Timeline of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy with names

Last updated March 07, 2019

This is a bar graph showing a Timeline of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy, displaying both the ships' names as well as their hull numbers. It is an alternate version of this timeline, which displays only the hull numbers.

A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A vertical bar chart is sometimes called a line graph.

This is a bar graph showing a Timeline of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy.

Notes

The carriers are listed in order of hull number.^[1]^[2]^[3]
Ships with hull numbers 35, 44, 46, and 50 through 58 were cancelled or never commissioned and are not shown.^[4]
While the chart does include light carriers, it does not include amphibious assault ships nor escort carriers with the exception of the Langley which is included for historical context.
In general, labels for ships of a single class are aligned vertically with the topmost ship in a column carrying the class name.
In an attempt to show the full timeline of the actual existence of each ship, the final dates on each bar may variously be the date struck, lost in action^[5], sold, scrapped, scuttled, sunk as a reef, etc., as appropriate to show last time it existed as a floating object.

A light aircraft carrier, or light fleet carrier, is an aircraft carrier that is smaller than the standard carriers of a navy. The precise definition of the type varies by country; light carriers typically have a complement of aircraft only one-half to two-thirds the size of a full-sized fleet carrier. A light carrier was similar in concept to an escort carrier in most respects, however light carriers were intended for higher speeds to be deployed alongside fleet carriers, while escort carriers usually defended convoys and provided air support during amphibious operations.

An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers. Modern ships support amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck. Coming full circle, some amphibious assault ships also support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft, now having a secondary role as aircraft carriers.

The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the Royal Navy, the United States Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. They were typically half the length and a third the displacement of larger fleet carriers. While they were slower, carried fewer planes and were less well armed and armored, escort carriers were cheaper and could be built quickly, which was their principal advantage. Escort carriers could be completed in greater numbers as a stop-gap when fleet carriers were scarce. However, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable and several were sunk with great loss of life. The light carrier was a similar concept to escort carriers in most respects, but were capable of higher speeds to allow operation alongside fleet carriers.

Timeline

An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, it is currently not possible to land them. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third party countries, reduce the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increase the time of availability on the combat zone.

Aircraft carriers have their origins during the days of World War I. The earliest experiments consisted of fitting temporary "flying off" platforms to the gun turrets of the warships of several nations, notably the United States and the United Kingdom. The first ship to be modified with a permanent flight deck was the battlecruiser HMS Furious, which initially had a single flying-off deck forward of the original superstructure. Subsequently, she was modified with a separate "landing on" deck aft and later with a full flush deck. Other ships, often liners, were modified to have full flush flight decks, HMS Argus being the first to have such modification begun. Those first faltering steps gave little indication of just how important the aircraft carrier was to prove to be. During the inter-war years, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States built up significant carrier fleets so that by the beginning of World War II, they had 18 carriers between them. The 1940 Battle of Taranto and the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor in retrospect showed the world that the aircraft carrier was to be the most important ship in the modern fleet. Today, aircraft carriers are the capital ships of the navies they serve in, and in the case of modern US "supercarriers", they embark an airgroup that is effectively a small air force.

This is a bar graph showing a Timeline of battleships of the United States Navy. The ships are listed in order of hull number.

Related Research Articles

The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol to identify their ships by type and by individual ship within a type. The system is analogous to the pennant number system that the Royal Navy and other European and Commonwealth navies use.

USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (AC-3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga. Langley was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, Langley fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.

USS Casablanca (AVG/ACV/CVE-55) was an American escort aircraft carrier intended for transfer to the British Royal Navy and named Ameer. She would be commissioned into the United States Navy as the lead ship of her class, named after the naval battle, at the city of the same name, that had taken place in 1942.

USS Liscome Bay (ACV/CVE-56), a Casablanca-class escort carrier during World War II, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Liscome Bay in Dall Island in the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska. She was lost to a submarine attack by Japanese submarine I-175 during Operation Galvanic, with a catastrophic loss of life, on 24 November 1943.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) is one of the final ships in the United States Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry-class of guided missile frigates (FFG). Commissioned in 1986, the ship was severely damaged by an Iranian mine in 1988, leading U.S. forces to respond with Operation Praying Mantis. Repaired and returned to duty, the ship served until decommissioned in 2015.

An escort destroyer with United States Navy hull classification symbol DDE was a destroyer (DD) modified for and assigned to a fleet escort role after World War II. These destroyers retained their original hull numbers. Later, in March 1950, the post World War II ASW destroyer (DDK) classification was merged with the DDE classification, resulting in all DDK ships being reclassified as DDE, but again retaining their original hull numbers. On 30 June 1962, the DDE classification was retired, and all DDEs were reclassified as destroyers (DD). Escort destroyers should not be confused with the cheaper, slower, less capable, and more lightly armed World War II destroyer escorts.

USS De Wert (FFG-45), an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, was a ship of the United States Navy. She was named for Hospitalman Richard De Wert (1931–1951). De Wert posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his heroism while serving with the 7th Marines during the Korean War.

Technical research ships were used by the United States Navy during the 1960s to gather intelligence by monitoring, recording and analyzing wireless electronic communications of nations in various parts of the world. At the time these ships were active, the mission of the ships was covert and discussion of the true mission was prohibited. The mission of the ships was publicly given as conducting research into atmospheric and communications phenomena. However, the true mission was more or less an open secret and the ships were commonly referred to as "spy ships".

USS Grumium (AK-112/IX-174/AVS-3) was a Crater-class cargo ship and aviation supply ship in the service of the US Navy in World War II. Named after the star Grumium in the constellation Draco, it was the only ship of the Navy to bear this name.

The following is a timeline of fleet aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. The first British aircraft carrier was HMS Argus, a converted liner hull.

USS LST-460 was a United States Navy LST-1-class tank landing ship used in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II. As with many of her class, the ship was never named. Instead, she was referred to by her hull designation.

References

↑ "NavSource Online: Aircraft Carrier Photo Archive". www.navsource.org. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
↑ "DANFS". www.history.navy.mil. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
↑ Pocock, Michael. "MaritimeQuest - United States Navy Aircraft Carrier Index". www.maritimequest.com. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
↑ Pike, John. "CVA 58 United States". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
↑ "THE LOST AMERICAN AIRCRAFT CARRIERS". ffhiker.tripod.com. Retrieved 2018-02-04.

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[1] "NavSource Online: Aircraft Carrier Photo Archive". www.navsource.org. Retrieved 2018-02-04.

[2] "DANFS". www.history.navy.mil. Retrieved 2018-02-04.

[3] Pocock, Michael. "MaritimeQuest - United States Navy Aircraft Carrier Index". www.maritimequest.com. Retrieved 2018-02-04.

[4] Pike, John. "CVA 58 United States". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2018-02-04.

[5] "THE LOST AMERICAN AIRCRAFT CARRIERS". ffhiker.tripod.com. Retrieved 2018-02-04.