All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Machines.with.Dolph.Lundgren.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[sparse tense music]

[dramatic pulsing
electronic music]

- 70% of the Earth
is covered by oceans,

and to cross them, explore
them, or fight in them,

you need machines
that rise to the top.

Tonight,

an ancient vessel so ingenious,

it conquers the Pacific with
nothing but wood and rope.

[waves splashing]

- [Austin] It sparks an age of
exploration and development

that is just astonishing.

- [Dolph] How about a German
submarine so deadly

it nearly strangles the Allies?

- [John] Germany has got
Britain by the throat.

The submarines are
sinking ships faster

than the Allies can build them.

- [Dolph] Or what about a
battleship so revolutionary

it makes all others obsolete?

- [Martin] Britain has
reinvented naval warfare

in one fell swoop.

[dramatic pulsing
electronic music]

- I'm Dolph Lundgren.

Onscreen, I'm all
about the action,

but offscreen, I have
degrees in engineering.

I even studied at MIT.

[airplane jet engine roaring]

I learned that machines

and the people behind them
can transform the world.

Join me as I explore
the gears, grit,

and genius behind "History's
Greatest Machines."

In October of 1962, the
Cuban Missile Crisis

brings the world to the
brink of nuclear war.

The US Navy establishes
a blockade around Cuba,

and its key asset is a
warship so revolutionary

it can stay at sea indefinitely

and project American
power anywhere on Earth.

[tense thoughtful music]

- [Martin] In late 1962,
US U-2 spy planes

detect that the Soviet Union

is installing ballistic
missiles in Cuba.

These nuclear missiles
will have the ability

and the range to reach targets

across the United
States in minutes.

- President Kennedy
orders a naval quarantine,

and five aircraft carriers
race towards Cuba.

The closest humanity has
ever come to World War III

is about to play out
on the high seas.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Dolph] But there's
one ship in this armada

that's different.

One ship with the right tech
to make the Soviets blink.

- She is the largest

and most powerful aircraft
carrier in the world,

and the ship is
capable of launching

just about any kind of attack.

- She's not just there
for tactical reasons.

She's there to make a statement.

The Soviets and the Cubans both
know what she's capable of,

and her presence says the US

is ready to go to
war if need be.

- [Dolph] Let's rewind.

Why build a ship like
this in the first place?

Well, after World War II,
the US Navy has a problem.

Their carriers are always
going back to port.

- The Navy's traditional
aircraft carriers

run on diesel fuel
and steam engines,

which means they need to
refuel every few weeks.

This means supply
lines, tanker ships,

and critical stops in the ocean

where they are very vulnerable.

- [Dolph] If the
missiles start flying,

the Navy wants a carrier
with unlimited range

that can turn around in
the middle of the ocean

and go anywhere if
needed, no delay.

- The Navy comes up
with this wild idea

of "Why don't we just
give an aircraft carrier

infinite power?"

They have already done this
with nuclear submarines

with great success,

and they realize, "Why is
it that we don't just solve

the range problem
once and for all

by putting a nuclear reactor
in an aircraft carrier?"

[tense ominous music]

- [Dolph] In 1958,
the Navy rolls out

its first
nuclear-powered carrier,

the USS Enterprise,

the eighth ship to
carry that name.

She's like a floating base,

1,100 feet long, the longest
carrier in the world.

- [Martin] You're talking
about 4 1/2 acres

of flight deck space.

You could put three
football fields

end to end on the Enterprise.

- [Dolph] The key that
gives her unlimited range

is there her eight
nuclear reactors.

Yes, eight.

It's enough energy to
power an entire city

with a population
of over 200,000.

- Those eight nuclear reactors
generate 300,000 horsepower.

- [Dolph] It's enough power
to stay at sea for 20 years

without refueling, and
it makes her so fast,

the Navy has to slow her down

so that support
ships can keep up.

- Under the circumstances
of the Cold War, any city,

any command center can be
targeted by a nuclear weapon.

So, having an aircraft
carrier with infinite power

has the capability
of projecting power

anywhere on the
planet at any time.

But it's also a deterrent

because the threat of USS
Enterprise is as important

as the weapons that
the ship carries.

[pounding dramatic music]

- [Dolph] The Enterprise
carries more planes

than the air forces
of most countries.

It's also equipped with missiles

and defensive guns that fire
4,500 rounds per minute.

