just a threat that we need to be alive to and be aware of as the crew keep careful watch seven decks below them the engineers spot a potentially serious problem perhaps we've lost all chilled water foreign which means we've lost all the chilled water which is calling for like our weapons [Music] ocean uses cold desalinated sea water for air conditioning and to keep its electronic systems cool in the blistering arabian heat as of 10 minutes ago that cooling system crashed we appear to have gone over either a patch of um of seaweed or um or some fish or shellfish or whatever and they block the strainers so the team now are just unblocking the strainers manual work take out the strainers clean them basically like a filter this isn't the ideal time to do that that's why the guys are working quickly to restore capability the hudong is joined by three gun boats ocean's american escort is asked to provide a shield we've got four irgcm building up on the starboard bow hoppers into posing at the moment but as a precautionary measure we're closing out body armor now and have all weapons land on the upper deck [Music] for the new recruits like kira it's a first ever encounter with an unfriendly navy but you've got to think about her obviously because it's the military and that's what they do and you're always training constantly so they've got to make sure everyone's ready that's that's why we do everything so yeah everyone here should be ready if needs be to go to war a dozen more gunboats arrive and they still haven't formally identified themselves so the ship issues its first warning issue [Music] no responsibility the iranians split into two separate groups and take turns pursuing ocean [Music] red warning one no response re-reading and as you can see the maneuvers from the iranians are quite aggressive with vessels turned inbound you know four or five vessels closing at very high speed um with weapons and straight towards the task group and the absolute key here is that we don't overreact to their provocations and that's why the weapon teams are all manning their weapons but we're not training or covering the weapons on the iranian vessels at this moment because the biggest risk here is one of miscalculation one of those manning the guns is new recruit amy yeomans i think of everyone else on the ship think of like the lives you could you're protecting basically because we're initially protecting the ship so uh you just have to do it otherwise it could be your friends that could potentially be harmed the young abs they might be 18 years of age and they're on their first voyage and it takes quite a lot of training and quite a lot of understanding for them to sit back and watch somebody come towards them and just take our reassurance that they just need to hold fast and potentially gather intelligence as temperatures rise on the bridge down in engineering the stokers have succeeded in scraping the sea life off the water filters [Music] slowly they bring the cooling system back online no we did lose all we did lose all we went down to we weren't doing some nothing yeah we went down to nothing but now you've got three after you should have chilled water flow and temperature should be coming down and they're working together the foreign one of the foreign plants so yes don't throughout the morning ocean has been shadowed by up to 18 separate iranian boats [Music] now they try a new trick on the british crew yeah the iranian drone has crashed the loss of the drone seems to deflate their uninvited escorts who start to back off the threat level decreases the body armor is removed and the bridge begins to wind down debrief shortly it was at uh after six hours ocean clears the strait well i think we've seen um a pretty standard pattern of iranian activity albeit to have had interactions with some 18 islamic revolutionary guard core navy vessels um is quite a high number it's what we've had to say but equally it's a while since they've seen a royal navy aircraft carrier operating in this area so they've evidently rolled out the red carpet for us today to welcome us into the gulf the crew has remained calm under pressure and avoided any incident you know i'm really proud of them because it's too easy to just remember your hollywood movies and and go medieval every time you see the enemy but for here it takes um real intelligence and restraint to under recognize the situation for what it was which is to uh two navies just having a look at each other in the same stretch of water ocean can focus on the next stage of her mission to command ctf 50 the american-led naval task force in the gulf stoker michael hedgecock is the fifth generation of his family to serve in the royal navy but even born sailors like michael can have an off day on a long voyage some days when you've had a really bad day just want a bit of fatherly advice just to say listen dad x y and z zap and i just need someone to chat to or can we just go for a pint and just chill and sometimes you just need your mum and your dad just to say everything's gonna be all right homesickness is the enemy of good morale luckily there is an antidote the post where's oh over there over there ships get deliveries either at sea or when they arrive in port today there are 66 sacks worth of parcels and letters some sections