Designation system for ships in the United States Armed Forces
Shortly after 1900, the United States Navy introduced a structured naming system that was used to select the names for all US warships. With very few exceptions, this system was used consistently until the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
| Ship type | designation | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Battleship ( Capital Ship ) | States , federal territories | Tradition since the sailing ship era around 1815 |
| Battle cruiser | Federal territories | Only three ships were designed and classified as "battle cruisers" from the start of construction: USS Alaska, USS Guam and USS Hawaii (never completed), all Alaska classes. |
| Aircraft carrier | Traditional names, locations of sea and land battles | Traditional names e.g. B. USS Enterprise or USS Intrepid , sometimes used again and again since the War of Independence. B. USS Yorktown . The only exception until 1964 was the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt , which was named after the US President who died in 1945. In 1964, a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier was named after US President John F. Kennedy , who had been assassinated a year earlier . |
| Helicopter carrier | Butcher | The amphic helicopter carriers (LPH) intended for landing operations by troops of the US Marine Corps were named explicitly after battles in which the Marines played a special role (e.g. USS Iwo Jima ). |
| cruiser | Cities | American, mostly larger cities or state capitals |
| Destroyer, escort destroyer | Marines | Named after merited marines, whereby during the Second World War the destroyers were named after officers, the destroyer escorts after NCOs and crew ranks. Preferred when naming were carriers of the Medal of Honor , then admirals and carriers of the Navy Cross . |
| Submarine | Fish, marine animals | |
| Strategic submarine | Personalities of history | Submarines carrying Polaris and Poseidon missiles with nuclear warheads. Named after outstanding personalities in US history (e.g. USS George Washington ), whereby non-Americans who were of great importance to the USA, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben , Lafayette , Casimir Pulaski or Kamehameha , were specifically honored . |
| Minesweeper | Adjectives | z. B. USS Admirable, USS Agile |
| Amphic dock landing ship | Forts, military fortifications | especially historical |
| Tank landing ship | Counties | after the end of the Second World War |
| Ammunition transporter | mountains | American |
| Tanker | Rivers | American |
| tractor | Indian tribes |
Until the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was commissioned, US warships were only named after people who had already died.
The US Coast Guard used an analog system, here, for example, the destroyer-escort-sized “ocean cutters” were named after merited Coast Guard soldiers and former finance ministers. (The U.S. Coast Guard was under the Treasury Department until 1967.)
Softening the naming system
After the end of the Vietnam War, this naming system was increasingly weakened, which in part had to do with the fundamental change in the type structure of the US Navy. For example, no more cruisers were built for over 20 years, so that the possibility of naming warships after cities was eliminated, which was felt to be inappropriate for reasons of maintaining contact with the civilian sector of society.
For this reason, the nuclear-powered attack submarines of the numerically strong Los Angeles class were named after cities.
- Aircraft carrier
- Since the construction of the second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz , all aircraft carriers have been named after important personalities, with political reasons playing an important role. During his lifetime, the USS Carl Vinson was named after the long-time chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee , a Republican MP. After the USS Carl Vinson, all aircraft carriers were then named after US presidents, initially after deceased, but now also after living ( USS George HW Bush ). Remarkably, a nuclear-powered submarine USS Jimmy Carter was named after the surviving ex-President Carter , as Carter served as a career officer in the US Navy and nuclear engineer on nuclear-powered submarines before his political career .
- Helicopter carrier, cruiser
- Newer helicopter carriers are still named after traditional names and battle locations, as are the Aegis combat system guided missile cruisers of the Ticonderoga class .
- Destroyer, escort destroyer
- For destroyers and escort destroyers (now called frigates), the naming after merited marines has been retained, some exceptions were, for example, the British World War II premier Winston S. Churchill or the French admiral Comte de Grasse .
- Battleships
- In the absence of new battleships since the end of World War II, the Ohio-class Trident- Atom strategic submarines were named after states in the 1970s and 1980s. The old system has been retained until now for auxiliary ships (tankers, ammunition transporters, etc.), landing craft and minesweepers.