Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier
Encyclopedia
The Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier
s of the United States Navy
were an incremental improvement on the Forrestal-class
vessels. Four were built, all in the 1960s, (1961–2009), (1961–2003), (1965–1996) and (1967–2007). All are now decommissioned.
s; two are forward of the island, one is aft of the island and another on the portside stern. The movement of the #4 elevator from the forward to the after end of the angle made it useful for aircraft movement, since the forward-end elevator was useless as it was in both the landing path and in the launch path of the #3 and #4 catapults.
Three different shipyard
s were used to construct the ships. Kitty Hawk was built at New York Shipbuilding
Corporation, Constellation at New York Naval Shipyard, America and John F. Kennedy at Newport News Shipbuilding. John F. Kennedy is similar to the earlier units in flightdeck arrangement and propulsion, but has enough differences that she is often placed in her own class. Propulsion consisted of four Westinghouse geared turbines, 280,000 shp, four shafts with eight 1,200 psi Foster Wheeler
boilers.
surface to air missile system. The supporting missile launchers and AN/SPG-55
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, Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS). All were eventually equipped with NATO Sea Sparrow (NSSM) and Phalanx CIWS
for self defense. In 2001, Kitty Hawk received two Rolling Airframe Missile
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 had several differences from the lead units of the class. Instead of two forward anchor
s, one on each side, America had no starboard anchor and an additional anchor astern, a change made to accommodate the AN/SQS-23 sonar
. America was the only post-World War II U.S. carrier to be built with sonar, though it was removed in the early 1980s. She also had a narrow smokestack compared to prior units.
. Kennedy is also 17 feet (5.2 m) shorter in length than the other Kitty Hawk-class carriers.
. 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 Cold War
. 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 31 January 2009.
Supercarrier
Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons.Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons.Supercarrier is an unofficial...
s of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
were an incremental improvement on the Forrestal-class
Forrestal class aircraft carrier
The Forrestal-class aircraft carriers were a four-ship class designed and built for the United States Navy in the 1950s. It was the first class of so-called supercarriers, combining high tonnage, deck-edge elevators and an angled deck...
vessels. Four were built, all in the 1960s, (1961–2009), (1961–2003), (1965–1996) and (1967–2007). All are now decommissioned.
Improved Forrestal carriers
The biggest differences from the Forrestals are greater length, and a different placement of elevatorElevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s; two are forward of the island, one is aft of the island and another on the portside stern. The movement of the #4 elevator from the forward to the after end of the angle made it useful for aircraft movement, since the forward-end elevator was useless as it was in both the landing path and in the launch path of the #3 and #4 catapults.
Three different shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s were used to construct the ships. Kitty Hawk was built at New York Shipbuilding
New York Shipbuilding
The New York Shipbuilding Corporation was founded in 1899 and opened its first shipyard in 1900. Located in Camden, New Jersey on the east shore of the Delaware River, New York Ship built more than 500 vessels for the U.S...
Corporation, Constellation at New York Naval Shipyard, America and John F. Kennedy at Newport News Shipbuilding. John F. Kennedy is similar to the earlier units in flightdeck arrangement and propulsion, but has enough differences that she is often placed in her own class. Propulsion consisted of four Westinghouse geared turbines, 280,000 shp, four shafts with eight 1,200 psi Foster Wheeler
Foster Wheeler Corporation
Foster Wheeler is a global conglomerate incorporated in Switzerland and with its principal executive offices in New Jersey. It is focused on Engineering, Procurement, and Construction and on power...
boilers.
Construction and design differences
The first three units were constructed with a TerrierRIM-2 Terrier
The Convair RIM-2 Terrier was a two-stage medium-range naval surface-to-air missile , and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. Originally, the Terrier had a launch thrust of 23 kN , and weight of 1392 kg...
surface to air missile system. The supporting missile launchers and AN/SPG-55
AN/SPG-55
The AN/SPG-55 was a tracking / illumination radar for Terrier and RIM-67 Standard missiles . It was used for target tracking and Surface-to-air missile guidance on numerous ships including s,s, s and Farragut class destroyers. It was also used on the nuclear powered single units , and...
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, Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS). All were eventually equipped with NATO Sea Sparrow (NSSM) and Phalanx CIWS
Phalanx CIWS
The Phalanx CIWS is an anti-ship missile defense system. It is a close-in weapon system and was designed and manufactured by the General Dynamics Corporation, Pomona Division...
for self defense. In 2001, Kitty Hawk received two Rolling Airframe Missile
RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile
The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the American, German, South Korean, Greek, Turkish, Saudi and Egyptian navies. It was intended originally and used primarily as a point-defense weapon against anti-ship cruise missiles...
launchers replacing the forward Sea Sparrow and Phalanx CIWS equipment. The SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite
SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite
The AN/SLQ-32 is a shipboard electronic warfare suite built by the Raytheon Company of Goleta, California. It is currently the primary electronic warfare system in use by U.S. Navy ships .-Variants:...
was added as part of the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) on Kitty Hawk and Constellation.
America had several differences from the lead units of the class. Instead of two forward anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
s, one on each side, America had no starboard anchor and an additional anchor astern, a change made to accommodate the AN/SQS-23 sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
. America was the only post-World War II U.S. carrier to be built with sonar, though it was 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 during construction, she formed her own ship class and is often listed as a single-class carrier. Kennedy had similar design changes regarding the anchors to accommodate a sonar array, but the sonar was never installed. There were also plans to make her nuclear powered, 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 is also different than the other Kitty Hawks, bearing a closer resemblance to that of the Nimitz-classNimitz class aircraft carrier
The Nimitz-class supercarriers are a class of ten nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service with the United States Navy. With an overall length of and full-load displacements of over 100,000 long tons, they are the largest capital ships in the world...
. Kennedy is also 17 feet (5.2 m) shorter in length than the other Kitty Hawk-class carriers.
Decommission
From 1987 to 1991 Kitty Hawk was overhauled for $785 million under the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) at Philadelphia Naval ShipyardPhiladelphia Naval Shipyard
The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995...
. 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 Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. 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
Live fire exercise
A live fire exercise or LFX is any exercise in which a realistic scenario for the use of specific equipment is simulated. In the popular lexicon this is applied primarily to tests of weapons or weapon systems that are associated with the various branches of a nation's armed forces, although the...
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 31 January 2009.
Ships in class
| Name | Builder | Commissioned | Decommissioned | Fate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Shipbuilding Corporation New York Shipbuilding The New York Shipbuilding Corporation was founded in 1899 and opened its first shipyard in 1900. Located in Camden, New Jersey on the east shore of the Delaware River, New York Ship built more than 500 vessels for the U.S... |
29 April 1961 | 31 Jan 2009 | Decommissioned | http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/CV63.htm | |
| New York Naval Shipyard Brooklyn Navy Yard The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan... |
27 October 1961 | 7 August 2003 | Stricken, to be disposed of | http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/CV64.htm | |
| Newport News Shipbuilding Northrop Grumman Newport News Newport News Shipbuilding , originally Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , was the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States prior to being purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001... |
23 January 1965 | 9 August 1996 | Sunk as a target SINKEX SINKEX or Sink Exercise is a US military term for the test of a weapons system usually involving a torpedo or missile attack of an unmanned target ship. The US Navy sometimes refers to this type of exercise as a HULKEX... |
http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/CV66.htm | |
| Newport News Shipbuilding Northrop Grumman Newport News Newport News Shipbuilding , originally Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , was the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States prior to being purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001... |
7 September 1968 | 1 August 2007 | Inactive, out of commission, on donation hold | http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/CV67.htm |