That's 75 bullets every second.

- Let's put it this way.

If anything tries to
mess with the Enterprise,

it can defend itself.

- Below the flight deck,
the hangar is five acres.

It's basically a
nonstop assembly line

for putting planes in the air.

- [Dolph] So the Navy has
this nuclear-powered beast

in a Cold War where the
goal is to avoid conflict,

not start it, but when the
Cuban Missile Crisis erupts,

she's the obvious
choice to send a message

to Soviet leader,
Nikita Khrushchev.

- This is a
carrot-and-stick scenario

where Bobby Kennedy talking
to the Soviets is the carrot

that's designed to
defuse the situation,

but the stick is USS
Enterprise that's out there

and capable of throwing some
muscle behind the situation.

- [Don] For 13 agonizing days,
the world holds its breath.

Then, on October 28th,
Khrushchev blinks first

and agrees to remove
the missiles from Cuba.

- The Enterprise and its
aircraft never fire a shot,

which shows that sometimes the
most powerful weapon you have

is the one that
checkmates the enemy.

[tense thoughtful music]

- [Dolph] Fast forward
to September 11th, 2001.

The Enterprise is steaming
home from the Persian Gulf

when the towers fall.

Within hours, she pulls
off one of the most

dramatic U-turns
in naval history,

spinning around mid-ocean
and racing toward an enemy.

- So the order comes
down, "Reverse course.

We're going to war."

For any other ship,
that would take weeks

of logistical planning
and preparation.

But for USS Enterprise
with its nuclear reactor,

the ship can depart
straight away

for the theater of operations.

- The Enterprise becomes one
of the first naval assets

repositioned for Operation
Enduring Freedom.

Within days, it is launching
F-14 Tomcats and F-18 Hornets

against Taliban positions
in landlocked Afghanistan.

- [Don] It launches over

700 combat missions

in just the first few weeks,

hitting everything
from training camps

to communication centers.

- [Dolph] The
Enterprise accomplishes

what she was built for:

projecting American
power anywhere, anytime.

After 55 years of service,

she's officially
decommissioned in 2017,

ending the longest career
of a nuclear warship.

- [Martin] USS Enterprise
changes how quickly

the Navy's capable of bringing
the fight to the enemy.

Every class of
supercarrier that follows,

they can trace their lineage;

they can trace their DNA
back to USS Enterprise

and the ship's eight
nuclear reactors.

- Thousands of years ago,

an ancient civilization
faces a huge challenge.

How do you cross
the Pacific Ocean

with nothing but
primitive tools and wood?

[tense uneasy music]
[waves lapping]

- [Sami] The Pacific Ocean is
the largest body of water

on the planet.

It's twice the size
of the Atlantic Ocean,

and there are stretches
of the Pacific

where you can go for
thousands of miles

without seeing any real land.

Yet for as long as man
has taken to the seas,

we've wanted to
cross this ocean.

[pulsing thoughtful music]

- [John] The Austronesians are

the ancestors of
the Polynesians,

and about 3,000 years ago,

they set out from what
we call today Taiwan

to discover new lands
and find more resources.

[water splashing]

- [Dolph] These ancient sailors
want to keep spreading out,

but crossing open ocean,

that's gonna take
one hell of a boat.

- In ancient Taiwan,

dugout canoes are
used for local travel.

Essentially, what they
are are just tree trunks

with the core burned
and hollowed out.

These canoes work really well

for things like river travel

and traveling from bay to bay

because that water
isn't as turbulent.

But when you try to take
these canoes out to the ocean

and the high seas, that's
when you face a problem.

- The bottoms were
usually rounded,

almost like a tree trunk,

so if they ever got hit by big
waves, well, they'd capsize.

[waves crashing]
[tense dramatic music]

- [Dolph] These canoes
won't cut it at sea,

but they come up with a simple
fix that solves the problem.

[mysterious drone]

It's the outrigger canoe.

- [Don] These local boat
builders realize

that if they take a
second, smaller hull

and attach it to
their dugout canoe,

using wooden or bamboo posts,

they could dramatically increase

the stability of their craft.

And the outrigger canoe is born.

[waves crashing]
[birds cawing]

- For a seafaring culture
in these island regions,

the outrigger canoe is as
revolutionary as the wheel.

Once the stability
problem is cracked,

it sparks an age of exploration

and development that
is just astonishing.

