Summary and key points: The USS America, a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, was deliberately sunk in 2005 after serving in the US Navy for three decades.
-Rather than decommission the ship, the Navy used the aircraft carrier for a controlled explosion study to understand its resilience.
-The ship, known for its services during the Vietnam War and the Middle East crises, demonstrated considerable durability.
-The findings contributed to future carrier designs. USS America now lies 5,000 feet under the Atlantic Ocean, symbolizing his lasting legacy.
USS America: the aircraft carrier that defied sinking
In 2005, a US Navy aircraft carrier sank for the first time since World War II. USS America sank 5,000 meters below the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on May 14 after weeks of controlled explosionse of that year. When the Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier was decommissioned nearly a decade earlier, the Navy decided to conduct a study on how a colossal ship would respond to onboard explosions, rather than simply decommissioning the ship . The agency would soon discover that sinking an American aircraft carrier was easier said than done.
The History of USS America
USS America (CVA/CV-66) was one of three Kitty Hawk-class supercarriers designed for the Navy in the 1960s. Kitty Hawk, Constellation and America were built to be more capable than their Forrestal class predecessors and had more advanced technologies. They were the first class of supercarriers that, in addition to high tonnage, also had edge elevators and sloping decks. The Kitty Hawk ships were intended to complement the Forrestals and embody a moderate improvement.
Each ship in this class was generally longer than previous carriers, with more practical elevator placements. A fourth Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier was also planned; However, USS John F Kennedy became so extensively modified that she was considered her own aircraft carrier.
Meet USS America
USS America was laid down in Newport News, Virginia, in 1961 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corporation. In 1965 she performed her first catapult launch with a Douglas A-C4 Skyhawk. That same year, America sailed for her first deployment to the Mediterranean. She later participated in simulated conventional warfare with Frank before returning to Naval Station Norfolk. America was soon used to conduct flight qualifications for the F-4 Phantom, F-8 Crusader and A-4 Skyhawk aircraft.
On her next mission, America once again sailed to the Mediterranean as a crisis unfolded in the Middle East. When the technical research ship Liberty was attacked by Israeli torpedo boats and fighter planes in 1967, America responded first by launching Phantom interceptors to repel any possible attack on task force units. After it became clear that the Liberty attack was an accident and not an act of war, America was used to house the wounded sailors from Liberty.
During the Vietnam War, America would be deployed to the front lines three times. During her first stay at ‘Yankee Station’, American planes bombed roads, trucks and other infrastructure to impede the flow of men and war materials south. America would later deploy to the Gulf of Tonkin and Subic Bay.
The after-service life of the Kitty Hawk ships:
For decades, the Kitty Hawks have served the Navy honorably. USS Kitty Hawk was overhauled in the late 1980s as part of the Service Life Extension Program at a cost of $785 million. Ultimately, Constellation was overhauled under SLEP for an even more significant dollar amount. Kennedy later received a $491 million infusion to extend her life.
However, the ship was not upgraded under the same SLEP program as her sister ships. The fate of USS America was very different. Because America had such a strong record at sea, the service decided to make the carrier useful one last time after her retirement.
As then Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Natham explained: “America will make one final and critical contribution to our national defense, this time as a live-fire test and evaluation platform. America’s legacy will serve as a footprint in the design of future airlines – ships that will protect the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of America’s veterans.
The sinking of the USS America
As another expert explained for the Aviation Geek Clubsinking the ship was a challenging ordeal. “It took four weeks and eventually they had to take her off board because she didn’t sink. Not only is she much larger than World War II battleships, but she is also a lot stronger. While she lacks the heavy armor that battleships of old had, she does have a double-layered hull, meaning weapons must penetrate alternating layers of steel and empty pockets to reach her internals. Moreover, her internal compartmentalization was much better than that of battleships. She’s so big that it would take so many more chambers to sink her than a battleship would have to fill.”
After serving in the Navy for thirty years, the USS Americas still lies at the bottom of the sea, somewhere between South Carolina and Bermuda.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer at The National Interest, is an analyst at the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has had bylines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.
All images are Creative Commons or Shutterstock.
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