Midway class

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Aerial view of the Coral Sea in the most modern development stage
Aerial view of the Coral Sea in the most modern development stage
Overview
Type Aircraft carrier
units 5 planned, 3 built, 0 in service
Namesake Pacific Islands Midway (see Battle for Midway )
period of service

1947 to 1992

Technical specifications
displacement

64,000 ts

length

295-305 meters

width

67.1-72.6 meters

Draft

10.8 meters

crew

4500+

drive

12 steam boilers , 4 steam turbines with 212,000  shaft horsepower on 4 propellers

speed

33 knots

Armament

Last 2 - 3 CIWS, 2 starter anti-aircraft missiles ( Midway only )

Planes

up to 85

The Midway- class was a class of aircraft carriers in the United States Navy . It consisted of three ships that were put into service between 1945 and 1947. The last unit was active until 1992. This long period of service made intensive modifications to the carrier necessary in order to keep up with the development from propeller to jet aircraft.

The three units were USS Midway (CV-41) , USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42), and USS Coral Sea (CV-43) . They were used in the Vietnam and Gulf War.

history

Planning and construction

Commissioning of the Roosevelt

Planning for the Midway-class carriers began during World War II , with approvals for four units passed by the US Congress in 1942 and two more in 1945. Ultimately, however, only three units were keeled in 1943 and 1944, the other three were before the Keel laying repainted. The reasons for this lay in the budget cuts, which also forced the US Navy to save after the end of the war.

The carriers were designed to be much larger than their World War II predecessors, the Essex and Ticonderoga classes (modernized Essex ) and were able to transport more aircraft.

The three units were keeled at Newport News Shipbuilding (two girders) and New York Shipbuilding . The construction took around one and a half years each, the final equipment for two units only around half a year, but another one and a half for the third. The girders were put into service from September 1945 to April 1947.

Modifications

The Midway class carriers were extensively modernized during their service life. This was done in the United States Navy's Service Life Extension Program (SLEP). In addition to the weapon systems, the flight deck and the systems necessary for flight operations such as aircraft elevators and catapults were modified and adapted to the conditions required for jet aircraft .

As the first unit, the Franklin D. Roosevelt was converted to the standard SCB-110 (1954-1956), between 1955 and 1957 the Midway followed . The modification included, among other things, an enlargement of the flight deck, the installation of new aircraft elevators as well as aircraft catapults and brake cables as well as modernization of the interior and ship electronics.

The Coral Sea received a revised program SCB-110A between 1957 and 1960 . In addition to the changes from SCB-110, an even larger flight deck was built here, and an additional catapult was installed.

Another improvement to the Midway ( SCB-101.66 ) took place from 1966 to 1970. SCB-101.66 also enlarged the flight deck compared to Coral Sea , the elevators for the transport of heavier aircraft were also reinforced and improved catapults were installed. Due to cost overruns (the total cost was over $ 200 million), this program was canceled for the Franklin D. Roosevelt and only some work on the elevators was carried out there. In particular, the further enlargement of the flight deck did not materialize.

period of service

Midway 1953, still with the original flight deck

While Franklin D. Roosevelt made in 1977 and decommissioned by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) of the Nimitz class was replaced, the other two aircraft carriers of the class remained until the 1990s into service. This extreme difference in service time can be explained by the absence of SCB-101.66, but also by the fact that the Franklin D. Roosevelt had problems with her propulsion system and was otherwise the worst-preserved ship in the class. The FDR was scrapped shortly after it was decommissioned . A move that the Reagan administration later regretted, as they would have liked to put the carrier back into service as part of the “ Navy of 600 Ships ” program, taking into account the lack of porters at the time - at least as a school owner .

The Midway and Coral Sea served due to their long service together with the aircraft carriers of the Essex , Forrestal , Kitty Hawk and Nimitz classes, but were eventually replaced by new units of the latter class. This made them a link between the units of the Second World War and the Cold War with the age of the nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

The Coral Sea was the 13th carrier of the US fleet, the squadron not have had more since the late 1970s, but in the application a straight free was assigned. Since that time the Midway was stationed as a regular carrier in Japan due to the better technology according to SCB-101.66. The Coral Sea was decommissioned in 1990, the Midway not until 1992.

The Coral Sea was sold to a demolition company and quickly scrapped by 1996. The Midway was in the reserve fleet in Bremerton from 1992 to 2003 and was finally handed over to the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum , which prepared the carrier as a museum ship in San Diego , California .

units

Surname Procurement Keel laying Launch Commissioning RCOH Decommissioning home port Whereabouts / remarks
USS Midway (CV-41) December 29, 1942 October 27, 1943 March 20, 1945 September 10, 1945 April 11, 1992 Museum in San Diego
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42) December 1, 1943 April 29, 1945 October 27, 1945 September 30, 1977 Canceled from 1980 in Kearny , New Jersey
USS Coral Sea (CV-43) June 14, 1943 July 10, 1944 April 2, 1946 October 1, 1947 April 26, 1990 Scrapped in 2000

technology

hull

The Franklin D. Roosevelt with a new flight deck

At the beginning the three girders were around 295 meters long (overall length), around 37 meters wide and displaced around 45,000 ts . They had an axially arranged deck and a narrow "island" in which the control rooms were housed. At that time, the chimney was the most distinctive element of the ships. The hull and the small superstructures were made entirely of steel.

After the conversion, the flight deck was angled around eight degrees from the central axis. This design allowed the crew to continue taking offs from the bow while landing operations were taking place on the angled portion of the deck. With the conversion, the flight deck on the Midway was extended to 305 meters, the width was now 67.1 meters, the length of the Coral Sea was now 298.6 meters and the width 72.6 meters. The displacement increased to up to 69,000 ts. In addition, the island was enlarged and the chimney was integrated into the design.

