Tag Archives: USS Tarawa (LHA 1)

Carrier Gunnery

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How about these great shots, taken 7 August 1976 over NAS North Island, California, of the new class-leading big deck phib USS Tarawa (LHA 1), and the carriers USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and USS Constellation (CV-64).

An aerial view of ships moored at Naval Air Station, North Island. They are, from left to right, the amphibious assault ship USS TARAWA (LHA 1), the aircraft carrier US CORAL SEA (CV 43), and the aircraft carrier USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64). (Substandard image)

These show good details– to include a mix of guns– on the Midway-class Coral Sea and Tarawa. Constellation, as a circa 1960s Kitty Hawk class flattop, was the first class of American fleet carriers going back to USS Langley (CV-1) in 1920, to not mount a single 5-incher.

The Midway class was originally designed to carry 18 long-barreled 5″/54 Mk 16 guns— originally designed for the Montana class battleships– along with a slew of 40mm (21 quad) and 20mm (28 twin) guns.

Coral Sea was seen with her 1947-57 14-gun 5-inch fit, via USS Coral Sea assoc. https://www.usscoralsea.net/shipsweapons.php

They subsequently downgraded by 1960 to just 10 5″/54s, four on the port side and six on the starboard side, while their smaller guns had been replaced by 11 twin-3-inch mountings in place of the former quadruple 40 mm mountings. This was dropped to just six 5″/54s by January 1960 and only three after 1966. Coral Sea and Midway lost their last 5-inchers in 1979/80 to pick up CIWS while middle sister FDR had already been retired by then.

For the record, the first Langley carried four 5″/51s in open mounts during her “covered wagon” period of carrier ops, the mighty USS Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3) toted eight heavy cruiser-worthy 8″/55 guns along with dozen 5″/25s, Ranger (CV-4) had eight 5″/25s, the three Yorktowns and the one-off USS Wasp (CV-7) had eight 5″/38 DPs, and the 24 Essex class fleet carriers had eight 5″/38s in twin turrets and another four in single open mounts.

USS Lexington (CV-2) showing off just a portion of her impressive gun fit. Both Lex and Sara would land their 8-inchers in 1942, with the Army going on to use them for coastal defense around Hawaii

While the Independence and Saipan-class light carriers had to make do with smaller guns, every one of the assorted escort carrier classes (Long Island, Charger, Bogue, Sangamon, Casablanca, and Commencement Bay) carried at least one or two 5-inch guns, with USS Kalinin Bay and White Plains credited with scoring hits on pursuing Japanese heavy cruisers off Samar in October 1944.

Testing 5-inch guns on the escort carrier USS Manila Bay (CVE 61) 3 November 1943. Note fuzed ready shells. 80-G-372778

So it made sense in the 1950s that the new Forrestal-class supercarriers carried eight new style Mk.42 5″/54 caliber mounts, the same style guns as in the Navy’s new DD and FF classes throughout the Cold War.

McDonnell F3H Demon on Forrestal-class USS Saratoga. Not the Mk 42 5 inch gun and S-2 Tracker.

A-3B Skywarrior coming aboard USS Independence note 5-inch guns on carrier

USS Ranger (CVA-61) test firing two of her eight 5-inch 54 Mark 42 guns during a practice drill in 1961.

Check out these 1960 profiles of Midway and Forrestal:

Of course, the Forrestals later had their troublesome 5-inchers removed in later updates, as did Midway and Coral Sea.

Coupled with the retirement of the Essexes (Oriskany still had two 5″/38s aboard when she was decommissioned in 1976), Tarawa and her sisters, which carried three 5″/54 Mk 45s in bow and starboard aft sponsons, were the last American “flattops” to carry such heavy seagoing artillery.

USS Tarawa with her bow 5-inch MK45 guns.

Even these were removed by 1997 to allow for better topside aircraft operations.

It was a good 77-year run.

All Hands, Bury the Dead

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So this slow-motion funeral happened this week:

Official caption: “Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam residents watch as the decommissioned amphibious assault ship ex-USS Tarawa (LHA 1), is escorted out of Pearl Harbor by the Safeguard-class rescue and salvage ship USNS Grasp (T-ARS 51) during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024, July 16.”

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Courtney Strahan)

Laid up in Pearl’s Middle Loch since she retired in 2009 after 33 years of hard service, plans fell through to turn Tarawa into the first Navy amphibious ship museum once she was removed from a Category B reserve asset, and she was stricken from the Naval List earlier this year.

Of course, the old Tarawa is only participating in RIMPAC as a target ship for the big upcoming general SINKEX, which for many of the countries taking part is an extremely rare event.

It is rarer still to have a weapons-free bite at something the size of the mighty cold warrior Tarawa.

I mean, it’s not often that a 40,000-ton aircraft carrier-sized warship is expended in a gunnery drill. It has only happened before in the still largely classified USS America (CV-66) tests in 2005– which was used to engineer resiliency in every U.S. flattop ever since– and in Tarawa’s sistership USS Belleau Wood’s sinking in 2006.

It is a bit sad, honestly, as Tarawa, laid down on 15 November 1971 at Pascagoula, was the first big-deck ‘phib that combined the dock of an LPD with the helicopter capability of an LPH and supersized it into a ship that is the same size as a WWII Essex-class fleet carrier.

Artist’s conception of a very preliminary design of the LHA, released by DoD, 15 February 1967. USN 1120262

USS Tarawa as commissioned, with bow 5-inch MK45 guns, which were later removed. At the time she was constructed, she was the largest ship that Ingalls had built. 

Since Tarawa, the Navy built (and retired) four of her sisters, followed by eight updated Wasp-class LHDs, and are now planning 11 America-class LHAs which all show the same lineage.