Forrestal-class

Though fairly conventional by today's standards, the Forrestal-class was revolutionary back in the 1950's. The first new postwar carrier design, it incorporated all the combat lessons from World War II, including great resistance to battle damage, and a extremely large compliment of aircraft. This included bomber aircraft capable of delivering theater nuclear weapons. A total of four units were constructed, including Forrestal (CV-59), Saratoga (CV-60), Ranger (CV-61), and Independence (CV-62). All four were used extensively during the Cold War, including numerous deployments to Vietnam in the 1960's and 1970's. Most notable of these occurred when a huge fire broke out on Forrestal. Despite heavy casualties and aircraft losses, the ship was able to conduct flight operations just a few hours later. The first two units have been retired for cost reasons, but the final two have been upgraded and retained. Today they both continue to operate in the Pacific Fleet.

Structural/Powerplant

A fairly robust (and conventional) structure of steel construction, the Forrestal was the largest warship in the world when she was commissioned. Her design included major bulkheads about every 33 feet/10 meters, as well as armor protection for the decks and hanger. Since then, Kevlar splinter armor has been added. Powered by 8 oil-fired boilers, these feed four steam turbines, which drive four screws with a total of 280,000 SHP..

Weapons

Three Mk 29 Sea Sparrow launchers (with eight ready RIM-7 SAMs per launcher plus two full reloads) with six Mk 91 SAM fire control radars, 3 20 mm Mk 15 Phalanx (with Phalanx fire control radar) and 86 aircraft.

Countermeasures

SLQ-29 electronic warfare suite with WLR-1H, WRL-1H, and WLR-11 radio/radar intercept relievers, SLQ-17A jammer, 8 Mk 36 SuperRBOC chaff/decoy launchers and two SLQ-25A Nixie towed torpedo decoys.

Sensors

SPS-49(V)5 and SPS-48C air search radars, SPS-67(V)1 surface search, SPS-64(V)9 navigation radar and TAS-23 low altitude target acquisition radar.