Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: age of US carriers (was Re: A NASTY attack sub idea)
Message-ID: <7442@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 14 Jun 89 03:26:39 GMT
References: <7132@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7159@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7209@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7302@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <7302@cbnews.ATT.COM>, Scott Cameron writes: 
*Had an opportunity to tour (general public "where your money goes Mr. Tax
*Payer type tour) some units of the USS Constellation's escort force that
*put into Seattle over Memorial Day.  Most of these ships are fairly old,
*(CV-64 being pre-nuc), with the exception of the Valley Forge.

well, in a force where Midway and Coral Sea (both of 1945 vintage, although
extensively modified since then) are still actively serving, and one
Essex-class carrier (Lexington, also extensively modified) is still performing
in a training role, a carrier from the early '60s (CV-64) doesn't seem *all*
that old ... in fact, Enterprise (CV-65) is essentially a nuclear variant of
the conventional class that includes CV-64 (i don't remember the class name
right off, and i should, dammit.  the ships, as i recall, are America, Kitty
Hawk, Constellation, and JFK, and i *think* that Kitty Hawk is the class name.
some sources give JFK as a separate one-ship class, although not all do.)  in
fact, this design (specifically, the JFK, the last carrier of the class) is
considered by many to represent the peak of big carrier design, and the
differences between the Nimitz class and the JFK design are not all that great,
Nimitz being essentially an enlarged JFK with nuclear power.

[ mod.note: I've only heard that class called the "Improved Forrestal"
class.  You have the names right, and they are, in the order you listed,
CVA 66, 63, 65, and 67.  The missing number, of course, is CVAN-65, USS
Enterprise.  Kitty Hawk was first in the class, and might be considered
the nameship. - Bill ]

*	Of the ships not open for tour, the Wilson doesn't have a helo
*	deck, and while the Constellation does carry a number of helos,
*	I don't know what fraction have an ASW mission.

probably all of Constellation's helos have ASW functionalty.

helicoptors were added to the fleet carriers during the
`Elmo Zumwalt' era, when the carriers were reclassified from CVA(N)
to CV(N) and given ASW duties in addition to their projection duties
(this was a famous, bloody fight in the navy between aviators and
surface sailors -- the carrier boys didn't want ASW missions to
interfere with their prefered `projection' mission, while the surface
boys are very concerned about the ability if the US to control shipping
lanes (`sea control' is the name of that mission.))

richard
-- 
richard welty         welty@lewis.crd.ge.com         welty@algol.crd.ge.com
           518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
``but officer, i was only speeding so i'd get home before i ran out of gas''