WorldWideAircraftCarriers.com - USS Kitty Hawk Page


SPECIFICATIONS	PHOTOGRAPHS (Click on the pictures for an enlarged photo)
Designation: CV Length: 1052 ft Width: 252 ft Beam: 130 ft Displacement: 80,800 tons Propulsion: 8 boilers, 4 shafts Speed: 30+ knots Crew: 5,630 Airwing: 85 fixed, rotary Armament: - 3 X 8 Sea Sparrow SAM - 4 X 20mm Phalanx CIWS Elevators: 4 Catapaults: 4 Ships in class: 1 CV-63 USS Kitty Hawk The USS Kitty Hawk was the oldest serving American aircraft carrier (only a few months older than the USS Enterprise, CVN-65) when retired and taken out of service in January 2009. She had served 48 years. She was one of the last two conventionally powered aircraft carriers that had been left in United States Navy service. The other, the USS John F. Kennedy, CV-67, was decommissioned in August 2007. Built to an improved Forrestal design, the Forrestal being the first of the modern "super" carriers, the Kitty Hawk class were the largest warships in history at the time they were built, now having been eclipsed by the follow-on American carrier classes, including the latest, the Nimitz Class. The Kitty Hawk was the only forward deployed aircraft carrier in US service, being home ported in Yokosuka, Japan, in the western Pacific when she was retired, and was replaced in that forward role by the USS George Washington, a Nimitz Class nuclear carrier.

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Jeff Head is an engineering consultant with many years experience in the power, defense, and computer industries. He currently works for the federal government helping maintain and protect regional infrastructure. He is a member of the U.S. Naval Institute, and is also the author of a self-published and best-selling series of military techno-thrillers called the Dragon's Fury that projects a fictional third world war arising out of current events. You can learn more about that series by clicking on the pictures of the novel covers below:

THE DRAGON'S FURY SERIES

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