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Guided Tour
Carrier: A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier
They are floating cities with crews of thousands. They are the linchpins of any military strategy, for they provide what has become the key to every battle fought since World War I: air superiority. The mere presence of a U.S. naval carrier in a region is an automatic display of strength that sends a message no potential enemy can ignore. Now, Tom Clancy welcomes you aboard for a detailed look at how these floating behemoths function. With his trademark style and eye for detail, Clancy brings you naval combat strategy like no one else can.Carrier includes:* Takeoffs and landings: flying into the danger zone
* The aircraft onboard: their range, their power, their weaponry
* The role of the carrier in modern naval warfare
* Exclusive photographs, illustrations and diagrams
Plus: An interview with the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jay Johnson
* The aircraft onboard: their range, their power, their weaponry
* The role of the carrier in modern naval warfare
* Exclusive photographs, illustrations and diagrams
Plus: An interview with the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jay Johnson
348 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1999
171 people are currently reading
873 people want to read
About the author
Tom Clancy
977 books9,058 followersThomas Leo Clancy Jr. was an American novelist and military-political thriller pioneer. Raised in a middle-class Irish-American family, he developed an early fascination with military history. Despite initially studying physics at Loyola College, he switched to English literature, graduating in 1969 with a modest GPA. His aspirations of serving in the military were dashed due to severe myopia, leading him instead to a career in the insurance business.
While working at a small insurance agency, Clancy spent his spare time writing what would become The Hunt for Red October (1984). Published by the Naval Institute Press for an advance of $5,000, the book received an unexpected boost when President Ronald Reagan praised it as “the best yarn.” This propelled Clancy to national fame, selling millions of copies and establishing his reputation for technical accuracy in military and intelligence matters. His meticulous research and storytelling ability granted him access to high-ranking U.S. military officials, further enriching his novels.
Clancy’s works often featured heroic protagonists such as Jack Ryan and John Clark, emphasizing themes of patriotism, military expertise, and political intrigue. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, he became one of the best-selling authors in America, with titles like Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991) dominating bestseller lists. Several of these were adapted into commercially successful films.
In addition to novels, Clancy co-authored nonfiction works on military topics and lent his name to numerous book series and video game franchises, including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. His influence extended beyond literature, as he became a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team and was involved in various business ventures, including a failed attempt to purchase the Minnesota Vikings.
Politically, Clancy was a staunch conservative, often weaving his views into his books and publicly criticizing left-leaning policies. He gained further attention after the September 11 attacks, discussing intelligence failures and counterterrorism strategies on news platforms.
Clancy’s financial success was immense. By the late 1990s, his publishing deals were worth tens of millions of dollars. He lived on an expansive Maryland estate featuring a World War II Sherman tank and later purchased a luxury penthouse in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
He was married twice, first to Wanda Thomas King, with whom he had four children, and later to journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, with whom he had one daughter.
Tom Clancy passed away on October 1, 2013, at the age of 66 due to heart failure. His legacy endures through his novels, their adaptations, and the continuation of the Jack Ryan series by other writers.
While working at a small insurance agency, Clancy spent his spare time writing what would become The Hunt for Red October (1984). Published by the Naval Institute Press for an advance of $5,000, the book received an unexpected boost when President Ronald Reagan praised it as “the best yarn.” This propelled Clancy to national fame, selling millions of copies and establishing his reputation for technical accuracy in military and intelligence matters. His meticulous research and storytelling ability granted him access to high-ranking U.S. military officials, further enriching his novels.
Clancy’s works often featured heroic protagonists such as Jack Ryan and John Clark, emphasizing themes of patriotism, military expertise, and political intrigue. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, he became one of the best-selling authors in America, with titles like Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991) dominating bestseller lists. Several of these were adapted into commercially successful films.
