Aircraft Carrier

DESCRIPTION: The Navy likes to call its super-carriers "4 1/2 acres of sovereign U.S. territory."

The reluctance of U.S. allies in the Gulf to support military force underscores the value of this floating air base, which carries 75 warplanes, including 50 strike aircraft, and a crew of 5,000.

The carrier is protected by its own planes, as well as a battle group of warships and submarines.

ANYTHING NEW? Since the Gulf War, the United States has greatly increased the firepower of a single carrier, by adding more precision weapons and equipping F-14s to drop bombs.

The two carriers now in the Persian Gulf combined carry some 650 laser-guided weapons, double the number of smart bombs that all six carriers carried during the Gulf War.