- [John] Another critical
innovation is triangular sails.

They allow them to sail

against the current.

They're among the first
people to do that.

- [Dolph] They launch
their outrigger canoes,

hopping from island to
island, exploring, settling,

and pushing farther
into the Pacific.

[waves crashing]

- [MJ] By 1000 BCE,

we start to see the emergence
of a Polynesian culture.

And as these mariners land on

the shores of Tonga and Samoa,

they start to establish a
homeland in the South Pacific.

But the biggest
expanse of open ocean

is still in front of them.

- [Don] In their homeland,
Polynesian navigators

have reason to believe
that more islands

lay beyond their horizons,

including Hawaii,

based on bird migration
and weather patterns.

They understand that there's
some big islands out there.

- To get to Hawaii, they
evolve their outriggers

to become more like a
modern-day catamaran.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Dolph] Basically,
they connect

two large hulls with
platforms and add sails.

Now the canoes are
up to 100 feet long,

the size of a blue whale.

- [John] These larger
double-hulled vessels

have the advantage of being able

to carry more people on them,

even carrying things
like livestock and crops.

This makes colonizing
faraway islands far easier.

[light thoughtful music]

- [Dolph] Of
course, shipbuilding

is only one part
of crossing oceans.

The Polynesians need to
become master navigators.

- [Don] They lay down
on their canoes,

and they feel the swells;

how the boat rises and falls.

Different islands send out
different wave patterns,

and they memorize
those patterns.

It's as if the ocean is
whispering directions to them.

- [Sami] At night, they read the
stars in the sky like a map.

That tells them direction,

distance, and time.

And what's more fascinating

is that it's all mapped
out in their heads.

[lively percussive music]

- [Dolph] By 1200 CE, the
Polynesians put it all together,

crossing an incredible
5,000 miles of ocean

and discover Hawaii, and
they're not done yet.

- [John] From Hawaii to New
Zealand to Easter Island,

the Polynesians settle
more land and more islands

than any other people
in pre-modern history.

The scope of their

voyages is staggering,

and much of it is

due to the development

of one single piece
of technology:

the outrigger.

- At the start of
the 20th century,

the British command the
world's most powerful navy.

When other nations start
to threaten that supremacy,

the British launch a
new kind of battleship

that turns enemy ships
into sitting ducks.

[tense thoughtful music]

- [Sami] In the early 1900s,

before World War I,

Britain has the
world's largest navy.

However, other superpowers like
Germany, Japan, and America

are in an arms race because
they're also trying to build up

their own fleets
at the same time.

- So the British understand

that to maintain
their dominance,

they now have to move
in a new direction.

They have reached a point

where they need to
revolutionize the war at sea.

- [Martin] At this point
in naval history,

a battleship is really something

that hasn't come into
creation just yet.

Most ships have a
large assortment

of guns of different
calibers, nothing major,

and they have some
armor protection,

but no one has sat down

to design an armored warship

with large-caliber guns.

- The British need ships
that can go further,

ships that can take
more punishment,

and more importantly,

ships that can dish
out more firepower.

- [Dolph] The
Royal Navy turns to

Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher
to design this new battleship.

He's been described
as an eccentric genius

who members of the Royal
Navy either love or hate.

- Jackie Fisher is a
bit of a disruptor.

He's very confident in himself.

He is convinced that everyone
else is doing it wrong,

and that's just the
kind of confidence

that will either make you
fail or succeed wildly.

- [Tony] Fisher wants to abandon

the current military
tactics of the day,

which is to get in
close and slug it out.

He envisions a vessel that
is built around big guns

so it can keep out of
range of other ships

and pummel them from a distance.

- He also wants to make sure
that it's heavily armored,

particularly in very
vulnerable locations

like over the engine and
the ammunition compartments,

so it can take a
punch if necessary.

- [Sami] Under
Fisher's direction,

the British Navy begins building

a new-era warship, and they
complete building it by 1906.

It earns the name
the HMS Dreadnought,

which comes from an old
English term, "dreadnought,"

which means "fear nothing."

[tense dramatic music]

- [Dolph] The HMS
Dreadnought is built

from high-grade
riveted steel armor.

It's nearly a foot
thick in places,

thicker than any
battleship before it,

offering more protection to
vulnerable areas and people.

