United Nations Pacific Fleet

This page contains information on the United Nations Pacific Fleet as depicted in the original Neon Genesis Evangelion. For information on the actual warships depicted, see Warships in Evangelion, which includes detailed descriptions of the vessels seen in Episode 08.

Over the Rainbow and Eva-02 getting into trouble

The United Nations Pacific Fleet is seen escorting Eva-02 (And secretly transporting the Adam embryo as well) from Sasebo to New Yokosuka in Episode 08, where it suffers severe losses during the attack of the Sixth Angel, Gaghiel. While real-world United Nations forces are actually under the control of their member nations and not directly under the U.N., this arrangement appears to have changed in the world of Neon Genesis Evangelion post-Second Impact. Although the warships of the Pacific Fleet are referred to by the countries that built them, as evidenced in Episode 14, the Fleet as a whole appears to be in the command of the U.N. itself. The Commanding Officer of the aircraft carrier Over the Rainbow refers to the fleet as the "U.N. Navy".

The combined United Nations Pacific Fleet contains vessels from both Western bloc and Eastern bloc nations, including four American Iowa-class battleships, at least one Kirov-class battlecruiser, an Admiral Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier and the Kiev-class carrier Novorossiysk (Kensuke describes seeing "five carriers and four battleships"). Smaller vessels include Hatsuyuki-class destroyers, Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates and Alreigh Burke/Kongo class guided missile destroyers. Although some vessels carry their old names (Kirov is unusual in retaining its Soviet name, considering it had been renamed Admiral Ushakov after the fall of the Soviet Union), most have been renamed, such as the Over the Rainbow itself (Formerly USS Harry S. Truman-see notes) and several other ships named after Shakespeare's plays.

Over the Rainbow

Over the Rainbow is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, "pride of the United Nations Forces". It served as the command ship for the massive naval convoy formed from the UN Pacific Fleet which escorted Evangelion Unit-02 as it was being transported from Germany to Japan in Episode 08. According to Kensuke, it was built before Second Impact in 2000. The carrier serves as the power supply for Eva-02 in the episode and, to the dismay of its Captain, its flight deck briefly becomes an arena for the brawl between Eva-02 and Gaghiel.

Notes

• Several warships in the United Nations Pacific fleet that form the naval convoy escorting Eva-02 are named after plays by William Shakespeare, with the names Titus Andronicus, Othello, The Tempest and Cymbeline (damaged by Gaghiel). Apart from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Over the Rainbow, the only other ship identified with a Shakespearean name onscreen is Othello, the converted tanker carrying Eva-02. Based on the Russian lettering seen inside, Othello appears to be Russian-built.
• The computer display of the ships designates the aircraft carrier as "CVN 075 Over the Rainbow". "CVN-75" is the real world designation of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which was under construction from November 1993 through September 1996, while Neon Genesis Evangelion was being produced, thus confirming the ship's real-life identity.
  • Over the Rainbow is, of course, a reference to the song from The Wizard of Oz. In addition, in episode 133 of Urusei Yatsura, "Operation Over the Rainbow" is launched from a secret underground base belonging to a character named Asuka Mizunokouji. NGE's association of Asuka with a ship of this name is in all probability a reference.

• The two battleships in the UN escort fleet which Misato sacrifices to destroy Gaghiel are the Iowa-class battleships Illinois (BB-65) and Kentucky (BB-66), which were only partially completed in real life: following the end of World War II their construction was canceled (in 1945 and 1947, respectively) and they were subsequently scrapped. In the timeline of Neon Genesis Evangelion, they were apparently not scrapped, but finished and upgraded to the same standard as the other Iowa-cass battleships.

• More than once, the vessels of the UN Fleet are far closer together than is normal or even safe in an actual military operation. Typically, carrier battlegroups have carriers and battleships at the center, cruisers and destroyers forming an inner ring, and other destroyers and frigates forming an outer ring. Carrier forces are always shadowed by attack submarines, of which none are known to be in the formation depicted.