In addition to novels, Clancy co-authored nonfiction works on military topics and lent his name to numerous book series and video game franchises, including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. His influence extended beyond literature, as he became a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team and was involved in various business ventures, including a failed attempt to purchase the Minnesota Vikings.
Politically, Clancy was a staunch conservative, often weaving his views into his books and publicly criticizing left-leaning policies. He gained further attention after the September 11 attacks, discussing intelligence failures and counterterrorism strategies on news platforms.
Clancy’s financial success was immense. By the late 1990s, his publishing deals were worth tens of millions of dollars. He lived on an expansive Maryland estate featuring a World War II Sherman tank and later purchased a luxury penthouse in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
He was married twice, first to Wanda Thomas King, with whom he had four children, and later to journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, with whom he had one daughter.
Tom Clancy passed away on October 1, 2013, at the age of 66 due to heart failure. His legacy endures through his novels, their adaptations, and the continuation of the Jack Ryan series by other writers.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 22, 2019
While his book SSN is oversold by its cover, this one is undersold--and is much, much better. Clancy does far more than just giving us a tour of a modern supercarrier (although he does do that, and does it very well). He gives us a much more in-depth look at the Navy itself, and its evolution in ships, aircraft, and technology since the '50s. I was gratified to see that he didn't pull any punches, but exposed various areas of weakness in leadership, vision, willingness to employ new technology, spats and turfism with the other uniformed services, and so forth.
But he doesn't throw the Navy under the bus--he also reports how those longstanding problems are being resolved with a new generation of leadership. Overall, Clancy makes a good cheerleader for the USN, but he does it with eyes wide open.
At the end of the book Clancy writes a brief scenario involving Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. It's short and entertaining, but suffers from a similar problem that the scenarios in SSN suffer from: everything works right for the good guys, and everything goes wrong for the bad guys. The scenario is not designed to be realistic, but rather to display capabilities. Even so, it would have been a little more gripping if the US had not been overwhelmingly successful.
I read this book while researching carrier operations for my own novel, Pacific Threat. It delivered. Four stars.
But he doesn't throw the Navy under the bus--he also reports how those longstanding problems are being resolved with a new generation of leadership. Overall, Clancy makes a good cheerleader for the USN, but he does it with eyes wide open.
At the end of the book Clancy writes a brief scenario involving Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. It's short and entertaining, but suffers from a similar problem that the scenarios in SSN suffer from: everything works right for the good guys, and everything goes wrong for the bad guys. The scenario is not designed to be realistic, but rather to display capabilities. Even so, it would have been a little more gripping if the US had not been overwhelmingly successful.
I read this book while researching carrier operations for my own novel, Pacific Threat. It delivered. Four stars.
April 8, 2024
This book was very interesting despite the fact that it is now about 25 years old, a long time when talking about aircraft carriers. Nevertheless, I got an idea of what it's like to be on the ship, which is kinda what I was after. Clancy has a very easy to read writing style and gave about all the information (and More) one would want to know (obviously careful not to dole out anything secret info). At the end there is a pure fictional part about how the carrier of the future would respond to a real-world threat. I think anyone serving or with kids on a carrier would enjoy the book. Warning - lots of jargon and acronyms.
April 4, 2019
In "Carrier: A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier", Tom Clancy accompanies the reader on an inspection of an American aircraft carrier and, with many details on its structure, functions and organization, unfortunately only marginally describes its tactical tasks.
The sixth book of Clancy's Military Reference Book series was written in 1999 and was intended to provide the reader with the state of the art and organization of an aircraft carrier at the time in an interesting and easily understandable manner. As with the previous books in the series, Clancy has excellent access and support from the US military, but in return writes a very uncritical description of what he sees. Like the other books in the series, this too begins with a much shortened overview of historical development, in this case of naval aviation. This is followed by a lengthy interview with Admiral Jay Johnson, which gives a personal touch to the development of recent years and explains the importance of aircraft carriers in more detail.
