USS Independence (CV-62)

USS Independence (CV-62)
History
United States
Name:	USS Independence
Namesake:	Freedom of control by others; self-government.
Ordered:	2 July 1954
Builder:	New York Navy Yard
Cost:	$182.3 million
Laid down:	1 July 1955
Launched:	6 June 1958
Commissioned:	10 January 1959
Decommissioned:	30 September 1998
Struck:	8 March 2004
Motto:	"Freedom's Flagship"
Fate:	Stricken to be scrapped
Status:	To be towed to Brownsville, TX
General characteristics
Class and type:	Forrestal-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	60,000 long tons (61,000 t) standard 80,643 long tons (81,937 t) full load
Length:	1,070 ft (326.1 m)
Beam:	130.0 ft (39.63 m) waterline 270 ft (82.3 m) extreme
Draft:	37 ft (11.3 m)
Propulsion:	4 Westinghouse geared turbines, four shafts, 280,000 shaft horsepower (210,000 kW) 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:	8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h) 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km) at 30 knots (56 km/h)
Complement:	3,126 (ship's crew) plus 2,089 (air wing) plus 70 (flag staff) plus 72 (Marines)
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-48C 3D air search radar AN/SPS-49(V5) 2D air search radar AN/SPS-67(V1) surface search radar AN/SPS-64 navigation radar Mk 91 Missile fire-control radar
Electronic warfare & decoys:	AN/SLQ-29 Mark 36 SRBOC decoy rocket launcher
Armament:	8 × 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 guns (127 mm) (removed by he early 1970s) 2× 8 NATO Sea Sparrow 3× Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried:	70–90 Typical air group in the late 1990s: 14 F-14 Tomcat, 36 F/A-18 Hornet, 4 EA-6B Prowler, 4 E-2C Hawkeye, 8 S-3/ES-3 Viking, 3 SH-60F Seahawk, 2 HH-60 Seahawk

The fifth USS Independence (CV/CVA-62) was an aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. She was the fourth and final member of the Forrestal class of conventionally powered supercarriers. She entered service in 1959, with much of her early years spent in the Mediterranean Fleet.

Independence made a single tour off the coast of Vietnam in 1965 during the Vietnam War, and also carried out airstrikes against Syrian forces during the Lebanese Civil War and operations over Iraq during Operation Southern Watch, the enforcement of the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

Independence was decommissioned in 1998 after 39 years of active service. Currently stored at Bremerton, Washington, ex-Independence will be towed in late 2016 to Brownsville, Texas, to be dismantled.

The Forrestal-class aircraft carriers were designed in the early 1950s as a smaller version of the cancelled United States-class "Supercarriers". Unlike the United States class, they were to operate in both the nuclear strike and conventional roles, and were therefore intended to carry a mixed fleet of fighters, light attack and heavy attack aircraft, all of which were to be jets. The carriers were designed around the large new Douglas A3D Skywarrior bomber, with four deck-edge aircraft elevators large enough to handle the new bomber. As jet aircraft needed much more fuel than piston-engined aircraft, the Forrestal-class had a much greater aviation fuel capacity than existing carriers, with 750,000 US gallons (2,800,000 l) of Avgas and 789,000 US gallons (2,990,000 l) of jetfuel, more than double that carried in the Midway class aircraft carriers.

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