Watch this cool time lapse video of a full day and night of carrier operations on the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) flight deck.

It is pretty impressive to see the amount of movement required to launch and recover aircraft onboard a United States Navy super carrier. The flight deck is one of the world’s most dangerous places. It is also a place where you see some of the best teamwork America has to offer.

Flight deck crews from the ship combine with maintenance teams from the Air Wing to formulate a sea power team that no other country can match. This video shows a full day and night of flight operations on board the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier over an approximate 17 hour window.

A breakdown of video highlights:

0:27–Morning FOD (foreign object damage) walk. The crew walks the full flight deck looking for foreign objects that might damage aircraft. Taking a piece of metal into an engine intake can make for a bad day.

0:34–Helo launch. SAR (search and rescue) helicopters launch first and land last.

0:40–Day flight ops begin with the early launch of the E-2C Airborne Early Warning aircraft

0:42-1:44 Day Cyclic Operations (including pause for a “helo break”)

1:46–Evening FOD walk

2:00–Sunset

2:10-3:40–Night flight ops, launching aircraft from all 4 catapults

3:45–Respot of aircraft on deck. The flight deck handler uses this time to organize aircraft for the next day’s operations.

3:52–Good night. Taps, taps, lights out! (Except for night check)

Video courtesy USS John C. Stennis channel via YouTube from the CVN 74 PAO team.

Top photo: http://www.stennis.navy.mil

This article was originally published on Fighter Sweep and written by JOE RUZICKA