Forrestal class
| Forrestal class | |
|---|---|
_underway_on_trials_1955.jpg) USS Forrestal, lead ship of the class |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Aircraft carrier |
| units | 4 built, all out of service |
| Namesake | James V. Forrestal |
| period of service |
1955 (Forrestal) to 1998 (Independence) |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
60,000 tons (empty) |
| length |
approx. 326 meters |
| width |
40 meters (waterline) |
| Draft |
11.2 meters |
| crew |
5,100+ |
| drive |
8 oil-fired steam boilers |
| speed |
33+ knots |
| Range |
8,000 nautical miles (14,800 km) at 20 knots |
The Forrestal- class was a class of aircraft carriers in the United States Navy . The four ships of the class were the first aircraft carriers with a displacement of over 75,000 tn.l. and the first porters to have an angled landing deck from the start. The lead ship of the class was the USS Forrestal , named after James V. Forrestal , a Secretary of the Navy under Roosevelt and Truman. The ships entered service in the 1950s and took part in the Vietnam War and, after being modernized in the early 1980s, the Second Gulf War. In the 1990s, all four ships were decommissioned and assigned to the reserve fleet, in 2006 they were removed from the US Navy ship register.
history
Planning and construction
Planning for the Forrestal class began in the early 1950s when the Truman government recognized the importance of aircraft carriers , also because of the Korean War . After the construction of the USS United States (which was not completed because it was discontinued immediately after the keel was laid) , these ships were the first new aircraft carriers to be commissioned after the Second World War . The contracts for the construction of the first two units of the class originally designed for eight ships were signed in July 1951, the keel-laying of the first unit, USS Forrestal, took place a year later. Initially it was planned to build the first two ships without the angled landing deck. Like the Midway-class carriers , they were to have a continuous, straight flight deck , as was the case with aircraft carriers from World War II. It was only during the planning phase that new findings about the advantages of an angled flight deck were incorporated. The design was changed accordingly and construction continued with the changed plans. The last two ships, Ranger and Independence, were planned with an angled landing deck from the start. The contracts for the construction of these last two ships were not signed until three years later, in early 1954. Construction costs were $ 188 million for the Forrestal, $ 213 million for the Saratoga, $ 173 million for the Ranger and $ 225 million for the Independence.
units
The naming of aircraft carriers in the US Navy, unlike battleships or destroyers, does not follow a fixed pattern. The new carrier class was named in honor of James V. Forrestal , who was Minister of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman from 1944 to 1947 and who had endeavored to expand the aircraft carrier fleet.
Originally eight aircraft carriers were planned for the Forrestal class, after extensive changes to the design plans, the last four aircraft carriers were then built as the Kitty Hawk class .
USS Forrestal
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The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was laid down on July 14, 1952 at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News , Virginia . The launch took place on December 11, 1954, the commissioning on October 1, 1955. The Forrestal spent most of her active time with the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean. During the operation off the coast of Vietnam , a serious fire broke out on July 29, 1967, which became known as the Forrestal disaster . From 1968 the carrier operated again in the Mediterranean area. After extensive modernizations from 1983 to 1985, the carrier took part in Operation Earnest Will in the late 1980s and in the Second Gulf War in the early 1990s . After a short period as a training provider for the Navy, the Forrestal was retired in 1993.
USS Saratoga
_insignia,_1958_(NH_64888-KN).png)
The USS Saratoga (CVA-60) was laid down at the New York Naval Shipyard on December 16, 1952 , launched on October 8, 1955, and entered service on April 14, 1956. The Saratoga operated most of the time with the 2nd and 6th Fleet in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. There it was present in front of Libya, Syria and Lebanon, among others. The carrier took part in the 1962 naval blockade of Cuba and in 1972 for three months in the air strikes from Yankee Station in the South China Sea on northern Vietnam. 1981 to 1983 she was the first ship of the class to go through the " Service Life Extension Program " (SLEP). After participating in the Gulf War in 1991, the carrier was retired in 1994.