of the crew account for more of it than others girls mess always that's really round there's always times why do you think that is because we're just loved we're just loved more than everybody else apprentice stoker kate benson has got two sacks full of love for hermes and a little parcel the other day and there was just a little northerner just mix makes it a bit better yeah even even like a card i think it's like good isn't it yeah got a postcard from my nan i love it see every morning makes me happy the mail makes everyone's day right how about i open some mail even the captain who has a bundle of parcels from his parents yes his book on history max hastings um battle of for japan which subject i'm pretty interested in and i suspect another book yeah turning the tide battle of coral sea an absolute essential read yep lots of books but plenty plenty of reading material for the future so that's good it's just two weeks until ocean becomes the command center for ctf-50 the american task force in the gulf as the countdown to the handover continues ocean goes through her final preparations today they're loading and test firing the three phalanx automatic defense guns capable of shredding missiles and fighter planes phalanx command approved the woman with her finger on the trigger is weapons officer danielle hopkins what we're doing today is making sure that we are actually accurate so when we fire we haven't got an error or a great error which would mean that we could end up hitting something else by accident it's got an effective range about 4 000 yards and it fires four thousand five hundred rounds a minute so quite a lot shot drills good drills it's not only the weapons that are being discharged nine decks down is a vital component of this 23 000 ton war machine the crew call it the poo plant maritime regulations insist that all human waste is processed before being jettisoned at sea stokers rhys clayton and mitchell blair do the job no one else on the ship wants even though it comes with extra pay [Music] first part of the process the screen press gets rid of your toilet paper anything that can't be fitted through the system from here your filtrate goes to stage two that's where your bacteria break down the organic matter this is where they earn their extra money because there's only one way to check if the process is working you have a little smell good is earthy like dirt you want it earthy bud is like eggs you're not sulfite it's not nice well you smell it and i will pull the face that's how you know it's bad and then it then gets passed on to these filters turns it into permeate you permeate goes to your permeate tank and discharged overboard this is the final product of our wonderful coupon this is processed very well weed technically clean water which is supposed to be drinkable but you know i don't know i'm not drinking that they need a volunteer edge will try it yeah you'll have to sit queue hedgecock edgecut you'll try this one yeah i think uh get about for the challenge [Music] [Laughter] that's just proven the six drinkable but it clearly isn't you know as you can see there today a senior british officer a commodore is arriving to prepare for the ctf-50 handover [Music] which has prompted the crew to engage in an all-out attack on dirt and grime fighting the war against dust the commodore will run operations from ocean alongside a staff of 20 officers they have been asked by the americans to take charge of strike operations in the gulf for a period of three months so they are here on the ship using us as a command platform to be the headquarters in charge of those operations so it's as simple as that so ocean provides them with beds bunks beans communications infrastructure intelligence and all the real life support that they need providing the bed bunk and beans is executive warrant officer carl steedman he's already been busy taking care of the commodore's advance party sir oh well thank you welcome on board uh you are like a gaggle of divas you've come heavy-handed with bags i'm just gonna stick my head in the commodore's cabin make sure everything's squared away tickety-boo um obviously commodore burns his name's now on the door and he's got a cabin with all his it and all that ready for him to execute ctf 50 duties in the in the gulf he's then got a bunk out the back in the shower and all bits and pieces so he's pretty much allows the commodore to be self-sufficient in here uh and pretty much execute his duties whilst onboard ocean good good no matter what rank you are there's only one way to board a warship at sea british commodore andrew burns will arrive through the maritime equivalent of the tradesman's entrance known on ship as the pilots hatch [Music] really good speed a commodore is responsible for a squadron of ships and is one rank below area admiral which means he gets his own flag raised when aboard this is my eighth deployment to the middle east and the gulf region so it's pretty familiar territory to me and it's a difficult part of the world to operate in it's particularly challenging right now because there is instability all the way around the gulf region and terrorist organizations operating to the north in the shape of isis and to the south in the form of al qaeda we know those organizations are developing