Carrier - Tom Clancy

So, what do you call something that's just about a kilometre long, weighs anything from 95 to 102 thousand metric tonnes, is built at Newport News Shipbuilding, has a service life of 50 years and costs $4.5 Billion to build?.

Well, if you're one of the more than 3,000 sailors onboard you call it home, to any of the 2,800 aircrew (especially the pilots) it's the barn and if you happen to be a submariner it's the biggest damn target you will ever see in your whole career. To the rest of us however, it's a Nimitz-class nuclear propelled aircraft carrier. Big, isn't it? Oh yes; and the U.S. Navy has 10 of them.

Clancy is known for his fiction, indeed is celebrated for it, but this book (which is part of a series) goes to some lengths to show the amount of research that he puts into one. Now, you also get the feeling that this is also a bit of unconscious bragging on Clancy's part, or that he's rather popular with the military (I mean come on. Just what are the chances of a civvie like me getting aboard an aircraft carrier as a guest?) but if so it's for a decent cause and you can't dislike the man too much for being a lucky sod (well, I can, but that's another matter).

The best way to describe this book is that it's a university textbook - lotsa statistics, all of them impressive, lots of exploded diagrams and patient explanations like you might see and hear in a lecture hall (now we know why Jack Ryan started as a teacher). To call it dry in places would be an insult to dry and yet the greater majority of the time I felt myself pulled into the reams and reams of facts and figures somewhat against my will but at least I went in with open eyes. Ever wondered how they test the steam catapults? Well, there's a bunch of remarkable photos that will help you visualize it accompanied by enough text to leave you in no doubt at all that they can each fire a 50 ton sled at 120mph, 300 feet into the Chesapeake within 5 seconds of hitting the trigger. See what Imean about being overwhelmed with numbers?

It's not just the ship though, Clancy delves into everything onboard apart from the engines and the performance ("Sorry sir, restricted area - now, just turn around and walk away before the nice Marine shoots you"). So, we get detailed and exhaustive descriptions of the aircraft from the ageing but impressive Tomcat to the latest variant of the Seahawk helicopter (the naval version of the Army's Blackhawk) and their specifications; weapons load, sensor capability, rated engine power, specific role, what and how many from each production run, when they were built, lifespan of the airframe, yadda, yadda, yadda.

"Look. I'm a bloke, right? I don't like dry stats, I like big bangs. Lots of them. Preferably somewhere other than where I am right now."

"Okay, let's have a look in the bomb locker, shall we?"

Yep, it's weapon time kiddies. And a Nimitz carries some pretty hefty firepower - every conceivable type of bomb is onboard save for nuclear ordnance (now, anyway, they used to carry a few of them, too - or so rumours go) and for any eventuality you care to imagine; M16 rifle, 50 cal and 30mm cannon rounds, air to air missiles, torpedoes, depth charges, gravity bombs, smart bombs, you name it and a carrier probably hauls it around the ocean - along with about 10million gallons of jet fuel. Now that'd make a pretty big bang.

Clancy sadly bores the arse off me at times and the interview with the then Chief of the Navy is just one of those moments; although things start to perk up a bit when they discuss options and plans for the next generation, or "Carrier XX" as it's known. Then he delves briefly into his more entertaining craft and sets up some futuristic scenarios and slices of fiction where the carrier and crew are pitched in at the deep end.

A worthy book, if heavy going, should you want to know every minuscule little thing about a ship you'll never get to board (unless you're in the USN). I can't help thinking that it could have been a deal more interesting though. It'd be nice if there wasn't so much damn flag-waving, as well.

5 out of 10.