[light mysterious music]

- [Sami] She's home to
700 to 800 officers,

which essentially makes the ship

like a small town that
floats and fights.

And that steel armor is
like wrapping a city block

in bulletproof plating.

- [Dolph] She's the first
to carry 12-inch guns

in five twin turrets,
creating an unprecedented

all-big-gun configuration that
can lob shells 14 miles away

compared to enemy battleships

with ranges of only eight miles.

- [Martin] With
that kind of range,

you can sink an enemy ship

before they even
know you're there.

- [Sami] The Dreadnought has
these special turbines

that allows her to
clock in at a max speed

of 24 miles per hour, making
her the fastest battleship

in the world at the time.

All other battleships

are maxing out at around
15 miles per hour.

- Britain has reinvented naval
warfare in one fell swoop.

[pounding dramatic music]

- [Dolph] March 18th, 1915:
World War I has begun.

The Dreadnought's
patrolling the North Sea

when a German U-boat
surfaces right in front of her,

lining up for a torpedo attack.

- The U-boat is commanded
by Otto Weddigen,

and he knows how to
kill British ships.

He's taken out three
British cruisers,

and now he's looking to add
the Dreadnought to his score.

- Then, suddenly,
something bizarre happens.

Instead of turning away
to beat a hasty retreat,

the HMS Dreadnought actually
turns towards the submarine

and increases speed.

- Weddigen executes a turn

to try to get into
position for an attack,

and HMS Dreadnought
charges after it

and then rams the U-boat

in an act of incredible
naval boldness.

[metal creaks]

- The impact actually rips off

part of the bow of the U-boat,

and as a result, it
sinks immediately,

and it takes all
32 hands with it.

This, as far as we know, is
the only confirmed sinking

of a U-boat by a
battleship in history.

[intense techno music]

- [Dolph] The Dreadnought
is so innovative

that its name
becomes a touchstone.

- Now, when we talk
about naval warfare,

we talk about the
pre-Dreadnought era

and the post-Dreadnought era.

Now that's leaving a legacy.

- [Martin] In the end,
HMS Dreadnought

does exactly what
its name implies

in that it fears nothing.

It makes everyone else afraid,

and what everyone else
ends up being afraid of

is being left behind
in an arms race.

It's the first true
modern arms race,

and we live with its
effects even to this day.

- As navies look for
ways to master the ocean,

they turn their
attention to machines

that take the fight underwater.

During World War II,
German U-boats are silent,

hard to stop, and
unfortunately for the Allies,

extremely well-built.

[tense pulsing music]

- [John] It's 1940, and convoys
of merchant and military vessels

are traveling across
the North Atlantic,

bringing much-needed
supplies to Europe.

- Germany's Atlantic strategy
during the Second World War

is basically what they
call a tonnage war.

The idea is to sink
more merchant tonnage

that is trying to
come into England

than you lose of
U-boats yourself.

- Britain requires more
than a million tons

of imported material per week
in order to fight and survive.

Everything from food to fuel

has to cross the Atlantic
on merchant ships.

- There's a segment of this
voyage called the air gap,

which is beyond the fuel
range for effective air cover,

and this is the
happy hunting grounds

for the wolf packs
of German U-boats.

[tense uneasy music]

- [Dolph] The U-boats
work together.

When one finds a convoy, it
pops up, radios the others.

They stalk the Allied ships
all day out of visual range,

then at night, unleash hell.

- These ghost ships
appear out of nowhere,

[tense thoughtful music]
[torpedo whooshing]

and suddenly there are
ships exploding around you

[explosion blasts]

and you don't know if
you're gonna be next.

You just wake up to
the ocean on fire.

- [Dolph] Clearly, these
aren't the same old U-boats

from World War I.

That's because in the '30s,

the Germans
identified a problem.

Their old U-boats
were too easy to spot.

- So Hitler is determined
to build something

far more lethal,

and the key to his new U-boat
design, it's deadly stealth.

[metal creaking]

- [Dolph] Their engineers
come up with a sub

specially designed to
sneak up on its enemies:

the Type VII U-boat.

It's powered by diesel
engines on the surface

and the electric motors
when it submerges.

They're quieter than
previous engines

and hard for Allied
ships to hear

with their underwater
microphones.

The engineers also focus
on the U-boat's size.

- A German Type VII
U-boat is 100 feet shorter

than a comparable
American submarine.