Below the flight deck was the hangar, in which the aircraft that were not used could be serviced and were protected from the spray on deck. The aircraft elevator installed aft at the beginning, which brought the machines up from the hangar deck, was moved to the edge of the deck when the angled flight deck was installed. In addition, the hydraulic catapults were replaced by steam-powered ones, the Midway and the Franklin D. Roosevelt received two systems, the Coral Sea a third on the deck section intended for landing. This 50% increase in aircraft take-off capacity made it the most valuable of the three carriers as it allowed more aircraft to be airborne in less time in a crisis situation.

drive

The ships' drive consisted of four steam turbines , which obtained their steam from twelve steam boilers . The turbines were from Westinghouse Electric (on Midway and Coral Sea ) and from General Electric on Franklin D. Roosevelt . The system produced outputs of up to 212,000 hp.

The four screws could accelerate the girders to speeds of up to 33 knots . The range was 11,250 nautical miles at a speed of 15 knots, at full power this was reduced to 4500 nm.

Armament

At the beginning of their service, the Midways received relatively strong anti-aircraft armament , which resulted from the experience in the Pacific War . However, these were dismantled more and more during the modernization, as the guns could no longer be used effectively in the Jet Age. In total there were 18 5-inch guns ( only 14 on the Coral Sea from the start), 21 40-mm quadruple flak and 28 small 20-mm guns. The 5-inch models were soon reduced, and the removed guns were used for new Japanese destroyers.

Later more modern weapons were installed on the Midway and the Coral Sea . The Coral Sea was provided with three Close-in-Weapon-Systems ( CIWS ) of the Phalanx type , which represented a close-range defense against approaching anti-ship missiles . The Midway received two CIWS and two BPDMS launchers for the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow point defense missile system .

The radars that supplied the target data for the weapon systems were located on the island. At the end of the service period, these were the 3D radar SPS-48 from ITT-Gilfillan and Raytheon's 2D system SPS-49 . A SPS-65 was used for navigation . These systems replaced the obsolete navigation radar SPS-10 , the 2D radar SPS-43 from Hughes / Westinghouse , which worked in conjunction with the height finder SPS-30 from General Electric .

Carrier squadron

Two Vought F-8s on the USS Midway (1963)

On board a non-modernized Midway -class carrier , up to 130 aircraft of the World War II generation could be accommodated. However, since such a large number could no longer be controlled and coordinated from board, the size of the carrier air wing was limited to around 100 aircraft. However, the space on board could be used well for the more space-consuming aircraft of the “jet generation”; after the modernization, around 65 ( Coral Sea ) and 75 ( Midway ) modern aircraft could be carried per carrier .

Only the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the Lockheed S-3 Viking could never be used on the carriers of the Midway class , although Midway was originally supposed to be upgraded for those models with the SCB-101.66 conversion. The main reason for this was the limited height of the hangar deck, which did not allow maintenance work on the landing gear or the removal of the ejection seats of the F-14 below deck. In addition, the jet blast deflectors have never been upgraded for the widely spaced-apart mounted engines of both models. The F-4 Phantom II and, after its introduction in the 1980s, the F / A-18 Hornet continued to be used in the fighter squadrons . The submarine hunting role for which the Viking was intended had to be taken over by escort ships after the previous model, the Grumman S-2 Tracker, was retired.

The carrier squadrons at the end of the service life of Coral Sea and Midway therefore consisted of three to four squadrons F / A-18, one to two squadrons Grumman A-6 Intruder and delegations from Grumman E-2 Hawkeye , Grumman EA-6B Prowler and SH -3 Sea King together.

crew

The crew number on each of the ships was around 4100 at the beginning of their service life, after the modernization more than 4600 men and women were on a carrier, 400 of them officers. Around 2800 seamen were responsible for the ship, another 1800 belonged to the flying personnel and aircraft technicians. There was also a small delegation of 72 marines .

Such a high crew number also meant high demands on logistics and supply. The fresh water generators on board produced 900,000 liters per day, which, in addition to evaporation in the boilers, also served to supply the crew. Every day 13,000 meals were served in the dining rooms, the consumption was 1,000 loaves of bread, 2,000 kilograms of meat and 2,200 kilograms of vegetables daily.

Mission profile

The Roosevelt in the Gulf of Tonkin

The carriers of the Midway class drove within an aircraft carrier combat group grouped around them , which they defended against both air and surface ships and also performed anti- submarine hunting . Airborne early warning aircraft, i.e. aircraft for airborne early warning, were able to offer long-range monitoring. The fighter planes protected the carrier, for example by means of Combat Air Patrols .

After the three units had narrowly missed the Second World War, they were also not used during the Korean War, but operated predominantly in European waters during this time. Combat missions flew aircraft from the deck of the porters for the first time in the Vietnam War, during which the Midway made three, the Franklin D. Roosevelt one and the Coral Sea six mission tours.

The Midway finally made a final combat mission in 1990 during Operation Desert Storm .

To this day, the Midway , which retired from active service in the US Navy in 1992 after 47 years of service , is considered to be the aircraft carrier with the world's second longest period of service after the Enterprise .

Additional information

literature

Web links

Commons : Midway class  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Stefan Terzibaschitsch, Seemacht USA, Bechtermünz-Verlag, ISBN 3-86047-576-2 , page 313f
  2. ↑ figures midwaysailor.com (Engl.)
  3. ^ Clayton 2006, p. 144
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 3, 2007 .