page_title: USS Independence (CV-62)
section_title: Design and construction
hierarchical_section_title: USS Independence (CV-62) / Design and construction
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVA-62) under construction at the New York Naval Shipyard (USA), in July 1955.
context_page_description: The fifth USS Independence 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 was decommissioned in 1998 after 39 years of active service. Stored in recent years at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, the ex-Independence was towed beginning on 10 March 2017 to Brownsville, Texas for scrapping. She arrived on 1 June 2017 and dismantling was completed by early 2019.
context_section_description: 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.
  Independence was built with an angled flight deck with four C-7 steam catapults, two on the bow and two on the angled deck. She was fitted with AN/SPS-37 long-range search radar and AN/SPS-8B height finding radar. Defensive armament consisted of eight 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 guns mounted on sponsons jutting out from the sides of the ship so they did not interfere with the flight deck. The initial air wing of the Forrestal-class carriers was about 90 aircraft, although this varied with the composition of the airwing.
  The contract to build Independence, the fourth Forrestal-class carrier was awarded to the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 2 July 1954, with the ship being laid down on 1 July 1955. She was launched on 6 June 1958 by the wife of Thomas S. Gates, the Secretary of the Navy, and commissioned on 10 January 1959.
caption: Independence under construction at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1955
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