- [Tony] The Type VII's compact
design is its advantage.

It is smaller, which
means it's tough to find.

It's also a lot
faster on the surface

than the convoys that
it's trying to attack.

[heavy dramatic music]

- [Dolph] It carries
five torpedo tubes,

four in the front
and one in the back.

The one in the back's new,

and now U-boats can fire
a deadly parting shot

if they do get spotted.

- The U-boat packs a punch.

Each one of its torpedoes
weighs 3,300 pounds

with a 617-pound warhead.

That's pretty much
enough to bring down

almost any ship
afloat at this time.

[tense thoughtful music]

- [Dolph] There's also
an 88-millimeter deck gun

mounted right up front,

perfect for taking out smaller
targets like merchant ships

and fishing boats,

saving precious torpedoes
for the bigger kills.

- When a German Type
VII U-boat surfaces,

it can attack a ship
using its deck gun.

That weapon, when crewed by
three men with a lot of skill,

can put out 18 rounds a minute.

- So you're a small vessel,

and this sub surfaces

right next to you,

and before you even have
time to react, you're toast.

[explosion blasts]

- [Dolph] The U-boat's
last engineering feat

is how deep it can
dive, 700 feet,

over twice as deep
as most Allied subs.

That means they can hide better

and dive past where depth
charges can reach them,

early in the war anyway.

- The outset of the
Second World War,

the United Kingdom
is not well prepared

for wide-scale
submarine warfare,

and suddenly the German Navy

launches large numbers of
Type VII U-boats at them,

and they begin
sinking everything.

They're about to
learn the hard way,

this isn't World War I anymore.

[ominous dramatic music]

- [Dolph] The Battle of the
Atlantic becomes the longest

and most critical naval
campaign of World War II,

and Germany is ready for it.

- Germany has got
Britain by the throat

through these submarines,
and the plan is working.

The submarines are sinking ships

faster than the
Allies can build them.

[explosions blasting]
[tense uneasy music]

- [Dolph] U-boats sink more
than 3,000 Allied ships.

72,000 Allied sailors and
merchant seamen are killed.

That's more than 1/3 of
all Allied naval deaths

during the entire war.

- The U-boat is by far
and without question

the most effective weapon
that Nazi Germany wields

during the Second World War.

- [David] The turning point
comes in mid-1943

when the Allies have
successfully broken

the German naval codes,

and now they know not only
where the U-boats are,

but more importantly,
where they're going to be

in the future.

So now the hunters
have become the hunted.

- The Allies are also able to

increase the range
of their air cover,

and planes are able to
spot and attack U-boats

just as soon as they surface.

The tables are turned.

U-boats are getting slaughtered

faster than the
Germans can build them.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Dolph] In 1945, Nazi
Germany surrenders,

ending the war in Europe,

but the U-boat's legacy as a
weapon of war is undeniable.

- No other country
builds as many submarines

as the Germans did
during World War II.

1,162 U-boats.

- [Tony] Modern submarines
still use the basic formula

set up by the Type VII U-boat:

smaller size,
tactical efficiency,

and able to hunt
deep with impunity.

- So the U-boat is clearly
the most successful

submarine design of them all.

- During World War II,
as D-Day approaches,

the Allies face a challenge:

How do you build a lot of boats
to carry a lot of soldiers

to the beach where
they can fight?

An engineer from New
Orleans has the solution.

A simple but brilliant machine,

Eisenhower credits
with winning the war.

[lively marching band music]
[officer yells]

- [Don] When the US enters
World War II in 1941,

Franklin Roosevelt makes this
massive strategic decision:

Europe first.

We're gonna focus on
defeating the Nazis

before we can fully focus
on defeating the Japanese.

- The Germans, by this
time, already have control

of almost the entire shoreline
of the Eastern Atlantic.

If the Allies have any
hope of dislodging them,

they're going to have to conduct

the largest amphibious
invasion in history.

- To attack a
fortified port city,

that's out of the question.

To attack a remote
area of open beach

that still has major challenges,

because if the enemy
has defended that beach

and you land without the
right kind of landing craft,

it can descend into a massacre.

- So at this particular point,

they're looking for
a bit of a unicorn.

They want to have
a landing craft

that is going to
be rugged enough

to cross the English Channel,

but with a shallow enough draft

that's gonna allow them to
get right up on the beach.