waterborne threats and we have to be ready to deal with those startups ocean is now on course for a rendezvous with the aircraft carrier uss eisenhower this nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is three times the size of ocean and has a crew of five thousand in two weeks time the british warship will replace her at the head of the task force new recruits to the royal navy have centuries of tradition and regulation to navigate today new recruit michael golden is about to encounter one of their more bizarre rules i'm i want to go bid that's okay so i need you to familiarize yourselves with the policy in br3 if you want a beard in the navy you need the right paperwork so in order to be able to grow beard you have to fill out a beard chip which in effect is a request to cease shaving from a certain date so what happens then is i'll fill out the form having done so i'll then get that signed by my divisional officer and the master of times and then in a couple of weeks she'll take a look see if it actually is respectable and if she thinks it is happy days if she doesn't and you have to shave it off start again the master at arms is shelley hyatt what i'm looking for is that it's coming through evenly there's not gaps everywhere and spaces or it's the correct length and it's not it's longer than just a bit of fluff on the chin basically and it looks neat and tidy on the flight deck there are more pressing concerns captain pedro and commodore burns are preparing to be flown by helicopter to the uss eisenhower there an american admiral will formally hand command of his task force to commodore burns and ocean we're director in november uh we are minutes away from taking over as the flagship of commander task force 50 so maritime coalition strikeops in the gulf so the commodores over there at the moment taking over that duty and we are just positioning ourselves for a little steam past with uss eisenhower who is three times the size of us um but certain times size doesn't matter and this is one of those times so uh ocean's perfectly good as a as a command platform it does look good especially with all and the jets on the flight deck and helicopters going on and off it doesn't look professional not that ass doesn't [Music] we just have news that commodore burns has taken command of ctf50 and the rather large impressive american platform is currently on our port beam at approximately 200 yards um she looks okay she could do a bit of update work if i'm honest with you um but she hasn't got a wire ensen fly at the back of her second class okay job done that ceremony complete so the eisenhower's just peeling away she's going to make her way back home and then we'll continue our patrol in this area so job done for today and the fun now starts i guess [Music] ocean is now spearheading a task force of up to eight warships together they will be responsible for security and the free flow of trade through two and a half million square miles of open water [Music] below decks life in the village at sea retains its routines for the kitchen staff and stewards that means squeezing in a darts tournament between shifts yeah it's really good fun i tell you um the thing is sometimes um because you're in ship and even though you're free for that period of time you still stuck exactly where you work so that could be a bit a bit challenging sometimes so it's about getting a bit of activity to use up that free time that you actually have [Applause] you miss your family on a daily basis it's that's normal but it's the distractions like this that take your mind off it for a bit and um so it's uh it's good it's passing the time away for the guys so it's really it's a good thing for the boys i think away from the darts match the commodore and his staff are getting down to the day-to-day business of running the ctf-50 task force thanks very much sir on open source um in yemen one of their responsibilities is to coordinate anti-terrorist operations against isis and al-qaeda groups in the area so there are daily security briefings made by saudi authorities uh michael h992 uh who's tweeted image of the salhan destroyer uh this is a domestically built iranian uh destroyer but it's a more similar in size to an apb than destroyer okay thanks matt no questions as command ship of ctf-50 ocean's flight deck has gotten busier today she'll welcome aboard an unusual american visitor the osprey is half plane half helicopter and can tilt its engines mid-air transforming from one mode to the other in 12 seconds [Applause] it has the speed of an airplane but the landing capability of a helicopter so you can carry troops up to 24 people over a great range and at speed so it gives us that versatility to to get people ashore or whatever we need to do with it only the american military operate the osprey so its arrival is greeted with genuine curiosity this is the first couple of days of ctf50 so operating the osprey with the americans it's a really good way to start so and it's enjoyable it's something different down in the galley marine technician michael hedgecock is in big trouble um we were ashore one night me and one of my really close friends and been drinking all day it was the last stop before we were going home and got into a bit of a argument and we may or may not have had a fight