USS Ranger
_insignia,_1967_(NH_65402-KN).png)
The USS Ranger (CV-61) was laid down as the first girder of the second batch on August 2, 1954 at Newport News Shipbuilding. The launch took place on September 29, 1956, the commissioning on August 10, 1957. After a short stay in the Atlantic, the Ranger was transferred to the Pacific, where it operated from 1958 on. From 1964 she was used several times off Vietnam, also in 1991 in the Gulf War, where her aircraft, together with those of the Midway , flew attacks against Iraq from the Persian Gulf after the ship had been modernized in Bremerton in 1983/84. The Ranger has been in Bremerton since its decommissioning in 1993 and was brought to Brownsville, Texas for scrapping in early 2015. The scrapping was completed on November 1st, 2017.
USS Independence
_insignia_1961.png)
The USS Independence (CV-62) was laid down on July 7, 1955 as the last ship of the class in New York, the launch took place on June 6, 1958. On January 10, 1959, the Independence was put into service. It operated from 1959 to 1991 mostly in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, went through the " SLEP " from 1985 to 1987 and was then relocated to Yokosuka in September 1991 as a replacement for the Midway , where it was deployed in the Gulf region was the only aircraft carrier permanently stationed outside the United States until retirement in 1998. The Independence was towed to Brownsville, Texas for scrapping in 2017.
| Identification number | Surname | In service | Off-duty | Whereabouts / fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CV-59 | USS Forrestal | October 1, 1955 | September 11, 1993 | Canceled from 2014 |
| CV-60 | USS Saratoga | April 14, 1956 | August 20, 1994 | Canceled from 2014 |
| CV-61 | USS Ranger | August 10, 1957 | July 10, 1993 | Canceled from 2015 to 2017 |
| CV-62 | USS Independence | January 10, 1959 | September 30, 1998 | Canceled from 2017 |
Modifications
All ships except the Rangers underwent extensive renovations and maintenance work during the 1980s, the docking times during the so-called " Service Life Extension Program " were up to two years, the modernization costs per ship amounted to approximately 460 million US Dollar. The ships received new electronics and radar systems, the 20 mm Mk-15 phalanx close-in-weapon system , more powerful catapults and the propulsion systems on all ships were renewed. All four carriers received self-inflating life rafts during the modernization , which were mounted on the deck edge. The measures taken during the SLEP made it possible to increase the service life of the ships, which were around 30 years old by then, by 15 to 20 years.
Whereabouts
Until spring 2006, three of the four porters were mothballed in the reserve fleet , but they have now been removed from the ship register. The Forrestal was supposed to be sunk as an artificial reef , but was scrapped. The Ranger is to be brought to Portland , Oregon as a museum ship . Negotiations between the US Navy and New Zealand regarding the sale of the Saratoga have failed; it is now also to be preserved as a museum ship. The Independence has also been scrapped.
Photo details
,_starboard_view,_1955.jpg)
Above: Forrestal in 1955 during the shipyard test drives, below the same ship in 1982 before the Service Life Extension Program, here with parts of the carrier squadron on deck. Above you can see four of the eight turrets as well as the original radar systems of the type SPS-8 (above the bridge) and SPS-12 on the mast. The chimney has a sloping end. The ship's identification number below the funnel. In 1982 the guns were removed, instead of the front pair there is a Sea Sparrow starter , the funnel now has a horizontal upper edge. The large antenna of the SPS-48 air reconnaissance radar is now in front of the mast, the antenna of the SPS-43 is above the chimney, and the fire control radars for the guided weapons can be seen on the mast.
,_starboard_view,_1982.jpg)
technology
hull
The hull of the ships was at the waterline with a length of 302 m about 25 meters longer than the hull of a ship of the Midway class. The draft was 11.2 meters, the displacement when fully loaded (operational displacement) was 80,678 tn.l. The flight deck was 20.1 m above the waterline, the bridge was 33.8 m high and the top of the mast was 56.4 m.
After the damage that the Essex- class aircraft carriers Hornet and the Bennington sustained to the overhanging forward portion of the flight deck during severe typhoons , the closed Atlantic or hurricane bow at the Forrestals, unlike the retrofitted carriers on the Midway , belonged to Essex -Class , from the beginning to the ship design.