- Of course, it's going
to need to be able

to unload infantry
and equipment quickly

because they're going to be
under fire from machine guns

and mortars on the beach.

- [Dolph] The US has
developed landing craft

of all sizes and functions,

but only one can handle
the job in France,

and the Marines have
been perfecting it

since before the war.

[tense thoughtful music]

-[David] In the late '30s, the
United States Marine Corps

is now looking for a
specific type of vessel

for amphibious operations.

And where do they find it?

In the bayous of Louisiana.

[pulsing dramatic music]

They come across a boat builder

by the name of Andrew
Jackson Higgins.

- [Don] Higgins is this
hard-drinking Irish American

from Nebraska

who starts in the
lumber business

but moves into boat building

after his company goes bankrupt.

- Higgins's first successful
design is a semi-flat-bottomed,

shallow-draft, stump-jumping
boat, and called Eureka

that he has some success
marketing to the oil

and gas industry in
southern Louisiana.

- It can run up on bars
and only drafts 18 inches,

so it can operate in
really shallow water,

which makes it very
popular with rum runners

who are often working in these
remote areas, shallow waters,

and they have to get in
and out really quick.

[light thoughtful music]

- [Dolph] Higgins shows the
Marine brass his bayou boat,

and they love it.

He gets the contract in 1941,
modifies his Eureka boat,

and creates the ultimate
landing machine,

the Higgins landing craft.

[intense dramatic music]

It measures roughly
36 feet long,

about the size of a city bus.

- [Martin] Higgins modifies the
Eureka by chopping off the bow

and adding this steel
ramp to the front,

and the difference in
performance is night and day.

- The critical innovation
is the drop-down bow ramp,

which allows infantry
and equipment

to go spilling out in seconds

rather than having to
climb up over the sides

and then drop six feet
down into the water,

at which point they become
sitting ducks for enemy fire.

- That ramp makes
it possible, then,

for when the boat beaches
and the ramp drops,

36 armed men can run
off onto the beach.

And you can even put a jeep
towing an anti-tank gun

inside the landing craft

and have it drive
off onto the beach.

It becomes the
ultimate landing craft.

[tense uneasy music]

- [Dolph] Then comes D-Day.

After more than a
year of planning,

Eisenhower launches the attack.

The largest armada in history
crosses the English Channel.

Success rides on 1,100 Higgins
boats and the men inside.

- In the early morning hours,

the Higgins boats are
now ferrying in troops

from the troop ships all the
way to the shore and then back.

- The soldiers can
hear the machine guns

striking the ramps
as they come down.

Then the ramps
drop, and it's hell.

[guns blasting]

Machine guns, artillery, chaos.

[pounding dramatic music]
[guns blasting]

- [Martin] Even though
during the initial waves,

the enemy opposition is intense,

the Higgins boats keep
coming one after the other.

They put personnel on the beach,

they put equipment on the beach.

They're completely unstoppable.

[soldiers yelling]

- [Dolph] By the end of the day,

the Allies have
taken the beaches,

and the liberation
of Europe has begun,

thanks in part to what was once

a little wooden
boat in the swamp.

-[John] By the end of the war,

more than 20,000
Higgins landing craft

roll off the assembly
lines in New Orleans.

It's a critical piece of
hardware that really delivers.

It proves that you can rapidly
deploy troops, equipment,

and vehicles onto
an enemy shore.

- The Higgins design doesn't end

when the Second World War ends.

It continues on.

In order to carry out
amphibious warfare,

every major modern
military have to be able

to put people on the beach
in addition to equipment,

and they do that even
today with landing craft

that can trace a
lineage all the way back

to Andrew Jackson Higgins.

- In the 21st century,
the US Navy decides

it needs a new kind of warship,

one that uses the latest tech
to counter emerging threats.

Lots of people have
heard of stealth planes,

but how about a
stealth destroyer?

[guns blasting]
[tense dramatic music]

- [Hakeem] By the early 2000s,

America's enemies have
changed drastically.

They're no longer
fighting big navy battles

against other major
powers in the world.

They're fighting
terrorists, rogue states,

and coastal threats

that can hide among
civilian populations.

- [Austin] Here's the problem.

America's massive Cold
War-era destroyers

are not suited to
these new tasks.

It's like bringing
a sledgehammer

to somewhere where you're
going to need a scalpel.

