USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lincoln in the Atlantic, 2019
The Lincoln in the Atlantic, 2019
Overview
Order December 27, 1982
Keel laying 3rd November 1984
Launch February 13, 1988
1. Period of service flag
Commissioning November 11, 1989
Technical specifications
displacement

approx. 97,000 standard tons (fully loaded)

length

317 meters (waterline), 332.85 meters (flight deck)

width

40.84 meters (fuselage), 76.80 meters (flight deck)

Draft

12.50 meters

crew

3200 crew
+ 2480 aircraft personnel

drive

2 nuclear reactors, 4 propellers

speed

30+ knots

Armament

2 Sea Sparrow and 2 Rolling Airframe starters

Planes

up to 85

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is the fifth aircraft carrier the Nimitz class of the US Navy . The name was chosen in honor of Abraham Lincoln , the 16th President of the USA .

The ship was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company in Newport News , Virginia . The commissioning took place on the naval base Norfolk , Virginia. After an extensive overhaul in Bremerton , Washington , the USS Abraham Lincoln has been based at Naval Station Everett , Washington since 1997 . In May 2007, Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2) was stationed on the Abraham Lincoln .

history

The Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in the Gulf of Alaska

After its commissioning in 1989, the ship returned to dry dock for several weeks because cooling water had leaked from the reactor. After the transfer to the Pacific in September 1990, the first mission should follow in May 1991. The ship was sent to the Persian Gulf to serve as a command ship for the Allied Forces to follow up the Second Gulf War . During the voyage, however, the ship was diverted to the Philippines in order to evacuate US citizens after the eruption of the Pinatubo volcano .

After the successful completion of the operation, the carrier called the Persian Gulf to participate in the surveillance of the no-fly zones established by the US and Great Britain in southern Iraq. In 1992, 1995 and 1998 the ship was also used in this function in the Persian Gulf.

In 1993 the USS Abraham Lincoln was sent off the coast of Somalia to provide support for the UN peacekeeping mission. In 1997 the ship was modernized for a year. After the attacks of September 11, 2001 , the ship was put on heightened alert and sent to the Indian Ocean . To what extent the carrier was involved in Operation Enduring Freedom is unclear, as there is conflicting information here. Presumably he acted together with the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious as a command platform for the Allied forces in Afghanistan .

In 2003 the carrier took over the leadership role in the Iraq war . While the ship was already on its way back to the USA, US President George W. Bush landed on May 1, 2003 aboard an S-3B Viking on the USS Abraham Lincoln . In a media-effective speech he declared the end of the fighting in Iraq under the heading Mission Accomplished . Due to the unsatisfactory overall situation in Iraq, this appearance was discussed controversially for a long time. Navy One took place for the first time in connection with the President's visit .

As a result of the seaquake in the Indian Ocean , the Abraham Lincoln , together with parts of her carrier group and the helicopter carrier USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), had been off the coast of Sumatra for several months from the turn of the year 2004/2005 in order to provide disaster relief (in particular air transport of aid supplies ).

In 2006, the carrier was part of Exercise Valiant Shield , the largest U.S. Forces exercise in the Pacific for decades. After a voyage as part of Operation Enduring Freedom , a nine-month overhaul began in October 2008 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard , which cost $ 250 million. The first relocation since the overhaul followed in September 2010, with the Lincoln operating in the Pacific and Persian Gulf. In March 2010, the US Navy awarded the RCOH ( Refueling and Complex Overhaul ) contract to Northrop Grumman . Every Nimitz-class aircraft carrier undergoes this general overhaul with reactor refilling once in its life. Works for $ 80.1 million have already been awarded, with all options the contract can be worth up to $ 678.6 million.

On December 7, 2011, the Lincoln Everett left for the Arabian Sea, where the carrier replaced the sister ship USS John C. Stennis . On January 22, 2012, the porter crossed the Strait of Hormuz without an immediate incident and landed on February 1, 2012 in the port of Bahrain . Operation Enduring Freedom received support until the beginning of July . On July 16, the USS Abraham Lincoln passed the Suez Canal and docked in the port of Antalya . From there, the carrier is not returned to the west coast of the United States back, but drove to replacement by the USS Dwight Eisenhower to Naval Station Norfolk .

In Norfolk, the aircraft carrier was being prepared for the Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) planned for early 2013 . Due to budget cuts in the Navy, the general overhaul was postponed, so that the USS Abraham Lincoln was towed to Newport News Shipbuilding on May 28, 2013, a month and a half later than planned . After this four-year general overhaul, the carrier left the shipyard on May 9, 2017 at 10 a.m. for a four-day test drive off the US east coast and was handed over to the Navy on May 12.

Calls

1990: Desert Shield (Iraq / Kuwait / Saudi Arabia)
1991: Desert Storm (2nd Gulf War)
1991: Rescue measures during the Pinatubo eruption
1992: Operation Southern Watch (surveillance of no-fly zones in Iraq)
1993: Eastern Exit (Somalia): USS Abraham Lincoln
2002: Southern Watch (monitoring of no-fly zones in Iraq)
2003: Operation Iraqi Freedom (support for the Iraq war)
2004: Unified Assistance (aid operation in front of Indonesia)
2006: Western Pacific (including Valiant Shield and RIMPAC )
2008: Operation Iraqi Freedom u. Operation Enduring Freedom
2010/11: Operation Enduring Freedom a. Operation New Dawn
2012: Operation Enduring Freedom
Carrier Air Wing TWO aircraft flying formation over Abraham Lincoln

Incidents

July 27, 1989 - Cooling water leaked from the reactor
June 29, 1991 - Two F-14 Tomcats collided in the air. Both crews survive.
July 8, 1991 - An F-14 Tomcat crashed. Both crew members are rescued.
July 9, 1991 - An EA-6 Prowler has to make an emergency landing on the Abraham Lincoln after technical problems .
August 24, 1991 - An F-18 Hornet crashes into the sea after takeoff. The pilot can be saved.
October 25, 1994 - Lieutenant Kara Spears Hultgreen , the world's first female F-14 pilot, dies in a landing accident.
September 29, 2000 - An F-18 Hornet crashes into the Persian Gulf, killing the pilot.

Web links

Commons : USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)  - Album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Northrop Grumman: Northrop Grumman Awarded Planning Contract for the Refueling and Complex Overhaul of USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) , March 17, 2010. March 18, 2010.
  2. ↑ spiegel.de: US aircraft carrier arrives in the Persian Gulf
  3. ↑ US aircraft carriers cruise off Iran ( Memento from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Overhaul of carrier CVN 72 completed: "Lincoln" makes its first trip in four years . In: FLIGHT REVIEW . ( Flugrevue.de [accessed on May 10, 2017]).