,_F-14_on_catapult.jpg)
Flight deck
The flight deck of the first two carriers of the class was 311 m long, the decks of the Ranger and Independence were about two meters longer. With a maximum width of 77 meters, the deck area was around 14,500 m². The flight deck was about 25% larger than that of the previous Midway class (approx. 11,500 m²). The runway was angled at an angle of 10 ° from the longitudinal axis to port and originally had six, later only four, safety rope systems for braking the landing aircraft. The angled landing deck enabled simultaneous take-off and landing, and increased safety in the event of a failed attempt to land - the aircraft aborting the approach no longer had to take off over the aircraft, which were mostly parked at the front end of the runway.
From the late 1960s and early 1970s, the carriers also received an optical landing system based on Fresnel lenses , which replaced the outdated system based on mirrors and took over the instruction of the approaching aircraft on the correct glide path.
For the start of the aircraft, four steam catapults (originally type C-7, later replaced by C-13) were available instead of the original hydraulic ones, two at the bow and two in the extension of the angled runway on the port side. To protect the aircraft set up on deck and the crews working on deck, the catapults were equipped with hydraulically erectable jet deflectors. The start controls for the catapults were located on the side of the circumferential "catwalk", only the carriers of the Nimitz class received a protected command post for the catapult operations.
Four elevators connected the deck to the hangar deck below, about three stories high, three of which were starboard (two aft of the island, one in front), one elevator was on port amidships, in front of the front end of the angled runway. This position, which was taken over almost unchanged by the straight deck girders of the Second World War, proved to be extremely impractical because the angled landing deck meant that the port elevator could not be used during take-off and landing. The hangar deck extended over the middle half of the ship and was designed so large that it could accommodate a large part of the carrier squadron in a storm- and sea-proof manner. The deck was equipped with anchoring eyes to secure aircraft and other equipment remaining on the deck (mobile crane, aircraft tug, helicopter for transport, search and rescue and submarine hunting ).
,_Combat_Direction_Center.jpg)
island
The only structure on the flight deck was the island on the starboard side with about 36 m length and 16 m width. In the case of Forrestal , the island was moved a little further outwards after the first tests and this change was adopted by the other carriers, as the original arrangement impaired flight operations. At the leading edge of the island was the command bridge to the ship's command , above it the Admiral Bridge. The deck control bridge was located aft of the island, around the chimney that occupied the rear half of the island. The island also housed the "Combat Direction Center", from which the airspace around the carriers was monitored, the position of all of its own aircraft was coordinated and flight operations were directed. The first two girders had two masts until they were modernized in the 1980s, the Ranger and Independence were only equipped with one mast for radio and radar systems from the start.
drive
The ships were powered by four steam turbines from Westinghouse , which received their steam at 82 bar from eight steam boilers from Foster-Wheeler fired with heavy oil . The power of the four turbines of around 280,000 shaft horsepower was delivered to four shafts with one screw each. The maximum speed was between 33 and 35 knots . With a fuel supply of 7,828 tons, the ships had a range of 8,000 nautical miles at 20 knots, and at 30 knots the range was halved.
Armament
127 mm L / 54 Mk 42 general purpose guns
Originally, all four carriers of the Forrestal-class had eight Mk.-42-127-mm- (5-inch) -guns with caliber length 54, in pairs on heavy consoles on starboard and port front and stern, both against air and ship targets could be used. Shelling land targets would also have been possible. The guns had a range of up to 15 km. However, except for the Ranger, the front guns and the gun consoles were removed from 1961 onwards, as they were damaged in rough seas and the ships were sometimes unable to travel at full speed. When the rear guns were destroyed in the 1967 fire on the Forrestal , they were not replaced, as it became increasingly clear that the air defense in the carrier formation was taken over by escort ships armed with anti-aircraft missiles . The Saratoga and Independence guns were removed in the early 1970s, the Ranger kept its aft guns until 1977, and the front consoles were never removed. The Forrestals were the last aircraft carriers that were equipped with extensive ship artillery, all subsequent carriers received only guided weapons ( Kitty Hawk , Constellation ) or were even unarmed ( John F. Kennedy , Enterprise ).
