USS America: Honorably Deployed to a Watery Resting Place

by Maya Carlin, Warrior Contributor, Weapons

The intentional scuttling of the USS America proved that sinking a carrier is easier said than done. On May 14, 2005, the Kitty Hawk-classsupercarrier sank 17,000 feet below the floor of the Atlantic Ocean after weeks of controlled explosions.

Before this incident, World War II had been the last time any military permanently sank a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Shortly following the carrier’s scuttling, the Naval Sea Systems Command released a statement clarifying that “the data collected during the 25 days at sea from [the USS America’s] test events will be of great value to Navy engineers and designers to improve the design and survivability of the nation’s future aircraft carrier fleet.”

In other words, the USS America’s exit was honorable and morbid simultaneously.

A Brief Overview of the Kitty Hawk Class Carrier

After World War II, America prioritized building a fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. A project dubbed SCB 160 was designed to conceptualize and manufacture these vessels, but ultimately the plan to produce six nuclear-powered carriers was nixed due to high construction costs.

The first ship in the Enterprise class of nuclear carriers was reordered as a conventionally-powered Kitty Hawk-class carrier and given the name USS America. By 1961, the new supercarrier was laid down and eventually launched three years later from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.