USS Enterprise (CVN-65)

Comparing the size of some large ships and buildings:
Queen Mary 2 , 345 m
USS Enterprise, 342 m
Hindenburg , 245 m
Yamato , 263 m
Empire State Building , 443 m
Knock Nevis , 458 m
Pentagon , 431 m

Five companies-certified suppliers of nuclear reactors for the fleet participated in the competition for the creation of the reactor core for the Enterprise and Long Beach : Barberton ; Metals & Controls, Inc .; United Nuclear Corp .; Westinghouse Electric Corp. , Atomic Fuel Department; Windsor . As a result, the Westinghouse project won with a purchase price of $ 7.8 million per unit in 1958 prices ^[1] .

Due to the exceeding of the budget for the "Enterprise" did not install the planned anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) Terrier . Instead, the ship’s defense system was equipped with three short-range launchers (PU) of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow air defense missile system, subsequent upgrades were added by two NATO Sea Sparrow air defense missile systems (NSSM) and three AU Phalanx CIWS .

On the Enterprise, the SCANFAR radar system was installed, based on a phased array antenna , offering an advantage over traditional radar with a rotating antenna. The Enterprise was the only aircraft carrier with nuclear reactors, carrying eight A2W type reactors .

Laid November 15, 1957 at the Newport News Shipbuilding Shipyard. Launched on September 24, 1960 ^[2] .

January 12, 1962 made his first voyage, which lasted 3 months, during which sea trials and exercises were conducted, in order to identify the full capabilities of the aircraft carrier, under the command of the ship's commander Vincent Depo.

The “ Caribbean crisis ” became the “baptism of fire” of the aircraft carrier - the ship as part of the forces of the 2nd US Navy was engaged in a naval blockade operation on Cuba.

Further several years carried watch on the Mediterranean Sea . July 31, 1964 Gibraltar left the so-called. "The first operational connection": the atomic strike aircraft carrier "Enterprise", the nuclear cruiser " Long Beach " and the atomic frigate " Bainbridge " (the connection feature was that all three ships were atomic ). The first in the world completely atomic squadron was tasked to make a voyage around the world . On October 3 of the same year, Operation Marine Orbit , as this campaign was called (which, however, had a demonstration-propaganda rather than military-strategic importance), was completed.

Since 1965, "Enterprise" joined the 7th fleet of the US Navy and went to Southeast Asia. With the start of participation in the Vietnam War , in December 1965, the Enterprise became the first ship from YSU to take part in hostilities. The aircraft carrier set a record - 165 sorties from the ship in one day.

January 14, 1969, a catastrophe occurred. At 8:15 local time, when the first wave of airplanes went into the sky and the second, hot exhaust of a tractor, carelessly parked next to a stack of 127 mm NUR “ Zuni ”, was preparing, one of the missiles was self-launched. She crashed into the fuel tank of a nearby attack aircraft, which led to fuel spills on the flight deck and the bombing of the bombs, plus a random launch of the remaining missiles. The result was 27 dead, 343 wounded, 15 planes lost (worth $ 5-7 million each). The damage to the ship was estimated at $ 126 million.

In the early 1980s, the modernization was carried out as a result of which the SCANFAR radar was removed and the reactor was overhauled.

The Enterprise actively participated in Operation Desert Fox of 1998, when a group of ships from its group launched a series of strikes with cruise and aircraft missiles on Iraqi territory. In the fall of 2001, the Enterprise group supported the operation to expel the Taliban from Afghanistan . After a year and a half, the ship returned to the Persian Gulf and provided air support to the coalition forces in the Iraq war .

In early 2011, he was off the coast of Somalia , participating in the fight against sea ​​pirates ^[3] .

On March 26, 2012, the Enterprise as part of the US Navy aircraft carrier group (a missile cruiser, three destroyers, an atomic submarine strike, and a tanker) entered the Mediterranean Sea, to then head to the Persian Gulf ^[4] ; April 3, the group arrived there.

November 4, 2012 the aircraft carrier completed its last 8-month voyage. Total aircraft carrier went to sea 25 times. Removed from the fleet on December 1, 2012 ^[5] .

Even when approaching the shores of North America, right in the open ocean, the operation began to unload ammunition: day and night for several days (October 24-26), elevators raised thousands of units of ammunition to the flight deck, which then, with the help of helicopters, were delivered to Supply transport transported aboard the Enterprise. It took 1260 helicopter flights to empty the giant cellar of the old aircraft carrier.

On December 1, 2012, a procedure for deactivating the “nuclear heart” of the Enterprise was held at Norfolk (Virginia) naval base.

It was planned that the ship will be in the fleet until mid-2013. The official ceremony of launching the Enterprise from the Navy took place only after the launch of the new atomic multi-purpose aircraft carrier (AVMA) Gerald R. Ford . The final phase began in the career of the world's first atomic aircraft carrier: the ship began to be cut into metal. The disposal of the Enterprise should have been completed by 2015.

The proposal to turn the Enterprise into a floating museum did not receive support: too expensive, difficult and unsafe. The only thing that can be preserved from the old aircraft carrier is its superstructure - the “island”, which is planned to be installed on the coast as a memorial.

On 2 May 2015, the aircraft carrier was towed from pier 2 of the Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard to dry dock 11 (where it was laid) ^[6] . The towing involved 6 tugboats and 200 personnel. It was expected that work on unloading nuclear fuel in a dry dock would continue until the fall of 2016.

On February 3, 2017, the first in the history of the American fleet the ceremony of writing off an aircraft carrier aircraft took place.

• List of the longest vessels by type
• Fire on the Forrestal aircraft carrier (1967)

• Cracknell, WH, Warship Profile 15, USS Enterprise (CVAN 65) Nuclear Attack Carrier , USN   .
• United States Naval Aviation, 1910–1995 , Naval Historical Center   .
• USS Enterprise (CVN 65) public affairs office

• S.N. Zigunenko Forrestol Aircraft Carrier
• www.enterprise.navy.mil - official site of USS Enterprise (eng.)
• Maritime Register - CVN-65 // www.nvr.navy.mil (Eng.)
• Association of Former and Current USS Enterprise Crew Members, as well as “Ship Friends” (eng.)