Mk 25 BPDMS starter
In 1972 the Forrestal first received two eight-fold launchers for Sea Sparrow anti- aircraft missiles , one starboard forward and one port aft, Saratoga and Independence were also converted in 1973/74, the Ranger in 1977/78. The starters could not be reloaded with on-board equipment, and there was no magazine on board the porters.
20 mm Mk 15 Phalanx (Close-in-Weapon-System)
As part of the "Service Lifetime Extension Program" in the early 1980s, all four winners received three Mk-15 Phalanx - short-range defense systems . One phalanx cannon was mounted on the starboard side of the island, below the bridge, the other two on port side below the flight deck, roughly at the positions of the former 5-inch guns. The rapid-fire weapons, named R2-D2 by the crews because of their shape, were supposed to destroy attacking anti- ship missiles on the final approach to the ship.
,_island_and_masts.jpg)
electronics
The electronic systems of the carriers, with the exception of the fire control radars of the type Mk 56 (range: 14.8 NM ), of which one was located on each pair of guns, were all on and on the island. The vessels of the class received at its entry into each of the current positioning and navigation systems, all vessels possessed at the start of a PLC-8-height radar and a PLC-12 air surveillance radar, which in part by PLC 37 - air search radar has been added. At the beginning of the 1960s, the SPS-37 was then replaced by the SPS-43 search radar, whose 13 m long antenna was mounted on a console on the starboard side of the island, and the SPS-8 and SPS-12 systems were also included all ships from 1962 onwards replaced by the newer SPS-30 high finder radar with a range of 240 nautical miles. From the end of the 1970s, the 3D radar SPS-48 (range: 230 NM) from ITT-Gilfillan replaced the then obsolete SPS-30 over the bridge , the SPS-43 was replaced by new SPS-49 aerial search radars with 250 NM reconnaissance range . The SPS-43's antenna was also on the console on the island. The carriers used a SPS-67 from Norden Systems as a navigation radar .
In addition, the porters in the operations center were equipped with the tactical command and weapon deployment data system Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS), as well as the analysis and classification system for submarines ASAC (Anti-Submarine Classification and Analysis Center) from 1965 .
Starting in 1974, all ships also received an SPS-58 short-range radar for locating and tracking fast and low-flying targets, which should then be fought with the Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles. From about the mid-1970s onwards, all launchers were given a Mk.-91 fire control radar to guide the missiles ; the original Mk.-56 gun control radars were removed along with the 127 mm guns.
Aft on the island was also the approach radar , from the mid-1970s an SPN-35 homing beacon, of which mostly only the large spherical or dome-shaped cover can be seen. The antenna for the TACAN system was located on the top of the mast , below it was several antenna systems for electronic warfare and electronic countermeasures . These were supported by two SRBOC chaff launchers , one on the starboard side of the island and one port on the bow. For torpedo defense, the Forrestals had a towed SLQ-25 Nixie decoys.
,_in_1974_(NH_97719).jpg)
crew
The crew of a Forrestal-class carrier consisted of up to 6,000 men, in normal operations there were about 5,100 crew members, including about 550 officers, on board. Around 2,700 men were required to operate the ships, and the conventional drive and barrel armament proved to be particularly labor-intensive (each gun required around 30 operating personnel). 2,500 crew members were assigned to the Carrier Air Wing and were responsible for the maintenance and repair of the aircraft as well as the take-off and landing operations on board. Also on board was a company of US Marines (72 soldiers) for guard and representation tasks.
