Kitty Hawk-class

The Kitty Hawk class of United States Navy supercarriers was developed as an incremental improvement on the preceding Forrestal class. Built during the 1960s, the class consisted of Kitty Hawk (CV-63), Constellation (CV-64), and America (CV-66). A fourth vessel, John F. Kennedy (CV-67), was completed as a variant of the design under project SCB 127C. Construction was carried out by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, New York Naval Shipyard, and Newport News Shipbuilding.

The design increased hull length and modified the arrangement of aircraft elevators compared to the Forrestal class. Two elevators are positioned forward of the island, one is located aft of the island, and another is on the portside stern. This reconfiguration moved the No. 4 elevator out of the landing and launch paths of the waist catapults. Propulsion consists of geared steam turbines and boilers. Ships in the class featured specific design variations; America was built under project SCB 127B and included a sonar system that required a modified anchor configuration and a narrower smokestack. John F. Kennedy utilized a smokestack tilted outboard to direct exhaust gases away from the flight deck and featured an angled waist similar to the Nimitz class.

The first three vessels were initially equipped with the Terrier surface-to-air missile system. These systems were later removed and replaced with Sea Sparrow missiles and Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems. Kitty Hawk was updated with Rolling Airframe Missile launchers in 2001. The SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite was added to Kitty Hawk and Constellation during their service life extensions.

The class entered service between 1961 and 1968. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kitty Hawk and Constellation underwent overhauls through the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. John F. Kennedy received an overhaul between 1993 and 1995. America was decommissioned in 1996 without undergoing SLEP. It was used as a live-fire target and sunk in 2005. Constellation and John F. Kennedy were decommissioned in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Kitty Hawk served as the forward-deployed carrier in Japan until 2008 and was decommissioned in 2009, the final vessel of the class to leave active service.