Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier

Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier
Missing image USS_Ticonderoga.jpg
Class Overview
Class Type	Aircraft Carrier
Class Name	Ticonderoga
Preceded By	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Succeded By	Midway-class aircraft carrier
Ships of the Class:	Ticonderoga, Randolph, Hancock, Boxer, Leyte, Kearsarge, Antietam, Princeton, Shangri-La, Lake Champlain, Tarawa, Valle Forge, Philippine Sea

The Ticonderoga class aircraft carriers were thirteen aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. The class was an outgrowth of the closely-related Essex-class of aircraft carriers. Together, they constituted the industrial age's largest class of heavy warships and along with the three much larger Midway-class carriers, the backbone of the Navy's combat strength in the years after World War II.

The Ticonderoga class was first deployed in the middle of World War II, with many ships seeing service into the Vietnam War. The entire class had been decommissioned by 1976, and all had been scrapped by the end of the 1980s.

Contents

1 General Characteristics 1 Overview 2 The Ticonderoga class ships 3 See also

General Characteristics

• Lead Ship: Ticonderoga (CV-14)
• Number of Ships: 21 ordered, 15 laid down, 13 commissioned
• Displacement: 27,200 tons/ 34,880 tons (standard)
• Length: 888 ft (271 m)
• Beam: 93 ft (28.3 m)
• Height: 147 ft (45 m)
• Draft: 23 ft (7.0 m)
• Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
• Range: 15,000 nautical miles (28,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
• Patrol Endurance: 75 days
• Propulsion: Westinghouse geared turbines; 8 - Babcock & Wilcox boilers connected to four shafts
• Performance: 150,000 horsepower (112 MW)
• Complement: '340 Officers/ 2900 Enlisted

Overview

Throughout the very large program to build Essex class aircraft carriers, modifications were constantly made. The number of 40 mm and 20 mm anti-aircraft machine guns was greatly increased, new and improved radars were added, the original hangar deck catapult installation was deleted, the ventillation system was massively revised, details of protection were altered and hundreds of other large and small changes were executed. In fact, to the skilled observer, no two ships of the class looked exactly the same.

Beginning in March 1943, one visually very significant change was authorized for ships then in the early stages of construction. This involved reshaping the bow into a rather elegant "clipper" form to provide deck space for two 40mm quadruple gun mountings, thus greatly improving forward air defences. Thirteen ships were completed to this "long-hull", or Ticonderoga, class. Four of these were finished in 1944, in time to join their Essex class near-sisters in Pacific combat operations. The rest went into commission between early 1945 and late 1946.

Five of the Ticonderoga class were laid up in 1946-47, along with all of the Essexes. Eight stayed on active duty to form, with the three much larger Midways, the backbone of the post-war Navy's combat strength. Though the Truman administration's defense economies sent three of the active Ticonderogas into "mothballs" in 1949, these soon came back into commission after the Korean War began. Ultimately, all thirteen had active Cold War service. Five of them were thoroughly rebuilt in the early 1950s under the SCB-27 program, and four of these were further modernized a few years later to the SCB-125 design. Another got a combined SCB-27 and SCB-125 redo, while yet another was given a modest reworking to test the revolutionary "angled deck" landing area.

Of the six unmodernized Ticonderogas, three decommissioned in the late 1950s and early 1960s and were promptly reclassified as aircraft transports (AVT), reflecting their very limited ability to safely operate modern aircraft. The other three, converted to amphibious assault ships (LPH), were active until about 1970. The two least modernized units went into reserve in the mid-1960s, and the rest passed out of the active fleet between 1969 and 1976. All were scrapped, most in the 1970s, although Shangri La survived until the late 1980s.

The Ticonderoga class ships

	Keel laid	Launched	Commissioned	Decomissioned
USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)	Feb. 1943	Feb. 1944	May 1944	Sep. 1973
USS Randolph (CV-15)	Dec. 1941	Jan. 1943	Apr. 1943	Feb. 1969
USS Hancock (CV-19)	Jan. 1943	Oct. 1944	Apr. 1944	Jan. 1976
USS Boxer (CV-21)	Sep. 1943	Dec. 1944	Apr. 1945	Dec. 1969
USS Leyte (CV-32)	Feb. 1944	Aug. 1945	Apr. 1946	May 1959
USS Kearsarge (CV-33)	Mar. 1944	May 1945	Mar. 1946	Feb. 1970
USS Antietam (CV-36)	Mar. 1943	Aug. 1944	Jan. 1945	May 1963
USS Princeton (CV-37)	Sep. 1943	July 1945	Nov. 1945	Jan. 1970
USS Shangri-La (CV-38)	Jan. 1943	Feb. 1944	Sep. 1944	July 1971
USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)	Mar. 1943	Nov. 1945	June 1945	May 1966
USS Tarawa (CV-40)	Mar. 1943	May 1945	Nov. 1945	June 1967
USS Valley Forge (CV-45)	Sep. 1944	Nov. 1945	Nov. 1946	Jan. 1970
USS Philippine Sea (CV-47)	Aug. 1944	Sep. 1945	May 1946	Dec. 1958

In addition to these thirteen carriers, other vessels of the class should be noted:

the Oriskany (CV-34) was ordered and laid down as an Essex-class vessel, was completed in 1950 to the much modified SCB-27A design and could be considered to be Ticonderoga-class.

Reprisal (CV-35), laid down in July 1944 at the New York Navy Yard and launched in 1945, was scrapped incomplete after tests; and Iwo Jima (CV-46) was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding yards in January 1945 but cancelled in August 1945 and broken up on the shipways.

Six Fiscal Year 1945 ships, none of which received names, were assigned to Bethlehem Steel Company (CV-50), New York Navy Yard (CVs 51 & 52), Philadelphia Navy Yard (CV-53) and Norfolk Navy Yard (CVs 54 and 55). Their construction was cancelled in March 1945.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

See also

• Essex class aircraft carrier
• Midway class aircraft carrier
• Forrestal class aircraft carrier
• List of aircraft carriers of the United States Navyja:タイコンデロガ級航空母艦