Largest Ship In War Thunder So Far (v2.5) | USS Forrestal | What It Takes To Destroy

After my unsuccessful attempts to sink enemy carriers in air realistic battles, I decided to investigate what is the largest carrier in War Thunder and what it takes to destroy it. US aircraft carrier USS Forrestal turns out to be the largest vehicle in War Thunder by far. If I remember correctly 3 aircraft carriers were added to the game with jump jets which have detailed 3d models and damage models similar to player vehicles and the Forrestal is one of them. I compared the USS Forrestal to 4 other ships by size visually in the first minutes of the video. I think IJN Yamato and USS Lexington were the biggest ships in the game from the very beginning up until the introduction of jump jets with new carriers but they are only AI vehicles and have very dated visuals and damage models. IJN Hyuga is the biggest ship that players can command and SMS Kaiser is the latest battleship addition to the game. After the visual comparison, I attempted to sink Forrestal with different bomb loads which I thought most likely to destroy this behemoth but as you can see in the video it takes quite a beating before going down.
#warthunder #thestubbynuke

[@Meister-der-Prokrastination]

How did you the concurrent Bomb drop? I don't know a keybinding for that.

[@TheStubbyNuke]

If you set number of bombs to "All" only needs one click.

[@Juankinfinite]

@@TheStubbyNuke how do u do that? pls specify the controls

[@TheStubbyNuke]

While at your hangar view or in a battle: 1) "Controls" (On the top left corner drop-down menu at the hangar view). 2) "Weaponry" (It is listed at the "Aircraft" tab, under the "Navigation" section on the left side of the screen) 3) At the right there are keybindings as a list, find the "Drop bomb series" and bind a keystroke (Mouse or Keyboard both works) To use this functionality at user missions: At the hangar view select the bomber you will use at the user mission and go to the test flight screen at least then back to the hangar and: 4) "Options "(On the top left corner drop-down menu) 5) "Air Battle Settings" (It is listed at The "Main parameters" Tab, under the "Navigation" section on the left side of the screen) 6) On the right side find the "Bomb series" option, if you set it to "All" you can drop all your ordnance at one keystroke. To use that at random battles there is a drop-down menu labeled as "Bomb series" at the deployment screen (where you select your vehicle before spawning) chose the "All" there

[@Arch_M4]

@@TheStubbyNuke how about torpedoes?

[@Mehhhh-]

@@Arch_M4 should work the same id expect

[@JohnSmith-wu2yf]

My father Ernest laug served on the forrestal...he was a grape...a fueler. He is currently battling pancritas and liver cancer. I'm here with him now and he thinks it's so cool that his ship is in a game. God bless all veterans and everyone else

[@KuroHebi]

That is one of the most wholesome comments I've ever read on KZbin. Bless your father for his service.

[@TheStubbyNuke]

Best wishes to your father, to you, and all your loved ones.

[@belgianfried]

God bless your old man.

[@sapien4658]

I hope your father makes it put alright, godbless. We should cherish the few WWII veterans we have left.

[@alexwalkervlogs]

a men and sorry about his cancer and thanks for his service

[@graustreifbrombeerkralle1078]

21:17 The massive shock wave is incredible

[@pbjracing14yearsago49]

Its insane...

[@xalexytb7985]

You damn right

[@Pechenka_KoJlJlekuuoHep]

Soviet power

[@bad_pilot13official]

@@Pechenka_KoJlJlekuuoHep not really since that’s just a copyed American b29

[@Pechenka_KoJlJlekuuoHep]

@@bad_pilot13official Well, industrial espionage was not only in the USSR.

[@snailboi6902]

22:30 is where the PE-8 is used, for anyone who wants to see big bonk

[@deleetustheskeetus9974]

Thank you comrade

[@lwgrazi]

pe-8 use started around the 3 minute mark

[@deleetustheskeetus9974]

@@lwgrazi yeah but the russian nuke _bonk_ was used at the very end, and tbh if you dont use the fab 5000 you're playing the pe8 wrong

[@blacktigerace6687]

Thx

[@_Zekken]

So thats the thing that flies over and destroys half of one team in ground battles. Today I learned.

