A's for the E

As high as a 23-story building, longer than three football fields, the U.S.S. Enterprise is the world's biggest military ship and its only nuclear aircraft carrier. She is also a resounding success.

When the 85,350-ton flattop was christened in 1960, skeptics questioned whether the Enterprise's atomic propulsion could justify the added cost ($150 million). Last week, after 4 1/2 months of combat duty off Viet Nam, the Big E--along with the only other nuclear vessel in the war, the destroyer Bainbridge--won straight A's from the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee. Both ships' performances had amply demonstrated the tactical advantages envisioned by their planners: high speed and the priceless asset of being able to cruise as long as four years without refueling. Because the Big E is nuclear-powered, says Rear Admiral Henry L. Miller, who commanded the ship's task force until mid-February, she "can do just about everything better, easier and faster."

No Smog. Late last year, Miller pointed out, the Big E raced urgently from the U.S. East Coast to Viet Nam under orders "to maintain a speed in excess of 20 knots the entire 16,000-mile trip. This was accomplished with ease." With refueling delays, a conventional carrier could not have made the voyage at any such forced pace. One night, shortly after arriving in the war theater last December, the Enterprise was told that South Viet Nam's Cam Ranh Bay airfield had been made inoperable by rains, and that the carrier's planes were needed for a strike in that region--175 miles away--the next morning. Wrote Miller: "Because of her capability for sustained high speed, Enterprise was launching support operations in less than nine hours after the initial message."

Another big asset is that the Enterprise has no smokestacks. On oil-burning carriers, acidic smog combined with salt-air corrosion necessitates ceaseless cleaning of aircraft and equipment. On the clinically antiseptic nuclear carrier, 15 to 20% fewer man-hours are required for corrosion control. The lack of stacks also gives the Big E space for an additional squadron in her "bird farm." On her second day in combat, the ship launched 134 sorties, more than any carrier had ever previously flown; it has since set a new record of 165.

Two a Day. To keep them flying, the ship operates on a 24-hour schedule. The morning "Plan of the Day" says flatly: "If you aren't working 14 hours a day, you aren't doing your job." Enterprise squadrons fly two missions daily, each requiring two hours of briefings, two hours in the air, and an hour's debriefing. After a two-hour break, off they go again.

In all, the Enterprise has accounted for 20% more attack sorties than her conventional sisters, and at an operating cost only 3% higher. Thanks to the recent development of a fuel core that can perform for 13 years, the nuclear carriers of the future will be even more tactically revolutionary than their conventional counterparts. The most significant tribute to the concept of an atomic-powered surface fleet came this year when Defense Secretary Robert McNamara reversed his longtime opposition to additional nuclear carriers, requested another in his 1966-67 budget and announced that he planned to ask for two more later.

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