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![]() USS America underway on 24 April 1983
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History | |
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Name | America |
Namesake | United States of America |
Ordered | 25 November 1960 |
Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding |
Laid down | 9 January 1961 |
Launched | 1 February 1964 |
Commissioned | 23 January 1965 |
Decommissioned | 9 August 1996 |
Reclassified | CV-66 |
Stricken | 9 August 1996 |
Homeport | Norfolk, Virginia |
Motto | Don't Tread on Me |
Nickname(s) | The Big "A" |
Fate | Scuttled after live-fire testing 14 May 2005 |
Badge | ![]() |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier |
Displacement | 61,174 long tons (62,156 t) (light), 83,573 long tons (84,914 t) (full load) |
Length | 990 ft (300 m) (waterline), 1,048 ft (319 m) overall |
Beam | 248 ft (76 m) extreme, 129 ft (39 m) waterline |
Draft | 38 ft (12 m) (maximum), 37 ft (11 m) (limit) |
Installed power | 280,000 hp (210 MW) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 34 kn (39 mph; 63 km/h) |
Complement | 502 officers, 4684 men |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Electronic warfare & decoys | AN/SLQ-32 |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | about 79 |
USS America (CVA/CV-66) was one of three Kitty Hawk-class supercarriers built for the United States Navy in the 1960s. Commissioned in 1965, she spent most of her career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, but did make three Pacific deployments serving in the Vietnam War. She also served in the Persian Gulf War's operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
America was the first large aircraft carrier since Operation Crossroads in 1946 to be expended in weapons tests. In 2005, she was scuttled southeast of Cape Hatteras, after four weeks of tests, despite a large protest of former crew members who wanted to see her instituted as a memorial museum. She was the largest warship ever sunk.
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