[@Falziron]

22:58 Hey Billy, you hear that? No sir, I don't hear, wait, I hear it yes. What is that noise? I don't know sir, sounds like some sort of whistli-

[@frostybigman5070]

didn't expect you here rex

[@lambeezy2768]

Therapist: Boom barrel isn't real, it can't hurt you Boom Barrel: 22:05

[@elijahreid6125]

Just the British dropping tea for the Americans to enjoy

[@mantask.9688]

@@elijahreid6125 is the tea explosive

[@cheese6039]

@@mantask.9688 _maybe_

[@mr.pew3227]

@@schorschsteinfeger7068 you may already know this, but the bomb wasn't supposed to hit a specific target. They dropped it in the ground with a delayed fuse. It would crash into the ground, explode a couple seconds later and due to the size of the bomb it would shack the buildings to the ground. We basically dropped an artificial earthquake on the city. That's why the explosion wasn't as big as the previous bomb because it exploded underneath

[@fallin5427]

@@elijahreid6125 ughh, if it was that effective it must have been unsweetened.

[@matijakurelja9827]

i just realized that the audio is wrong, at 2000 meters audio delay should be 6 seconds not simultaneous

[@TheStubbyNuke]

There is an option in the game settings to simulate sound speed which I prefer to turn off. You can use that option.

[@matijakurelja9827]

@@TheStubbyNuke nice, my interest wore off 10 h in so i did not get to high altitude bombers

[@N1xon45]

Yeah this is a little weird to me and takes some of the realism out of it. But I get why you did it as it's a demonstration and the instant gratification also is kinda nice. I've never played War Thunder but watched every second of this. Great video!

[@cosmoe3455]

Wish they gave the lanc the grandslam or tall boy, would make a wonderfull light show

[@Chase-ts7gu]

Imagine was a 22,000 pound bomb would do in this game. That’d wipe out like the entire enemy team.

[@ceremyjlarkson9475]

It'd basically be the casual deleting of an entire flank

[@viperlabs7735]

@@ceremyjlarkson9475 not really. The bomb penetrates the ground too deeply to deal much of any damage to ground targets

[@Ben_Kimber]

@@viperlabs7735 Bomb target bases, on the other hand...

[@viperlabs7735]

@@Ben_Kimber true, but you’re just gonna get merked by interceptors. A 14000 lbs bomb is a huge hit to speed especially because the bomb bay doors had to be removed for the tall boy to even fit

[@williamgandarillas2185]

Nice video! I didn’t know that the USS Forrestal had a damage model

[@TheStubbyNuke]

Thanks.

[@202reece5]

Maybe it’s a hint for things to come...

[@st0lik575]

@@202reece5 i hope

[@friedbread5617]

All carriers do

[@noelblack8159]

In the new Dev Server they Are Experimenting with Player ships that can launch planes soooo...

[@GabrielAlexander514]

I just wanted to say that my grandfather was a 2nd Lieutenant on the Forrestal during the 70s and growing up he always spoke highly of his time on this ship. For any veterans on here his name is Fred Alexander

[@booter3576]

Cool story :)

[@MalikCarr]

Always thought it was a shame that they didn't preserve that ship as a museum. That being the case, there's already a number of carrier museums, and some of them have pretty meager collections as it is (USS Hornet in Oakland is the worst).

[@madpuppie59]

@@MalikCarr amen to that I Served on the forrestal in the 80s, first super carrier, should have been a museum ship for sure

[@Robert53area]

@@MalikCarr they didn't keep it as a museum ship, because it's predecessor the USS midway, was already made a museum ship in san diego. The forestall class unfortunately had nothing that made it more significant than the midway class, other than size.

[@MalikCarr]

@@Robert53area That was largely my thoughts on the matter. The Midway is a spectacular naval museum as it is - finding somewhere to host the "Forrest Fire" and then having enough artifacts to fill it up was probably going to be difficult in light of the fairly small collections some existing museums (I'll cite Hornet again) already have.

[@Hanz_Goober]

21:17 I thought that was thunder outside

[@swety2962]

war thunder

[@Hanz_Goober]

@@swety2962 just lots of people dying simultaneously is all.

