How the US Navy tried – and failed – to sink the aircraft carrier USS America for weeks

• The U.S. Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers is known for its impressive firepower and resilience in battle.

• The fleet’s durability is attributed in part to the sacrifice of its predecessor, the USS America.

• The Navy tried for weeks to sink the “Big A”, eventually resorting to sinking the ship on board.

The US Navy’s supercarrier fleet is famous for its offensive power, enormous size and versatility in battle.

US aircraft carriers have led their strike groups to the front lines of global conflicts and are often used to intimidate US adversaries.

In June, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower left the Middle East after spending months fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. At the beginning of this year, USS Gerald R. Ford returned to its home port after the Pentagon sent the first supercarrier of the class and its strike group to Israeli coastal waters following Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.

O durability of America’s current carrier fleet is due in part to the sacrifice of one of its predecessors: the USS America.

The penultimate aircraft carrier with conventional propulsion

USS America was initially ordered as one of six nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the Business class. However, exorbitant production costs forced the Navy to redesign the ship to use an older system of fuel boilers that powered the steam turbine-driven propellers.

It was the penultimate aircraft carrier with conventional propulsion, followed by the USS John F. Kennedy before the Navy began building its fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

America was one of the three Kitty Hawk-class carriers, including the lead ship and the USS Constellation. Her keel was laid in January 1961 at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia and commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard four years later.

The $400 million aircraft carrier, aptly nicknamed “Big A,” measures more than 1,000 feet long and has a 4-acre flight deck that can accommodate up to 100 aircraft.

America was first designated as an attack aircraft carrier and reclassified as an aircraft carrier in 1975 after a major refit the previous year.

Improving safety and efficiency

The extensive flight deck of the USS America introduced the feature of an angled flight deck, which increased the ship’s efficiency by allowing aircraft to be catapulted off the bow while simultaneously landing other aircraft nearby.

The ship was also equipped with Mirror Landing System, highly advanced control and landing technology consisting of mirrors and lights that guided pilots safely back to the deck of the aircraft carrier and reduced accidents.

The big A in service

America has played a role in a number of major conflicts throughout history, frequently sailing in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Oceans.

Had three deployments to the Pacific during the Vietnam War. It set a record for no aircraft losses, as crews dropped thousands of tons of ordnance in more than 10,000 missions.

The aircraft carrier also served in the Persian Gulf War, launching airstrikes in Iraq and Kuwait during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

In addition to serving during global conflicts, USS America has also provided humanitarian aid and conducted evacuations during natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

Documenting life at sea

Jim Preston, a retired U.S. Navy photojournalist, captured the daily operations aboard the America in an article for the Navy’s “All Hands” magazine.

“It was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before or since in my photography career,” Preston wrote in a statement. rehearsal. “Danger is everywhere, and you are constantly aware of it, given the roar of the afterburners at full blast as the four catapults launch aircraft out of the bow and waist.”

Deployed life

Preston focused his photography on life aboard ship, showing sailors during long missions at sea and how they coped with being away from their families for months at a time.

After Preston’s article was printed, he said the wife of a Navy sailor reached out to him, expressing tearful gratitude for helping her understand what her husband goes through on his missions at sea.

Forced to retire and then to demolition

Through the Navy Shelf life extension program (SLEP), the Navy spent $785 million on extensive renovations and repairs on the USS Kitty Hawk and another $800 million on the USS Constellation.

Unlike her sister ships, the USS America never underwent an overhaul to modernize the ship and its equipment, which would have extended its useful life until 2010.

As global tensions and conflicts eased after the Cold War, the US reduced its military spending, and budget cuts and shifting priorities forced it to retire after more than three decades of service.

The ship was decommissioned in August 1996 and spent years docked at the Naval Inactive Ships Facility in Philadelphia.

Nearly a decade after decommissioning, America was later towed hundreds of miles off the Virginia coast in 2005 for a classified Navy live-fire exercise.

The exercise, dubbed “SinkEx”, The aim was to test the carrier’s ability to withstand battle damage and improve the durability of future ship designs.

‘A final and vital contribution to our national defense’

Some veterans who served aboard the USS America were against seeing such an end to the famous aircraft carrier and pushed for its preservation as a museum.

But Admiral John Nathman, then vice chief of naval operations, emphasized the importance of “America’s ultimate and vital contribution to our national defense.”

“I know that America has a very special place in their hearts, not only because of the name, but also because of the service provided on board,” he said at the time. “I ask that you understand why we selected this ship for this last crucial mission and take note of the critical nature of her final service.”

Nathman, who is now retired, said the exercise would consist of a “variety of comprehensive tests above and below the waterline, collecting data for use by naval architects and engineers in creating the nation’s future aircraft carrier fleet.”

“America’s legacy will serve as a hallmark in the design of future aircraft carriers – ships that will protect the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of America’s veterans,” he said.

Built to take

But the job was easier said than done.

The flat top was hammered with explosions above and below the surface, the latter simulating torpedo attacks in a real combat situation with the aim of breaking the keel of a ship. The empty ship was also hit by missiles and bombs. The Navy observed the ship’s destruction from afar and also through monitoring systems installed throughout the aircraft carrier.

After four weeks of bombardment, America was still afloat.

It was clear that the ship would not sink by conventional methods, so the Navy had to sink the ship with cargo placed on boardpunching holes in its double-layered hull to finally sink at 11:30 am on May 14, 2005.

The Navy kept most of the SinkEx findings secret, and only two photos of the historic moment were released.

The ship, still in one piece, sank nearly 17,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, somewhere between South Carolina and Bermuda. The exercise marked the first and only time a modern U.S. aircraft carrier was sunk.

Hard to kill, but not impossible

Although the enormous size of a supercarrier makes it an easy target to spot, the ship is surrounded by armed warships to protect you by any means necessary.

“You have to launch hundreds of weapons at the carrier strike group to get some of them through,” Bryan Clark, a former U.S. Navy officer and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, told Reuters. Business Insider’s Ryan Pickrell in 2019.

However, with enough firepower, the battle group can become overwhelmed, and while supercarriers are certainly difficult to kill, it’s not impossible.

“Given enough time and weapons, you can sink an aircraft carrier,” Clark said. “But if you have defenses, people controlling damage and propulsion, the carrier can take damage and leave and eventually come back.”

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