Next, Clancy describes very briefly but enthusiastically the training and training of pilots of naval aviation and in particular the difficulty of successfully landing planes on aircraft carriers. After the brief training description, Clancy comes to the main part of his book, namely the detailed presentation of all the technical marvels on board an aircraft carrier. From the key factors in building aircraft carriers to catapults, radar systems and guided missiles, Clancy describes the most relevant on-board systems for enthusiasts. Then he goes on to relevant aircraft and weapons and devotes himself here with great detail to every single system. In this section, it is most apparent to today's reader how out of date the book is, as various systems described are no longer in use.
After presenting the theoretical capabilities of each weapon system, the author explains the composition of the actual carrier battle group. This is on the one hand good, because not the aircraft carrier alone is considered, but the battle group is described with its much greater capabilities, on the other hand, it is also a mere list of organizations and units whose tasks and interaction is not really made clear. The reader gets a rough idea of the battle group's abilities from describing a combined high-level exercise, but this is just one example of the existing abilities. Clancy himself then describes a fictitious scenario for the use of the battle group, which is exciting but not necessarily informative for the reader. The book ends with a useful glossary and a bibliography.
Basically, this book continues to be an interesting source of reference as the aircraft carrier and other systems of its class are still in service. The sections on the airplanes and the carrier battle group, however, are clearly outdated and the book contains too few critical analyzes of what is being described and too little insight into the tactical capabilities of the battle group.
This partially outdated book thus still offers a good introduction to the topic for readers without prior knowledge and is certainly interesting for military enthusiasts, but readers knowledgeable on the subject will resort to other works due to the outdated information.
The sixth book of Clancy's Military Reference Book series was written in 1999 and was intended to provide the reader with the state of the art and organization of an aircraft carrier at the time in an interesting and easily understandable manner. As with the previous books in the series, Clancy has excellent access and support from the US military, but in return writes a very uncritical description of what he sees. Like the other books in the series, this too begins with a much shortened overview of historical development, in this case of naval aviation. This is followed by a lengthy interview with Admiral Jay Johnson, which gives a personal touch to the development of recent years and explains the importance of aircraft carriers in more detail.
Next, Clancy describes very briefly but enthusiastically the training and training of pilots of naval aviation and in particular the difficulty of successfully landing planes on aircraft carriers. After the brief training description, Clancy comes to the main part of his book, namely the detailed presentation of all the technical marvels on board an aircraft carrier. From the key factors in building aircraft carriers to catapults, radar systems and guided missiles, Clancy describes the most relevant on-board systems for enthusiasts. Then he goes on to relevant aircraft and weapons and devotes himself here with great detail to every single system. In this section, it is most apparent to today's reader how out of date the book is, as various systems described are no longer in use.
After presenting the theoretical capabilities of each weapon system, the author explains the composition of the actual carrier battle group. This is on the one hand good, because not the aircraft carrier alone is considered, but the battle group is described with its much greater capabilities, on the other hand, it is also a mere list of organizations and units whose tasks and interaction is not really made clear. The reader gets a rough idea of the battle group's abilities from describing a combined high-level exercise, but this is just one example of the existing abilities. Clancy himself then describes a fictitious scenario for the use of the battle group, which is exciting but not necessarily informative for the reader. The book ends with a useful glossary and a bibliography.
Basically, this book continues to be an interesting source of reference as the aircraft carrier and other systems of its class are still in service. The sections on the airplanes and the carrier battle group, however, are clearly outdated and the book contains too few critical analyzes of what is being described and too little insight into the tactical capabilities of the battle group.
This partially outdated book thus still offers a good introduction to the topic for readers without prior knowledge and is certainly interesting for military enthusiasts, but readers knowledgeable on the subject will resort to other works due to the outdated information.