[@MikoyanGurevichMiG21]

Fun fact- USS Forrestal holds the world record for the largest aircraft(a C-130) to ever operate from an aircraft carrier.

[@C33_Taylor]

Crazy to see the Forrestal in the game. It's a huge part of firefighting training in Navy boot camp now since it suffered an insane accidental fire while at sea. It changed a lot about the way we handle firefighting now.

[@superspies32]

So WT has CV already? How its gameplay is compared to WOWS?

[@benn454]

Henceforth known as the "Firestal".

[@majo3488]

Nice testing. Seems they made a pretty accurate model. Bombs under 500 kg are not reported to make server damage to carriers of WW2 and the carriers later were even more hardened to this. The modern aren't, but they have also other threats to get protected against.

[@timothyg4426]

USS Franklin would like a word with you. 250kg ripped into the hanger deck and hit planes being prepped to go back out. The ship damn near sunk. The US didn't armor flight decks till the midway class before this one. Kaga got hit with 4 bombs 3 of which were 230kg. One took out an elevator, one plunged into the hanger deck starting fires, and one took out the bridge. Where did you hear 500kg or less didn"t do severe damage? Alot of early war dive bombers couldn't carry a 500kg.

[@majo3488]

@@timothyg4426 Thanks. It seems I got this one wrong.

[@timothyg4426]

@@majo3488 Np. Sorry if I seemed like an a**hole on the previous reply was a little drunk typing it. If you are interested is naval stuff I recommend Drachinifel's channel. He has a whole vid on the debacle that was USN torp program early ww2. Dive bombers were the only strike force USN had early war that could reliably do damage.

[@renatoborrocastelani2779]

Also the modern are even more hardened than the older-ones, if i am not mistaken during one of the oil wars there was a fire in the deck and the deck armor saved it from burning even more.

[@piter_sk]

@@timothyg4426 Stuka siren noise intensifying

[@sumvs5992]

This just makes me wish that you could drop nukes in test flights

[@Ahmed_Hasan_]

Phly did that apparently its just a small bomb that has the effect of ending a game

[@JerzeyBoy]

Now if only they had a detailed model of Tirpitz.

[@andrewcharlton4053]

And some tall boys

[@nighthawk6755]

@@andrewcharlton4053 now we should have better ammo rack effect for the hood

[@arandomyoutuber6634]

@@nighthawk6755 Anyone up for an entire team of Swordfish?

[@jacksonpalmer7504]

17:31 Ah yes, a bomb so powerful that it knocks out the entire crew of a aircraft carrier

[@sequence-gaming4841]

Finally I've been longing for an up to date video showing this !!!

[@Feronen]

Would you be willing to do this test on the Forrestal with torpedoes as well? Still have yet to see how effective they are against it.

[@TheStubbyNuke]

I did test them same day but uploading entire content was taking too much time so I cut out most off it. If I remember it correctly after 3 or more torpedoes ship starts to listing one side slowly and eventually sinks. But this is just a user mission damage model can be different for other game modes.

[@Robert53area]

The problem is the AI does not do damage control. So FAP bombs and torpedoes are highly effective to ships. But against players not so much, most of them are already doing damage control from the start

[@Aintence]

In SBEC one torpedo is enough, takes about 5min for it to sink

[@Takaram2]

23:21 After bombing a carrier , conversation of pilot and air traffic controller ATC : *bad signal* Pilot : Cant hear , repeat , priom (idk how english pilots are checking quality of signal , so i put this word) ATC : Report the situation , priom Pilot : Reporting , we are fine fellow

[@Zefenaro]

They say "over"

[@zachcd390119]

Makes sense. In reality, bombing a carrier would likely cause fires and ruin the flight deck, making it useless in a fight, but to sink it means introducing mass amounts of water to the inside, something you'd more easily accomplish with torpedoes.