_departing_San_Diego,_in_February_1987_(NH_97689-KN).jpg)
Carrier squadron
The main armament of the aircraft carriers was their carrier air wing (CVW ). For the Forrestals, this comprised up to 76 aircraft, due to their size the carriers could use all aircraft types of the US Navy, including the A-3 Skywarrior as a heavy atomic bomber in the carrier squadron from the start. In the first few years of operation, F9F Panthers were stationed on board as fighter aircraft , these were replaced by F-8 Crusaders from the beginning of the 1960s . The A-1 - fighter-bombers were also from 1960 through A-4 Skyhawk replaced. From 1960 F-4 Phantom II were also on board the aircraft carriers as fighters . As a replacement for the Skywarriors, A-5 Vigilante came on board at the beginning of the sixties , but they only flew in their role as bombers for a short time, as the US Navy shifted its nuclear capacities to submarine- based nuclear missiles . As an RA-5 reconnaissance aircraft, however, the Vigilante remained on board until the late 1970s. The E-1 Tracer and later its successor E-2 Hawkeye were used as radar aircraft from the mid-1960s . At the end of the decade, A-6 Intruder attack aircraft and A-7 Corsair II fighter-bombers took off from the Forrestals for the first time .
With the reclassification of the carriers (CVA → CV) in 1972, the carriers of the Forrestal class received their first anti-submarine aircraft and helicopters, the S-3 Viking and SH-3 Sea King , while the older A-4 fighter-bombers and F- 8 hunters retired. After the Service Life Extension Program in the early eighties, the F-4 Phantom II were also retired and replaced by the F-14 Tomcat . In addition, with the EA-6 Prowler , the carriers received a replacement for the previously used EA-3 EloKa aircraft that had been in service since the early 1960s. From 1987 the F / A-18 Hornet was introduced on board. The Carrier Air Wing remained in this form until the carriers were retired.
Forrestal class in action
_and_her_battlegroup_1989.jpg)
Mission profile
The Forrestal-class carriers were classified as Offensive Assault Carriers (CVA) with the US Navy at the beginning of their service and, with their air group, which also included atomic bomb-armed bombers, belonged to the Navy's offensive concept. Three of the ships operated as part of their carrier combat group mostly in the Atlantic, the ranger was assigned to the Pacific Fleet. When it became clear that carrier-based atomic bombs were inadequate as first and second strike weapons due to the improved Soviet air defense, the US Navy shifted its nuclear weapons to submarine-based ICBMs . The submarines were also more difficult to locate and attack than the aircraft carriers with their large combat groups. With the change in the mission profile, the reclassification from attack carrier (CVA) to "all-round carrier" (CV), who also had submarine hunting skills, also took place in 1972.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, all four carriers were relocated to the South China Sea , where they were stationed off the coast of Vietnam and their aircraft performed air support missions for the American and South Vietnamese forces. This task was also given to the porters in the following years and decades during various crises in the Middle East , where they operated, among other things, off Libya and during the Second Gulf War against Iraq.
The operating and maintenance costs for a ship were $ 142 million a year in the 1990s.
Accidents and damage
No carrier of the class was damaged by enemy action during the operations, but there were several, sometimes serious, accidents. The best-known and most serious, the so-called Forrestal disaster , occurred in July 1967 off the Vietnamese coast when the false start of an air-to-surface missile caused a serious fire on the deck of the Forrestal . The carrier then had to be overhauled for several months.
In addition, the porters were involved in several ship collisions (both with civilian and military ships), some of which caused damage that made longer stays in the shipyard necessary. In the engine rooms and hangars of the ships, there were several fires, some of them severe, which killed many seafarers and also resulted in repairs.
Additional information
literature
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch : US Navy aircraft carrier. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7637-6200-0 .
- David Jordan: Aircraft Carrier - From the Beginning to Today. Tosa Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85492-640-5 .
Web links
- Forrestal class at globalsecurity.org (English)
- Forrestal class at the Federation of American Scientists (English)
- Andrew Topan: Death and Rebirth of the Supercarriar . 1996
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Terzibaschitsch: aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, p. 246
- ↑ Naval Vessel Register, AVT-59 ( Memento of the original dated August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Naval Vessel Register, CV-61 ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Naval Vessel Register, CV-60 ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Naval Vessel Register, CV-62 ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Terzibaschitsch: aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, p. 249.
- ↑ Terzibaschitsch: aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, p. 262
- ↑ David L. Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea: The Digitization of the United States Navy. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1999, ISBN 0-7695-0024-2
- ↑ Terzibaschitsch: aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, pp. 390-393
- ↑ fas.org