August 14, 2023
eponymous sentence:
p12: More recently, in March of 1996, two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups (CVBGs) were dispatched to the Taiwan Straits after the People's Republic of China launched a program of ballistic missile exercises close to Taiwan.
spelling:
p57: Today, even in a time of relative peace, we still need between 45,000 and fifty thousand new bsailors every year to keep our force healthy and running.
p376: Unlike the Japanese, who tended to keep their warriers in combat until they died, the United States developed a rotation system to rest and replenish its combat personnel at all levels--even admirals.
spaces:
p84: Unfortunately,their acceptance there, with anything like real equality, remains to be achieved.
p200: "Active" sonobuoys add a noisemakerthat sends out sound waves in hope of creating an echo.
p203: For three decades ,SH-2's have operated off the Navy's smallest ships (such as the now-retired Knox-class (FF-1052) frigates), and are still being produced for foreign navies.
p241: The heart of Normandy's combat power is the Aegis combat system, with four SPY-1 phased array radars to track hun-dredsof targets at once.
p276: JTFEX 97-3--Day 3 : At the direction of the U. S. Department of State, all U. S. citizens in Korona and Kartuna have been ordered to evacuate due to threat of armed conflict . In particular, due to the threat of Koronan armed intervention, the National Command Authorities of the United States have ordered the 24th MEU (SOC) to conduct a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) .
ocr:
p148: By way of example, an expert I spoke with claimed that a 90% reduction in the radar cross section of a carrier could be achieved through relatively minor, though detailed, changes to the ship's island; sponsion, and deck structures.
p385: On the nose of all Block 11 and III TLAMs is a small "lip" that helps reduce the radar signature of the missile by deflecting, rather than reflecting, incoming radar waves.
p314: Though the following story is set some two decades in the future, it is based upon what 1 believe to be solid plans and ideas.
The details are mind-boggling.
p12: More recently, in March of 1996, two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups (CVBGs) were dispatched to the Taiwan Straits after the People's Republic of China launched a program of ballistic missile exercises close to Taiwan.
spelling:
p57: Today, even in a time of relative peace, we still need between 45,000 and fifty thousand new bsailors every year to keep our force healthy and running.
p376: Unlike the Japanese, who tended to keep their warriers in combat until they died, the United States developed a rotation system to rest and replenish its combat personnel at all levels--even admirals.
spaces:
p84: Unfortunately,their acceptance there, with anything like real equality, remains to be achieved.
p200: "Active" sonobuoys add a noisemakerthat sends out sound waves in hope of creating an echo.
p203: For three decades ,SH-2's have operated off the Navy's smallest ships (such as the now-retired Knox-class (FF-1052) frigates), and are still being produced for foreign navies.
p241: The heart of Normandy's combat power is the Aegis combat system, with four SPY-1 phased array radars to track hun-dredsof targets at once.
p276: JTFEX 97-3--Day 3 : At the direction of the U. S. Department of State, all U. S. citizens in Korona and Kartuna have been ordered to evacuate due to threat of armed conflict . In particular, due to the threat of Koronan armed intervention, the National Command Authorities of the United States have ordered the 24th MEU (SOC) to conduct a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) .
ocr:
p148: By way of example, an expert I spoke with claimed that a 90% reduction in the radar cross section of a carrier could be achieved through relatively minor, though detailed, changes to the ship's island; sponsion, and deck structures.
p385: On the nose of all Block 11 and III TLAMs is a small "lip" that helps reduce the radar signature of the missile by deflecting, rather than reflecting, incoming radar waves.
p314: Though the following story is set some two decades in the future, it is based upon what 1 believe to be solid plans and ideas.
The details are mind-boggling.