[@7gmeister]

Thanks for posting this. I don’t play the game but I am interested in military technology and it’s come up for debate in recent years as to whether an American super carrier can actually be sunk. The size comparison alone just demonstrates how much armor and protection that is possible on a carrier and these things seem to have truly taken the place of their predecessors the battleship in terms of size and overall ability to soak up damage. Battleships has a lot of emphasis placed on their size, armament and protection so people really understood their capabilities whereas we don’t really think of a carrier as something you would put an excessive amount of armor on so no one’s really questioned it before. Like, could you design a missile powerful enough to sink a carrier and what would that look like if you knew it was 100% effective and from reports of when they actually tested it is that I don’t think anyone can conceive of such a weapon. As far as a super carriers fortitude perception tends to be reality to most people so no one’s really considered that they may very well be nigh unsinkable

[@raichu0479]

War Thunder Players: Can I destroy Forrestal? Gaijin: Only if you’re Russian

[@shibito5442]

Exactly what I thought when I saw it

[@ryanabra662]

Or British apparently

[@thomas_asunto]

Russian Bias confirmed

[@alistairdiren5790]

Well to be honest Forestall's main opponents and rivals where Soviets during the Cold War.

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

If we're talking about mission kills and not kills kills, I bet even just the first bomber was plenty enough to render the landing pad inoperable as well as claim some of the planes parked on the side

[@Basili_epin]

That’s what I need to watch at 5 am

[@Alexander_Snowden]

wow, looks like they massively improved the bombing mechanics

[@Tanker-ok9uz]

Fun fact: the fab 5000 can split a heavy cruiser in half, even if it doesn't land on it

[@cpt4tap703]

My dad served on the forestall, I just got war thunder 2 days ago as well, this makes me want to play this game so much more to see it in game.

[@nuckerball1259]

Oh just wait for the full detailed yamato. Assuming the high explosive doesn't teleport to the magazines, the super thick deck armor and massive crew count should theoretically make it even tougher against bombs. (in warthunder)

[@garrettdemoss9465]

can't wait for it. She was sank by well over 100 planes attacking all at once. A single plane even with a big bomb should be a joke to her.

[@owencarey2954]

Wow, torpedoes really are the way to go I guess. Even the biggest bomb loads struggle to penetrate the deck to do real damage.

[@drvgxn4719]

Imagine seeing a continuous bomb drop while on the ship. just everything blowing up in a line from bow to end.

[@Nate-bn5kk]

I think in this case, "end" would be called Stern.

[@drvgxn4719]

@@Nate-bn5kk Yup, forgot about that. I couldn't figure out what it was called.

[@Nate-bn5kk]

@@drvgxn4719 it's like they have a whole different language for the parts of a ship, I get confused sometimes too.

[@phoenixguild8375]

My Dad was a Naval Photographer on the Forrestal, lots of stories I was told of his time on ship

[@SomeRndomGoose]

The plane is a bomb -Me

[@User-nq8fh]

Its so unfortunate that IRL the B-29 can drop over 80,000lbs (38,000kg) of bombs but in war thunder it gets a puny 8x 2000lb bombs.

[@TheStubbyNuke]

And Its repair cost atrocious. The current state of the heavy bombers is a big disappointment.

[@Triplez43]

Hope the Yamato goes from ai to player at some point I live to imagine the sound of the guns

[@ryerial7723]

Something about seeing huge ships roll over like that…

[@weheart9306]

Wow, I was actually on the decommissioning crew of the Forrestal. Wish I could post a pic of the hat (cover) I have of it.

[@overboss9599]

hey it's the USS Forest fire! this'll be fun

[@Jaystarzgaming]

Try implementing Gerald R Ford class carrier. Usually the drop bomb button is the space bar but I put the rear mouse button as drop bombs and whatever is considered Air to Ground and air to air missiles button infront of the drop bomb button then two buttons infront of that is slow or speed up the mouse movement sensitivity. Button below just slows down the mouse sensitivity.

[@CloudsPC-jh5ql]

can you tell me how to make those custom battles? I'm quite new to war thunder and vid idea: next time you should try kamikazing the aircraft carrier and seeing how many planes it takes.

[@4funrc11]

👍 Awesome! Especially seen through the eyes of a new player, me! lol Thank-You! 😃

[@TheStubbyNuke]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@stormworksgamer922]

With the pe8 I'm pretty sure that the big single bomb that thing can carry would of put a crater in the flight deck if the pe8 hasn't been nerfed

[@claytonbigsby246]

This video soothes me immensely

[@lerbronk]

really love to see fritz x and ijn AP bombs.