and pretty much come from that he was injured and that was due to me [Music] [Applause] the judge and jury in the case will be nick wood [Music] the reason why we can prosecute our own people at sea is that we don't have access to shore side justice i couldn't send this to hampshire constabulary to trial we're on the far side of the world and this man needs to be dealt with which is why we uniquely in the armed forces retain the right to prosecute our own people for serious offences people will be jailed um today somebody allegedly has not played by the rules so we'll have a look at what they've done and i will dispense justice and the mum and dad have always said if you've done something wrong don't try and hide it or lie about it um you admit you're at fault take it on the chin if you're gonna whine about the punishment you shouldn't have done it in the first place so i'll see what comes of it worst case scenario my careers my career is basically trashed because of it i mean i can always have other christmases at home which would be nice [Music] the british commodore has a meeting on the american destroyer uss hopper it's a lively commute hopper is one of two american destroyers in the task force both carry tomahawk cruise missiles these are capable of striking isis and al-qaeda targets in iraq ocean also has an appointment to keep she is due to carry out one of her more challenging operations also watch roger headquarters 415 altering 315. the ship is meeting a floating filling station for arras which stands for replenishment at sea she is topping up her tanks with 400 tons of diesel and a further 200 tons of aviation fuel it takes 57 gallons to move ocean one nautical mile the ship uses seven gallons to travel her own length that's 667 feet oh we're getting closer for once kira is above deck she's on comms duty which means she's a key link between the engine room and the pumping operation i love the route i think they're awesome i can get a bit boring actually but afterwards you just buzz in especially like being on the comms you just feel like you're so important in principle it's just like filling up at a petrol station in practice it's a bit more tricky as the ships push through the water they create a pressure wave at the bow so they push water away from themselves and that could push both the ships apart luckily they do that at the back as well so the front and the back are pushing out but in the middle between the two ships it's actually trying to suck you together so it balances nicely but if you get it wrong and sort of get too far ahead or too far back then it sort of sucks you together and that can go a bit disastrously wrong sorry start with twenty or ten three two five good almost exactly 50 meters apart steaming along at 10 knots 21 000 tons on this side 16 000 tons on the other side living the dream [Music] once they are close enough they get a line over turn the rifle uh they got this like attachment for the s80 and they fire it over and it's gonna catch on something over there it's like how you send stuff over i just think it's cool to watch something you don't see every day [Music] going from the light line followed by the fuel lines so you'll see that coming across and then we start pumping we collect our bottle of water and our copy of auto trader and our bag of crisps and we leave the petrol station normal drills i love this bed twisted around things [Music] chris we started pumping diesel yeah yeah we started pumping diesel now in a pre-health and safety era ship-to-ship transfer was even used to move people when i was 18 i transferred between a couple of frigates and i think they found out it's my birthday so they stopped between stopped me halfway across and bounced me in and out of the water singing happy birthday and uh i thought it was the best day of my life so 30 years ago that was a it was a good day but christ alive we did that today can't think about it it will take over four hours to pump the fuel aboard the cost of filling up today 200 000 [Music] pounds [Music] [Applause] today michael hedgecock will stand trial for assaulting a shipmate off cap stand out ease hedgecock is facing the real possibility that he has messed up the only career he has ever wanted paul hedgecock you were charged as follows committing a criminal conduct offense contrary to section 42 of the armed forces act 2006 namely battery to section 39 of the criminal justice act 1988 do you admit or deny the charge admit sir do you or your ao on your behalf wish to make a plea in mitigation yes sir aoa please sir since the incident in question hedgecock has recognized that his actions were unacceptable and he had to identify his shortcomings and take action to rectify them hedgecock has shown clear remorse for his actions and again wishes to apologize unreservedly to all parties concerned and to put the incident behind him thank you chief well spoken i do not believe that a custodial sentence is in the service interest nor do i believe that stoppage of leave is appropriate therefore having found the charge against you proved i award you a fine of 14 days pay totaling 752 pounds 64 to be taken over two calendar months so i read through an inch thick of case notes and the one question i have is why didn't you walk away i thought he was gonna basically