Realism of Marine aircraft on Nimitz-class carrier?

[cdjohnson]

Great game! Been learning quite a bit about carrier operations, inspired me to do some outside reading. One question - is it realistic to have the Marine aircraft aboard a Nimitz-class carrier during the South Pacific missions? The AV-8B & V-22s?

It's fine if those were added just to give some variety and new challenges for the player, but genuinely curious if Marine air squadrons/groups are every deployed on the "big deck" carriers in real life. Don't they always operate off their own "helicopter carriers"?

Thanks.

[Sheridan2018]

Yes that's true, I never see any AV-8B harrier Landing or takeoff from a Nimitz-class carrier in real life and the V-22 are rarely on a Nimitz-class. but it's okay for the game :-) I think the us marines use a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship (LHD) including V-22s and the AV-8B Harriers .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp-class_amphibious_assault_ship

PS: A Nimitz-class carrier in real life use F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growler, the E-2C/D Hawkeyes, C-2 Greyhounds and the SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawks Helicopters.

[cdjohnson]

Yup, that was my understanding also. OK, thanks for the reply!

[iMPERIALWOLF]

Allow me to shed some light on this. I'm currently in the process of Joining the Navy myself and have done outside reading before this game came out.

As far as VTOL aircraft like the AV8-B Harrier JumpJet (which has been discontinued as far as I know in favor of the far more powerful F-35B Lightning II JSF) Nimitz carriers would not be able to support flight operations in which VTOL aircraft would land and take off due to their original design of supporting aircraft with landing hooks. The navy prefers its pilots to be able to take off and land from the carrier via the carrier catapults and landing catchment wires.

Squadrons that are assigned to carrier deployments are categorized into Carrier Strike Groups which are put together of F/A 18's, E-2C Hawkeye Early Warning Detection Craft, EA-18G Growler Electronic Warefare craft.

While it is true that V-22 craft and Av-8B's are alright for something like this, in real life those aircraft would be deployed off a LHD Ship or at the very least the ship the user pointed out above.

Not just the Nimitz but all aircraft carriers in real life would use the aircraft you just described. Its not just one aircraft carrier.