[@joseftrochta2123]

And i still hope for Yamato one day

[@jcramb6918]

i got a war thunder ad on a war thunder video while playing war thunder cool!

[@Novhlol]

Can you make the video to where you watch the bombs fall all the way onto the carrier? Instead of watching them fall for a little bit and then watching the explosions from up top?

[@foxidafluffy8294]

BTW: if u didnt know... the f2.222.2 (i may have the perfiods and twos mixed up) can one hit the af and 3 targets WITH some bombs remaining (at its BR) take that into consideration

[@kannah4394]

You did your best

[@ethanbates6623]

How do you do missions like this? Like I just wanna have some fun like this

[@N1xon45]

Maybe slightly off topic but holy shit how insanely terrifying would it be to be on a ship like this in WW2 as you're actually getting bombed by dozens of aircraft. I don't know how the ships stayed afloat with the massive Tungsten set each sailor had on em'.

[@drdagonator3544]

I mean all you'd really need is zuni rocket pods on deck and a crew that was no where near as godly as they were ok that fateful day. All jokes aside the uss forestal in one of the most important ships in American naval history and im both lucky to have known my grandfather who served on it And heartbroken for those who lost their grandparents and parents in its blaze. "I was walking off the deck when just as I crossed the door frame I heard the blast behind me, I turned around and got to work"- mcpo Richard Palmer (was not mcpo at the time of the incident)

[@richardberglund4765]

I need to check out war thunder again they have a lot of crazy stuff now lol

[@mrrexychomp9829]

Those ships were really meant to take a beating, I think they had triple armored hulls and every compartment could be automatically sealed off to contain flooding and fire. Just take a look at when they turned the USS Oriskany into an artificial reef there is a good video on it called how to sink an aircraft carrier and its amazing how much effort they had to put in just to get it to sink evenly

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

bombs are not properly modeled in warthunder. They dont peentrate aside from 800 kg Japanese AP bomb IIRC.

[@theaverageyoutubecommenter8012]

How did you get the carriers there,did you use test flight if so then I’m confused because when I test fly my planes only destroyers are the only ships I get when I test fly so I’m just coo

[@bagen5533]

Wow, how did you make that?!

[@rodgemic]

When dropping the bombs so tightly clustered I wonder if any detonated mid-air and didn't really contribute any damage

[@TheStubbyNuke]

Don't think so. They do less damage because they effect fewer compartment and modules compared to carpet bombing.

[@ktrn2b]

thanks

[@bluey3375]

2:47 - the toilet when u eat to much

[@thebassboostedchannel1251]

Hit any carrier directly on the elevators and it should be a one hit kill

[@somepersonidk885]

As general montgomery once said. "Nuke it."

[@redcoat8664]

No Forrestals were harmed during the making of this video.

[@lebigfudge]

too bad, u havent activated "speed of sound" its way better with it. anyway cool video!

[@XoshyFoxtrot]

To disable an aircraft carier and make it a giant floating piece of junk you just need ONE single direct hit on the flight deck and/or the elevator. It will not be destroyed but planes will not be able to ake off of be transported from the hold to the deck. And the planes that are already in the air will get in trouble since they will have nowhere to land. And on the other side: close pass above and battleship or carier is a suicide mission. Both types of ships have VERY powerful AA defense.

[@royalteluis623]

Did you try the fritz x it has very good armor pen

[@Zachattack1cub]

You should try keeping the camera on the bombs the whole time, it's much better to see the explosion up close

[@trossk]

thats one of my favorite planes

[@possibleawkwardness5480]

Forestall was nicknamed Forest Fire by its crew for it’s habit of catching fire seeminglyfor no reason.

[@papasquat1235]

What it takes to kill it (when its not actively shooting back at you) seems to be every bomb in the plane dropped at the same time.

[@muhammadfirstian4847]

Been a long time since I played war thunder, it's nice that they have added one push button to drop all of the bombs.

[@andrewrossell3782]

Do you not miss the days of playing something like a BV-238 and having to mash the spacebar 40 times?

