Aircraft Carriers Are Massive, But They Can Still Hide From The Enemy - Here's How

Aircraft carriers have always been relatively large ships, but today's carriers are orders of magnitude more massive than the ones that helped the Allies win World War II. In fact, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is the largest warship ever built, and it routinely has 75+ deadly aircraft, 4,500+ personnel, and a Carrier Strike Group stuffed with support vessels accompanying it wherever it goes. That's a lot of steel on and under the water, which might make you wonder if an aircraft carrier can hide from the enemy.

It's a good question to ask because common sense dictates that there's no way to hide something that weighs over 100,000 tons. That's without everything else in the water supporting the carrier. Rest assured, an aircraft carrier can hide from the enemy, and it does so using techniques and tactics learned over the decades. The answer to this is actually fairly simple: the carrier stays outside of an enemy ship's RADAR range, sitting just over the horizon.

That's how they hide from ships, but hiding from aircraft is more challenging, thanks to the altitudes in which they operate. Shutting off the TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation) is a first step, as it's a radio beacon used to tell friendly aircraft where the ship is. Using frequency-hopping and encrypted communications helps hide the carrier as well, though doing so requires a change in air operations. Shipborne controllers then talk an aircraft down to land on the carrier, while hiding it from the enemy.

Aircraft carriers are active airfields moving across the surface of the ocean, so hiding them is complicated, to say the least. There are several steps needed to do so, all the while ensuring that flight operations aren't impacted. After all, what good is a shipload of fighters that can't take off or land? Hiding from ships is fairly easy, thanks to the horizon, but the carrier can't stop operating because there are enemies in the area, as that would entirely undermine its purpose.

The TACAN is ideal for letting friendlies know where the ship is. Shutting it off creates a hurdle for the flight crew on the deck of the carrier, as well as the pilots. Using encrypted radio comms, the pilot communicates directly with shipborne controllers who talk them down to around 23 miles from the ship. They ensure that they're pointed in the correct direction to land by providing lineup information and altitude data. They do this over very low-power systems, making them harder to detect, as radio comms can give away a position without being decrypted.

This is accomplished via a process called radio direction finding (RDF), which is a means of geolocating a transmitter. By taking the steps to prevent RDF, a carrier can typically move about without the enemy knowing its position. Granted, they're still susceptible to location via imaging satellites or high-flying aircraft. Still, given the size of the world's oceans, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack, so carriers remain largely protected.