- Even US modern
destroyers are huge, loud,

and easy to see on enemy radars.

You can see them coming
from hundreds of miles away.

- [Don] They need a destroyer

that can sneak close to
enemy coastlines undetected

and then rain down precision
fire on land targets.

- [John] The military has
perfected stealth aircraft,

and they've experimented with
smaller stealth warships,

but they've never tried

to make a 600-foot
destroyer stealthy.

- The Navy decides
that they need to build

this new stealth
destroyer from scratch.

That means new hull, new
weapons, new everything.

And the price tag?

$22 billion for three ships.

And I said,
"billion" with a "B."

[pulsing dramatic music]

- [Dolph] This is
the USS Zumwalt,

the first in a new class
of stealth destroyers.

Her hull angles inward,
and her surfaces are sharp

and geometric, the opposite
of traditional ships.

- The ship is designed
with sharply angled sides

that slope inward so
that incoming radar

doesn't bounce back off
the ship, they bounce away,

and that makes it 50
times harder to detect

than a ship with vertical
sides, where the radar signal

just bounces straight
back to the source.

- [Dolph] She's also wrapped
in radar-absorbing materials

all designed to
make her invisible.

Those changes
confuse enemy radar,

but they're not space-efficient.

That's why she's
over 600 feet long.

- A 15,000-ton warship

that's 50% larger than
all other destroyers

looks like a little fishing
boat on enemy screens.

It's like wrapping a skyscraper
in an invisibility cloak.

You never know what hit
you until it was too late.

[tense thoughtful music]

- [Dolph] The Zumwalt's the
first US Navy surface ship

to run completely
on electricity:

engines, weapons, everything.

The result?

She's practically silent.

- [Hakeem] Enemy submarines that
are trying to track this thing

are looking for something
that's barely making a whisper.

[pounding ominous music]

- [Dolph] In 2023, the Navy
installs hypersonic missiles

hidden inside an angular
compartment on the deck

with holes for the
missiles to blast through.

These weapons strike targets

at five times the
speed of sound.

By the time the enemy sees
it coming, it's already hit.

- Each canister carries
multiple hypersonic missiles

that could hit targets
1,700 miles away.

That means the Zumwalt
can park off of New York

and hit something in
Denver in minutes.

- This is what the future
of naval warfare looks like.

Stealth ships that sneak
up to enemy coastlines,

fire unstoppable
hypersonic missiles

at targets deep within
enemy territory.

Those old-school battleship
duels, they're done.

[tense orchestral music]

- [Dolph] The ship's
first commanding officer

is Captain James A. Kirk,

not James T. Kirk
from "Star Trek."

But close enough
that William Shatner

writes a letter to
the crew in 2014.

- Captain Kirk even gets
the call sign "Tiberius,"

which is the middle name of
Captain Kirk from "Star Trek."

The Navy brass apparently
have a sense of humor.

[pulsing techno music]

- [Dolph] Even the bridge

looks like something
out of "Star Trek."

Two command chairs surrounded by

360 degrees of video monitors.

This ship is leading the
future of naval warfare.

- The Zumwalt hasn't
seen combat yet,

but it's already won
the war that matters,

proving that all this
crazy tech actually works.

- [Tony] Today, it's basically
the Navy's floating laboratory

for tomorrow's weapons.

- The Navy is still
trying to figure out

what this ship could do.

Maybe shooting down
enemy missiles,

controlling swarms of unmanned
drones from the bridge.

The sky may not be the limit.

- The Zumwalt's
showing us the future:

invisible ships that
can hit nearly anything

from nearly anywhere.

- By the early 2000s,
people have mapped the Earth

and even the Moon,

but there's one place they
don't know much about:

the bottom of the ocean.

Until a Hollywood director
decides to go there in a sub

engineered to take the pressure.

[tense dramatic music]

- In June of 2023,
the US Coast Guard

is exploring one of
the most infamous areas

of the North Atlantic Ocean,

the site of the doomed Titanic,

which lies 12,500 feet

beneath the surface
on the ocean bottom.

- Then, about 1,600 feet
from the bow of the Titanic,

they find what they most feared.

A debris field strewn
across the sea floor

is the carbon fiber remnants
of the submersible, the Titan.

- The Titan is an
experimental submarine

that takes paying customers

down to the wreck
of the Titanic,

and it has been
missing for days.