hit me first and as he's a little bit stronger than me i didn't want to lose his face and felt threatened and i thought that was my only way out we are only violent towards the enemy not each other right so we are trained to be violent it's what we do but we're also trained when and where to use that violence far too many years ago i stood exactly where you were right so somebody gave me a chance on that day and now i'm here as the commander of the fleet flagship so i offer you the same chance today use it fully yes i understand yes sir hey 14 days 14 days pay 750 quid very lucky in the grand scheme of things that is the best case in like the best that i couldn't have asked for better really [Music] ocean is in port for a vip visit uh the prime minister will be coming on board the vehicle ramp up the vehicle deck on the off lift and onto the flight deck so gonna make sure that area is nice and clean prime minister theresa may is in bahrain for a post-brexit trip to drum up trade but it's also an opportunity for her to come aboard and celebrate the ship taking command of ctf50 [Music] she will give a speech meet the crew and thank them for their efforts [Music] before she arrives captain pedro and commodore burns brief the troops to make sure everyone is on message big day today prime minister's visiting many of you will have an opportunity to engage with it directly to just remember some of those themes the themes for ctf50 deterring regional aggression free for commerce and building partnerships with defence engagement and also for the prime minister in particular is getting across the fact that working with other government departments and particularly defence engagement in support of the fca so smile engage with her and enjoy one of the brief [Music] executive warrant officer carl steedman is checking that ocean is ship shape making sure that everything's good to get if i'm honest with you um my ship's coming have done a little bit of spring cleaning over the last 24 hours just to um give ocean that little bit of sparkle for the prime minister when she comes on board and now we're just uh getting ready just doing the final touches morning folks how are we happy days good smiling here looking good that's what we like it's when the prime minister walks around later on meets a few members of the ship's company in certain offices and compartments um we're looking our best which excites me at times one of maybe jones how are we you ready maybe jones is going to open the prime minister's car door this morning so very important very important job open the car door and say good morning prime minister there's no pressure at all is that ms jones not at all see you later on ms jones have a good day [Music] [Laughter] i've actually never seen a real prime minister can you see him on the tv i thought that was brilliant obviously she's talking to two audiences she's got the the world's media stood behind but uh in front she's got the ship's company of ocean and she spoke i think really well to them so we're a cynical bunch sometimes but everybody everybody on board was super excited to see her today so it's really nice they'll be talking about it later get a bite shot in the arm halfway through the deployment okay the prime minister wishing you a happy christmas and then in three hours and five minutes we sail and crack on again there is one more important piece of business to attend to michael golden has an appointment with the beard police [Music] thanks how are you hi thank you um so i just wanted to get my dude signed off no problem obviously i'm looking to make sure it's all level and attached to the side bend and the mustache bit is attached to the beard i'm happy with that because it's growing in nicely so yeah um that would be it obviously when you if you want to shave it off again you'll have to come and let me know and then i'll give you this back and then you'll have to grow grow if you want to grow a new one sure put another chit in thank you very much perfect thank you boston it's 80 days since the ship left plymouth since then the crew have coped with multiple engine problems hosted diplomatic events [Music] dropped 350 marines into the desert and pushed an air group through sea flying training backhoe what can you see when you look out when you're working around those cities buildings and that some trees but you can't get better than this you can't the 120 new recruits and their shipmates are now ready to spend the next three months leading the task force and policing the gulf but you see the confidence in the way that they walk and talk my relief might be amongst this ship's company and in a few years time the person who aspires to go and command the next fleet flagship might be here now you know i'm really proud of them so job done so far [Music] you

Channel: Spark

Views: 166,279

Rating: 4.7436934 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary, science mom, space documentary black holes, documentary space, warships season 10, warships season 8, warships season 9, warships in south china sea, mega mechanics channel 10, how do ships sail inot the wind, Canadian navy, Navy ships, ship science, hms ocean, britains biggest warship

Id: HuynzAg6o0g

Length: 45min 52sec (2752 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021