Key Points and Summary – In 2005, the retired supercarrier USS America (CV-66) was chosen for a final, vital mission: to be intentionally sunk in a live-fire exercise to test carrier survivability.
-For four weeks, the Navy bombarded the vessel with a relentless assault of torpedoes, cruise missiles, and bombs.
-To the astonishment of observers, the incredibly tough Kitty Hawk-class carrier refused to sink.
-The Navy ultimately had to scuttle the ship with internal explosives.
-The classified data gathered from the exercise provided invaluable lessons on warship design and damage control, directly influencing the construction of the new Ford-class supercarriers.
USS America: The Aircraft Carrier the U.S. Navy Could Not Sink
In 2005, the USS America (CV-66) was towed towards its final destination. The retired carrier was selected to be sunk via a live-fire exercise. The results of this exercise were to be studied by the U.S. Navy to inform the creation of future aircraft carriers.
Originally planned to last about a week, the America remained floating for four weeks until she was scuttled using bombs planted inside the ship. Yes, the ship was that tough.
The exercise proved to be a valuable learning experience for the Navy, which used the lessons learned to improve future carriers.
The USS America’s Final Mission
Commissioned in 1965, the USS America was a Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier that served with distinction in the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm, and other Cold War-era operations. She was decommissioned in 1996 and spent nearly a decade in the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.
Although many veterans and naval enthusiasts hoped she would be preserved as a museum, the Navy ultimately chose her for a final mission: to serve as a live-fire test platform to inform the design of future carriers.
The USS America was chosen for a SINKEX, a rare and highly controlled operation in which a decommissioned ship is subjected to live-fire testing to evaluate how it withstands damage. The Navy selected America over newer nuclear-powered carriers due to her conventional propulsion system and her age, which made her a suitable candidate for such a destructive experiment without risking nuclear contamination or the loss of a more modern asset.
The USS America Remains Afloat
The exercise took place off the East Coast of the United States, where the ship was towed to a remote location and subjected to an intense and prolonged series of attacks. Over the course of four weeks, the Navy bombarded the vessel with a variety of weapons, including air-dropped bombs, cruise missiles, and underwater torpedoes.
The goal was to simulate realistic combat scenarios and observe how the ship’s structure, systems, and compartments responded to different types of damage.
What surprised many observers was the sheer resilience of the USS America. Despite the relentless assault, she refused to sink. Her double-layered hull, extensive internal compartmentalization, and massive size allowed her to absorb and deflect damage far more effectively than anticipated.
Eventually, the Navy had to board the ship and place internal explosive charges to scuttle her. This final act ensured that she would sink in a controlled manner, allowing for the safe collection of data and minimizing environmental impact.
Carriers are Hard to Sink, but Not Impossible
The Navy studied the exercise results relentlessly. The results of these studies are mostly classified, but they have had a direct impact on the construction of future careers, such as the Gerald R. Ford-class.
One of the primary reasons the USS America remained afloat was due to her sturdy structural design. The Navy gained a deeper understanding of how different parts of a carrier respond to various forms of attack, leading to improvements in hull design, shock resistance, and internal layout.
These changes have been incorporated into newer carriers to enhance their ability to survive and continue operating under hostile conditions.
The exercise showed the strengths and weaknesses of supercarriers. With enough time and firepower, the Navy concluded, even a supercarrier could be sunk.
“You have to launch hundreds of weapons at the carrier strike group to even get a few of them through,” Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology said in an interview with Business Insider. “Given enough time and weapons, you can sink a carrier.”
However, with a fully stocked carrier strike group, even hitting a carrier remains extremely difficult but not impossible.
Improving the Design of Future Carriers
The exercise was not primarily focused on sinking the America, though it was an objective. The goal was to evaluate how the carrier would react and respond to damage. “The whole point of the tests,” Blake Horner, a mechanical engineer explains, “was to make future carriers more survivable, as well as see how warships reacted to underwater explosion and damage… Thus, there was no “shoot to kill” mindset of the naval officers conducting the test, versus the whole point of attacking enemy battleships was to sink them.”
One of the more specialized areas of study during the SINKEX was the effect of underwater explosions on large hulls.
The Navy observed how shockwaves from torpedoes and depth charges propagated through the ship’s structure, affecting equipment, crew spaces, and vital systems. This data informed the placement of sensitive components and the development of shock-absoring materials and mounting techniques that are now standard in newer vessels.
The irony in sinking a ship called the USS America was not lost on the public or the Navy. Many veterans and naval enthusiasts had hoped the ship would be preserved as a museum, a tribute to her long and distinguished service.
Admiral John B. Nathman, then Vice Chief of Naval Operations, addressed these concerns in a letter, emphasizing that the ship would make “one final and vital contribution to our national defense.”
The event would “serve as a footprint in the design of future carriers — ships that will protect the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of America veterans.”
About the Author: Isaac Seitz
Isaac Seitz, a Defense Columnist, graduated from Patrick Henry College’s Strategic Intelligence and National Security program. He has also studied Russian at Middlebury Language Schools and has worked as an intelligence Analyst in the private sector.
More Military
How An F-35 Crashed: It Thought It Was on the Ground
France Just Won a Dogfight Against the F-35 Fighter
Russia Has Titanium Submarines, the U.S. Navy Can’t Match Them