- It's immediately apparent
that the hull was pulverized

by a catastrophic implosion.

The pressure at that
depth is over 5,000 pounds

per square inch.

- [Dolph] The Titan
shows how dangerous

deep ocean pressure can be.

10 years earlier, James Cameron
faces similar challenges

when he envisions
diving even deeper.

- [Paul] In 2005, Cameron sets
out to become the first person

to go alone to the
Challenger Deep.

He teams up with a
group of engineers

to build a special submarine

to achieve that audacious goal.

- The Challenger Deep
is the deepest spot

in the Mariana Trench.

36,000 feet from the ocean
surface to its bottom.

That's like seven miles.

It's so deep that if you sunk
Mount Everest to the bottom,

there would still be
a mile more of water

between its peak
and the atmosphere.

[tense pulsing music]

- [Tony] Sunlight has
never touched it,

and creatures that live there
must thrive at a pressure

of 16,000 pounds
per square inch.

That's three times the pressure

that imploded the
Titan submarine.

[tense techno music]

- [Dolph] Cameron and his team

create the machine that
can reach the bottom

and stay down long enough
to film and study it.

They dub it the
Deepsea Challenger.

- [Paul] The Deepsea Challenger
stands 24 feet tall

and weighs nearly 24,000 pounds.

It's shaped like a torpedo
to cut through the water

and reach the bottom quickly.

- [Dolph] But the
real innovation

is at the bottom of
that torpedo shape.

A spherical pilot chamber barely
big enough for one person,

and that sphere is the key

to surviving seven miles
of crushing ocean pressure.

- At 16,000 pounds
per square inch,

that's a lot of pressure.

So you need a shape that
is incredibly strong,

and the strongest
shape is a sphere,

so it's harder to crush.

- A sphere distributes
pressure equally.

Just think like
a ping-pong ball.

If you try to crush
it, it's really hard.

Now think of a soda can.

It's a cylinder, so when
you try to crush it,

it has weak points
because of that pressure,

and it's easy to crush.

- The Titan sub had
a cylindrical shape,

which means that
the crushing force

was not equally distributed
across its surface,

and it had weak points,

making it vulnerable.

- [Dolph] While the
sphere is rigid,

the outer hull is flexible.

It's designed to give
with the extreme pressure

and prevent the cracks that
can lead to a sudden implosion.

- They equip the hull
with lights, HD cameras,

and a robotic arm to take
samples from the ocean floor.

They also include
a reinforced window

so Cameron can pilot the craft

and see the world around him.

- [Dolph] Cameron knows
he's not the first one

to attempt the dive.

In 1960, a Navy sub and its
crew reached Challenger Deep,

but after 20 minutes,
their viewport cracks

and they're forced
to abandon the dive.

For 50 years, no
one dares go back.

[ominous dramatic music]

On March 26th, 2012, he's
ready to complete the mission.

[suspenseful beeping]

- [Hakeem] The torpedo
shape descends quickly,

exactly as designed.

By 5,000 feet down,
it's pitch black.

By 10,000 feet, the
pressure is so high

it will crush any submarine

that's not designed
exactly like this one.

- You really have to wonder
what he's feeling at this time.

Is he excited?

Is he terrified?

'Cause when you watch him
on the onboard cameras,

he is all business.

- We have bottom.

Touchdown.

[water bubbles]

[rousing dramatic music]

- [Dolph] The Deepsea Challenger

does what no other
sub has done before:

it reaches Challenger Deep,

the deepest point on Earth,
and stays operational.

- He is collecting
sediment samples,

snapping high-res
photographs, filming in 3D,

scanning for signs of life.

Every second down there
is pure scientific gold.

- Seven hours in with
oxygen dwindling,

Cameron makes the call.

It's time to head back up.

- [Dolph] The first
solo-piloted machine

to attempt Earth's most extreme
environment makes it back.

- The Deepsea Challenger may
have had only a single dive,

but its legacy continues.

It cracks some serious
engineering challenges,

and it has inspired a whole
new generation of explorers

to continue the mission.

- From the simple craft
that conquered oceans

to the nuclear-powered vessels
that rule the seas today,

these innovative machines

have carried us across
boundaries into the unknown.

And no matter where
the currents take us,

it will always be machines
like these that keep us afloat.

[dramatic techno music]