USS Enterprise (CVN-65)

Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge in formation in the Mediterranean, 18 June 1964. Enterprise crewmembers are spelling out Einstein's equation on the flight deck. This was the first all-nuclear battle formation.
Career
Laid down:	4 February 1958
Launched:	24 September 1960
Commissioned:	25 November 1961
Status:	Template:Active in service
General Characteristics
Displacement:	85,600 t
Length:	1,101 ft (336 m)
Beam:	133 ft (40 m)
Extreme Width:	252 ft (76 m)
Draft:	35 ft
Speed:	33.6 knots (62 km/h)
Complement:	4,600 officers and men
Armament:	2 Sea Sparrow launchers, 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mounts, 2 RAM launchers
Aircraft:	85: (One squadron of F-14 Tomcats; Three of F/A-18 Hornets; Four EA-6B Prowlers; Four E-2C Hawkeyes; Six S-3 Vikings; Two Shadows; Eight SH-3 Sea Kings or SH-60 Seahawks)
Nickname:	Big E / Mobile Chernobyl / Three-Quarter Mile Island
Motto(s):	Ready on Arrival; The First, the Finest; Eight Reactors, None Faster

The eighth USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was the world's first nuclear supercarrier, powered by eight A2W reactors. Like her predecessor, she is nicknamed the "Big E". She remains the longest aircraft carrier in the world today.

Her keel was laid in 1958 and she was launched on 24 September 1960 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company sponsored by Mrs. W. B. Franke, wife of the former Secretary of the Navy. She was commissioned on 25 November 1961 with Captain Vincent P. DePoix in command.

After commissioning, Enterprise began a lengthy series of tests and training exercises, designed to determine the full capabilities of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Immediately her superlative characteristics and performance became obvious. She began flight operations on 17 January 1962, when a F8U Crusader became the first airplane to land on board her giant flight deck. The same aircraft later became the first plane to be catapulted from Enterprise.

One month later, on 20 February 1962, the nuclear-powered carrier played a role in the space age when Enterprise acted as a tracking and measuring station for the flight of Friendship 7, the "Project Mercury" space capsule in which Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn. Jr., USMC, made the United States' first orbital space flight.

The first three deployments of Enterprise, from August 1962, were to the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.

In August of 1964 as operation Sea Orbit, Enterprise, along with Long Beach and Bainbridge, embarked on an 30,565 mile (49,190 km) around the world cruise to demonstrate the ability of nuclear-powered ships to operate free from the usual ties to shore bases.

Upon completion of this operation, the carrier entered the shipyard at Newport News, Virginia, for refuelling. Upon completion, the ship was transferred to the Pacific Fleet to provide support to the growing war in Vietnam.

On 14 January 1969, while the ship was 70 nautical miles (130 km) from Honolulu, Hawaii, an accidental armament explosion of an aircraft on the flight deck sparked a large fire and further explosions of munitions or fuel. Twenty-eight crew were killed and over 150 were wounded.

She returned to Newport for her second refuelling in 1970 and following the 1973 Vietnam cease-fire she was docked at Puget Sound for an extensive refit to support a wing of the new F-14 Tomcat fighters. Enterprise was later deployed to assist in Operation Frequent Wind in 1975.

In December 1971 it led the US Seventh Fleet towards India in an action designed to intimidate and prevent further Indian military action in West Pakistan in the 1971 Indo-Pak War. A further escalation was avoided by the presence of an Indo-Soviet "Friendship Treaty" signed earlier in the year.

From 1979 to 1982, she underwent another extensive refit at Puget Sound, centered on improvements to the electronics and detection systems—the entire island was effectively rebuilt. In another extended refit from 1990 to 1994 she was updated to serve until 2015. This refit was supplemented with additional six-month work stints in 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2003. Her intended replacement will be CVN-78, to be built by 2013.

As of 2004, Enterprise is homeported at NS Norfolk, Virginia. On 11 September 2001, Enterprise was just outside of the Persian Gulf and was the first carrier to take station off of Afghanistan and was among the first units to conduct strikes on the Taliban in Pakistan as part of Operation Infinite Justice, later renamed Operation Enduring Freedom. Most recently, Enterprise embarked on Summer Surge '04 and participated in several multinational exercises.

A common misconception that began during the 1970s and persisted into the 80s and 90s was that the Enterprise's nuclear reactors gave her an abnormally high top speed, as high as 50 knots was rumored. The truth was somewhat more prosaic: Since the ship carried eight nuclear reactors, she could get up full steam almost immediately, allowing her to accelerate far more quickly than any other ship until the introduction of the naval gas turbine in the early 70s. By the 1990s, gas turbine ships which could keep up with or even exceed the nuclear ships' acceleration were common in the fleet, but the rumors persisted and continue to persist. Another incorrect rumor is that Enterprise's reactors leak enough to be a danger on-shore from a typical harbor anchorage; this is needless to say false, as such a high level of leakage would make the ship immediately hazardous to the lives of those who serve aboard.

Enterprise is the only ship of her class.

See USS Enterprise for other ships of the same name.

General Characteristics

• Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding Company, Newport News, Virginia
• Power Plant: Eight A2W reactors, four shafts
• Cost: annual running costs estimated at $220 m
• Crew: Ship's Company: 3,320 - Air Wing: 2,600
• Armament:
  • Two Sea Sparrow launchers
  • Two × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mounts
  • Two RAM launchers

Trivia

The Enterprise was supposed to appear in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but it was out to sea at the time of filming. Instead, the carrier USS Ranger CV-61 played the part of the Enterprise.

External link

• USS Enterprise official website (http://www.enterprise.navy.mil/)
• AO3 Smitty's USS Enterprise (CVN-65) Page (http://www.sizor.com/cvn65/)
• USS Enterprise webpage (http://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn65.html)

de:USS Enterprise (CVN-65) ja:エンタープライズ (CVN-65) zh:美國企業號航空母艦 (1960年～)