June 10, 2025
Published in 1999, 'Carrier - A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier' attempts to take you through just how a modern Aircraft Carrier of the US Navy works at the time of print. However, it also does a lot more than this; it also looks at how Aircraft Carriers developed in the USN and how they have gained a significant role in foreign policy in that time. Much is made of errors made during this process, demonstrating what a bumpy ride this progression has resulted in. Clancy shows some even-handed treatment of the subject by describing, on the one hand just how awesome the power projection of a carrier battle group can be, whilst describing on the other hand how disastrous foreign policy decisions have made such power projection somehow necessary. All quite impressive, until he gets to the bit about future developments. Most books of this type do a bit of forecasting, and all get it so far wide of the mark that you wonder why they wasted the pages on it, but I suppose a book of this sort would not be complete without it and it certainly adds unintended amusement when reading it 26 years later.
May 28, 2021
Very interesting to learn about what goes into an aircraft carrier group. The book is about 20 years old already so some of the jets talked about are now in full use as are some of the drones. While it is good to know I found some of the technical details tedious and would have liked some more historical stories about carrier use and some of the personal stories that go with that.
October 24, 2017
This book was a lot more technical than I was looking for. I enjoyed the part about the guided tour of a carrier but skimmed a lot of the parts about specific weapons systems. It is interesting to read it 20 years after it was written and see what has or hasn't changed.
April 27, 2018
Used as reference material for upcoming thriller I'm writing. Great descriptions of life on a carrier.
May 21, 2024
Great info on air carriers
May 11, 2019
Great tour of a modern aircraft carrier by America's premier military author. Clancy makes a strong case for the continued use of aircraft carriers in our post Cold War world.
January 4, 2016
Se vi interessa sapere com'è costruita una superportaerei, qual è il suo ruolo all'interno di una flotta, com'è composto lo stormo imbarcato, chi sono le figure che la fanno funzionare e come vengono addestrate, la differenza tra un aereo imbarcato e uno classico dell'aeronautica, quali sono gli armamenti a bordo della nave e degli aerei, quali sono i piani per il futuro e così via, questo libro fa per voi. E' una sorta di manuale, seppur piuttosto discorsivo, ma non è un romanzo che scorre veloce e leggero.
L'unica pecca è che i dati si riferiscono a 10 anni fa, e in un periodo come quello recente in cui i computer si sono evoluti tantissimo, in cui il gps sta facendo passi da gigante e altre tecnologie vengono introdotte pesantemente (la stealth, ad esempio) lo rendono un po' obsoleto.
L'unica pecca è che i dati si riferiscono a 10 anni fa, e in un periodo come quello recente in cui i computer si sono evoluti tantissimo, in cui il gps sta facendo passi da gigante e altre tecnologie vengono introdotte pesantemente (la stealth, ad esempio) lo rendono un po' obsoleto.
April 7, 2011
Fairly dry. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but it did provide good insight into how a carrier group functions, at least 10 years ago. There is of course the typical Clancy Rah-Rah military tone as well as continual reminders that we don't fund the military enough, which I find laughable. I'm sure things were different in the 90's when the book was written, but I'm guessing the services are doing rather better funding-wise than say education in this day and age. The last couple of chapters were the most rewarding, and as such the easiest to read.
April 29, 2012
This is a bit dry for my taste. I m not a big Clancy fan, but found this easier reading then his usual books. In the end I found that this was information over load on a topic I am only mildly interested.
July 23, 2012
Maybe a little dry, but still an excellent though perhaps a bit dated picture of carriers and their mission
July 26, 2012
1/3 interesting and informative; 1/3 techno-crap with 3 letter acronyms; 1/3 in your face macho Americanism.
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August 10, 2012its very interesting book..
Read
November 4, 2015Too bad the author is dead - this should be updated to reflect different global strategy and roles the US Navy has taken on. Certainly informative for the late 90's.
April 16, 2018
Very thorough and informative, as well as entertaining. Will be an excellent long-term reference book for me.
March 28, 2017
I bought this book to learn more about Carrier processes, tactics, daily living. The first part of the booked helped a little. Most of the book is an interview with former captains, and other ranking officer's experiences on carriers. It was a good read, but wasn't what I needed for research on what happens on carriers on a daily basis.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews