The ''Kitty Hawk''-class

supercarrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a n ...

s of the

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were an incremental improvement on the vessels. Three were built, all in the 1960s, (1961–2009), (1961–2003), and (1965–1996), as well as the variant (1967–2007). All are now decommissioned.

Improved ''Forrestal'' carriers

The biggest differences from the ''Forrestal''s are greater length, and a different placement of

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s; two are forward of the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, one is aft of the island and another on the portside stern. The movement of the No. 4 elevator from the forward to the after end of the angle made it useful for aircraft movement, since the forward-end elevator in the ''Forrestal''s was sited in both the landing path and in the launch path of the waist catapults. Three different

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s were used to construct the ships. ''Kitty Hawk'' was built at

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Corporation, ''Constellation'' at

New York Naval Shipyard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular ben ...

, ''America'' and ''John F. Kennedy'' at

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. ''John F. Kennedy'' is similar to the earlier units in flightdeck arrangement and propulsion, but has enough differences that she is placed in her own class. Propulsion consisted of four Westinghouse geared turbines, , four shafts with eight

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boilers.

Construction and design differences

The initial design for the class was known as SCB 127, and ''Kitty Hawk'' and ''Constellation'' were completed to design SCB 127A. The first three units were constructed with a

Terrier Terrier (from Latin ''terra'', 'earth') is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. Terrier breeds vary ...

surface-to-air missile system. The supporting missile launchers and

AN/SPG-55 The AN/SPG-55 was an American tracking / illumination radar for Terrier and RIM-67 Standard missiles (SM-1ER/SM-2ER). It was used for target tracking and surface-to-air missile guidance Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guidi ...

radars consumed a large amount of space, while at the same time duplicating the capabilities of the air defence escorts, and were later removed. ''John F. Kennedy'' did not have Terrier and was built with the shorter ranged

Sea Sparrow RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system, primarily intended for defense against anti-ship missiles. The system was developed in the early 1960s from the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile as a ...

, Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS). All were eventually equipped with NATO Sea Sparrow (NSSM) and

Phalanx CIWS The Phalanx CIWS (often spoken as "sea-wiz") is a gun-based close-in weapon system to defend military watercraft automatically against incoming threats such as aircraft, missiles, and small boats. It was designed and manufactured by the Gene ...

for self-defense. In 2001, ''Kitty Hawk'' received two

Rolling Airframe Missile The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the German, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, South Korean, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Mexican, UAE, and U.S. Navies. It was origina ...

launchers replacing the forward Sea Sparrow and Phalanx CIWS equipment. The SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite was added as part of the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) on ''Kitty Hawk'' and ''Constellation''. ''America'' was designed under project SCB 127B and so had several differences from the lead units of the class. Instead of two forward

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

s, one on each side, ''America'' had no port side anchor and an additional anchor astern, a change made to accommodate the AN/SQS-23

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

. ''America'' was the only post-World War II U.S. carrier to be built with sonar, which was however removed in the early 1980s. She also had a narrow smokestack compared to prior units.

''John F. Kennedy'' class

was originally scheduled to be the fourth ''Kitty Hawk''-class carrier, but because she received so many modifications under project SCB 127C, she formed her own ship class and is often listed as a single-vessel class. ''Kennedy'' had similar design changes regarding the anchors to accommodate a sonar array, but the sonar was never installed. There was also a proposal to make her nuclear powered under competing project SCB 211A, but since Congress would not authorize it, ''Kennedy'' was constructed as a conventionally powered carrier. Her smokestack is also different and tilts outboard to send stack gas away from the flight deck. The angled end of the

waist The waist is the part of the abdomen between the rib cage and hips. On people with slim bodies, the waist is the narrowest part of the torso. ''Waistline'' refers to the horizontal line where the waist is narrowest, or to the general appearan ...

is also different from the other ''Kitty Hawk''s, bearing a closer resemblance to that of the . ''Kennedy'' is also shorter in length than the other ''Kitty Hawk''-class carriers.

Decommissioning

From 1987 to 1991 ''Kitty Hawk'' was overhauled for $785 million under the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) at

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries. Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the cit ...

. From 1990 to 1992, ''Constellation'' received her $800 million service life extension also in Philadelphia. The program was intended to add 15 years to the life of the ships. ''John F. Kennedy'' was not overhauled as part of SLEP. Instead, from 1993 to 1995, she received a $491 million overhaul. It was the final project of Philadelphia Naval Shipyard prior to its closing. ''America'' had been scheduled to be overhauled under the service life extension program after ''Constellation'', but she was decommissioned 9 August 1996 instead, during a time of budget cuts after the

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. ''America'' was in very poor condition when she was decommissioned, and therefore despite her historical significance was not held as a donation asset. She was expended as a live-fire target and sunk on 14 May 2005. ''Constellation'' was decommissioned 7 August 2003. ''John F. Kennedy'' was decommissioned on 23 March 2007. Only ''Kitty Hawk'' remained in service as of early 2008 and was replaced by as the forward-deployed carrier in Japan. ''Kitty Hawk'' returned to the United States after the turnover. She was decommissioned on 12 May 2009.

Ships in class

Gallery

File:USS John F Kennedy (CV 67) island outboard 2004.jpg, ''John F. Kennedy''s smokestack tilts outboard to send stack gas away from the flight deck. File:USS America (CV-66) island 1976.jpg, ''America''s island in the mid 1970s, still equipped with

radar for Terrier. File:USS Constellation (CV-64) starboard amidships.jpg, ''Constellation''s island in the early 1980s, note the different stack configuration from ''America'' and ''John F. Kennedy'' and alternate mounting of Terrier fire control radars File:USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) bow 2007.jpg, 2007 bow view of ''Kitty Hawk''. Note the position of forward anchors and Rolling Airframe Missile launchers on either side instead of CIWS and NSSM. File:USS America (CV-66) low view of stbd bow.jpg, ''America'' showing bow anchor which previous units did not have. File:USS Constellation (CV-64) aerial Battle E.jpg, Aerial view of ''Constellation'' showing flightdeck shape and arrangement. File:USS John F Kennedy (CV-67) port stern view 2004.jpg, Stern view of the port side of ''John F. Kennedy'' showing the elevator and self-defense AAW equipment. File:USS Independence (CV-62) and USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) at Pearl Harbor crop.jpg, , left, a ''Forrestal''-class carrier next to ''Kitty Hawk'' (right) File:USS John F Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Saratoga (CV-60) underway crop.jpg, and , a ''Forrestal''-class carrier. Note the differences in island and aircraft elevator configuration.

References

External links

Federation of American Scientists – Kitty Hawk Class
{{Authority control Aircraft carrier classes Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carriers Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carriers