[@muhammadfirstian4847]

@@andrewrossell3782 XD

[@dumiththiwanka9326]

Nice 👍

[@Yuri-gf6bw]

Shame you forgot the bomb fuse, current damage is borked like so much in the game

[@bullwinkle5445]

The higher the altitude a bomb is released from the more penetration it has. If you drop a 5kg bomb from 1000 feet it does less damage then if you drop it from 10000 feet.

[@angelo.strand]

At a height it stops to matter because terminal velocity

[@bullwinkle5445]

@@angelo.strand an object dropped from 10k feet reaches speed of 800 feet per second in 25 seconds. A 5kg anvil dropped from 10k feet will have greater kinetic energy then if dropped from 1000 feet. Bombs also have to deal with wind resistance and air density but it is generally accepted lower for accuracy higher for penetration

[@Daubloonbandit]

12:36 the bombs who rode piggyback xd

[@Ajc-ni3xn]

I know very little about war thunder, what’s the difference between complex and simple damage models?

[@jamesburdian56]

17:33 when you get crew knocked out on a supercarrier:

[@chocolat-kun8689]

Cold war Era's have learned the lessons of unarmored decks.

[@deranged5322]

All you gotta do is wait for John Mcain to launch a missle on the flight deck. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@kharilane1340]

I wish they would have shown the close ups of the bombs hitting their targets instead of always cutting back to the view from the plane

[@c-028]

Nice video. But in the real life the bomber like that would never had a chance getting that close to bomb that aircraft carrier.

[@TheStubbyNuke]

I know but I love bombing stuff in War Thunder 😊

[@ducedevlstear2471]

I'd love to see B29 vs Bismarck. Or Yamato.

[@viktorhegyi3249]

BBB at the end ❤️

[@glaiydan]

i wish you would've followed the bombs all the way down instead of snapping back last second to see it from 2km up :/

[@fishman8293]

How did you get a private server like that it looks cool as heck and i would love to try it pls see this

[@jbellepadua6962]

War thunder:doesnt have researchable carriers me:World of warships it is

[@dallarian8687]

In sim one good torpedo (from F6F) is good enough, the ship will sink a few minutes later.

[@GhostShip94]

22:05 ah yes, the dreaded water heater

[@Denis-zw3gx]

What about a timer fuse? Maybe bombs need to penetrate the deck and after explode?

[@alanloxcart902]

Nice video, How can we play this mode ?

[@PandaMan-xy1he]

@Louis Ed Nacion Nope, he just made a custom map.The carrier is the new top-tier Western carrier, for naval jet aircraft, and has the full damage model.

[@2004jakub_cze]

How you do that droppin many bombs in same time? Or is it only in that costume map?

[@PandaMan-xy1he]

Keybinds-Weaponry-Drop bomb series. You can then set, in match, the number of bombs you want to drop with each press of that key, or set it to none and hold for a continous stream.

[@DS-wl5pk]

People take “biggest ship” and conflate it “toughest” aircraft carriers are soft targets. It doesn’t take a much to sink them. Which is why they’re always protected.

[@is-3shchuka765]

3 PE-8’s my goals are beyond your understanding

[@non-foldingchair270]

My father was an AB on the forrestal I'm gonna send him this

[@bbroegger]

at 4:17 -4:18 your bomb view does like a "focus" zoom like thing...how in the world are you doing that?

[@peter-coates]

Right click

[@deepdragon2]

Well for the Forrestal all you need to do is just drop a match...

[@otatoshio4315]

Now do the Baku, extra points if it's with it's air defences on

[@TheStubbyNuke]

Baku sniped my a-7 multiple times in RB battles well before engagement range it is ruthless :).

[@ian9916]

Chỉ cần Đức Phúc hát ballad thì dù buồn hay vui ĐP cũng truyền tải cảm xúc của bài hát rất tốt. Bài buồn thì nghe đúng kiểu tự sự, đau khổ, nghe là muốn khóc. Còn bài vui thì lại nhẹ nhàng, ấm áp, chân thành nghe là muốn yêu❤️

[@osmacar5331]

Well i did not know you could just dump all bombs at once

[@snailylunarwithascarf4414]

How did you make the aircraft carrier to be there?

[@uladzimirhryharovich8852]

you shouldve tested he111 with its 2500kg bomb