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USSSan Jacinto on a training cruise off the east coast in 1944
Class overview
Builders	New York Shipbuilding
Operators	United States Navy  French Navy  Spanish Navy
Succeeded by	Saipan class
Built	1941–1943
In commission	1943–1960
Completed	9
Lost	1
Retired	8
General characteristics
Type	Light aircraft carrier
Displacement	11,000 tons (standard), 14,220 design, 15,100 design full load
Length	622 ft 6 in (189.74 m)overall 600 ft (180 m)waterline 552 ft (168 m)flight deck
Beam	71 ft 6 in (21.79 m) hull 109 ft 2 in (33.27 m) over flight deck and projections
Draught	26 ft
Propulsion	steam turbines, 4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 565 PSI (850 F) four propellers 100,000 horsepower (75 MW)
Speed	31.5 knots (36.2 mph; 58.3 km/h) maximum
Range	13,000 nautical miles (24,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement	140 officer, 1,321 enlisted
Sensors & processing systems	SC radar
Armament	26 ×Bofors 40 mm guns (2 quad, 8 dual, 16 single, 10 Mk 51 directors)
Aircraft carried	Typical operational complement as of October 1944: 24F6F Hellcat fighters 9TBM Avenger torpedo bombers 1J2F Duck utility amphibian sometimes carried

TheIndependence-class aircraft carriers were a class oflight carriers built for theUnited States Navy that served during World War II.

Adapted from the design for theCleveland-classlight cruisers, this class of ship resulted from the interest of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt in naval air power. With war looming, Roosevelt, a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, noted no new fleetaircraft carriers were expected to be completed before 1944.^[1] He proposed to convert some of the manycruisers then under construction to carriers. Studies of cruiser-size aircraft carriers had shown the type had serious limitations, and on 13 October 1941, theGeneral Board of the United States Navy replied that such a conversion showed too many compromises to be effective.^{[citation needed]}

Undeterred, President Roosevelt ordered another study. On 25 October 1941, the Navy'sBureau of Ships reported that aircraft carriers converted from cruiser hulls would be of lesser capability, but available much sooner.^[2] After the December 1941attack on Pearl Harbor, the need for more carriers became urgent. The Navy accelerated construction of the 34,000-tonEssex-class aircraft carriers, but these large ships could not be finished quickly. TheCleveland-class light cruisers then under construction were adopted for this purpose.^{[citation needed]}

Plans developed for this conversion showed much more promise than expected. Nine light cruisers were reordered as carriers in the first half of 1942. TheIndependence-class design had a relatively short and narrowflight deck andhangar, with a small islandsuperstructure. The hangar, flight deck, and island represented a significant increase in the ship's topside weight. To compensate for this, blisters were added to the original cruiser hull, which increased the originalbeam by 5 feet (1.5 m). Ships of this class carried a small air group – only about 30 aircraft. This was originally set to consist of ninefighters, ninescout bombers, and ninetorpedo bombers, but later revised to about two dozen fighters and nine torpedo bombers.^{[citation needed]}

These were limited-capability ships, whose principal virtue was near-term availability. Their limited size made for seakeeping difficulties in the many typhoons of the Pacific, and their small flight decks led to a high aircraft accident rate. However, being based on a light cruiser, they were fast ships, much faster than theCasablanca-classescort carriers. The cruiser hull and engineering allowed them the speed necessary to operate with the main fleet carrier task groups. Their names followed the US Navy's policy of naming aircraft carriers after historic navy ships (Independence) or historic battles (Cowpens).^{[citation needed]}

Completed in the course of 1943, and coming into service with the first eight of theEssex-class carriers, the nineIndependence-class ships made up a vital component of theFast Carrier Task Force, which carried the Navy's offensive through the central and western Pacific from November 1943 through August 1945. Eight of these carriers participated in theBattle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, which effectively ended Japan's carrier air power. The light carriers provided 40 percent of the Fast Carrier Task Force's fighters and 36 percent of the torpedo bombers. The protection on these carriers was modest, and munitions often had to be stowed at the hangar level, a factor that contributed greatly to the loss ofPrinceton in October 1944.^{[citation needed]}

The nine ships of theIndependence class were all converted fromCleveland-class light cruisers building at theNew York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard,Camden, New Jersey. Initially classified as "aircraft carriers" (CV), all were re-designated "small aircraft carriers" (CVL) on 15 July 1943 while four ships were still under construction.^{[citation needed]} Two-thirds of the ships in the class took their names from decisive battles, including the Texas Revolution'sBattle of San Jacinto, the Mexican-American War'sBattle of Monterey and the American Revolutionary War'sBattle of Princeton.

• Independence (CV/CVL-22) – Postwar, she was surplus to the Navy's requirements and expended in the nuclear testOperation Crossroads in July 1946. The ship survived both tests with little damage. She was used as a radiation research hulk for several years afterward and expended as a target in January 1951.
• Princeton (CV/CVL-23) – Destroyed as a result of Japanese air attack 24 October 1944 duringBattle of Leyte Gulf.
• Belleau Wood (CV/CVL-24) – Decommissioned to reserve in January, 1947. Transferred to French Navy asBois Belleau in June 1951. Returned to the US Navy for scrapping September 1960.
• Cowpens (CV/CVL-25) – Decommissioned to reserve in January, 1947. Stricken and scrapped starting November 1959.
• Monterey (CV/CVL-26) – Decommissioned to reserve February 1947. Recommissioned as training carrier September 1950, decommissioned to reserve again January 1956. Re-designated aircraft transport AVT-2 May 1959. Stricken June 1970.
• Langley CVL-27 – Decommissioned to reserve February 1947. Transferred to France asLa Fayette on 2 June 1951. Returned to USN and stricken March 1963, scrapped at Baltimore in 1964.

• Cabot CVL-28 – Decommissioned to reserve February 1947, recommissioned and modernised as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carrier October 1948. Decommissioned to reserve January 1955, modernised 1965–1967 and transferred to Spain asDédalo on 30 August 1967. Stricken fromNaval Vessel Register and sold to Spain August 1972. Decommissioned for preservation atNew Orleans August 1989, preservation efforts failed. Scrapped atBrownsville, Texas starting October 2000.
• Bataan CVL-29 – Decommissioned to reserve February 1947, recommissioned and modernised as ASW carrier May 1950. Only ship in theIndependence class to serve in combat during the Korean War. Decommissioned to reserve April 1954. Stricken for scrapping September 1959.
• San Jacinto CVL-30 – Decommissioned to reserve March 1947. Stricken June 1970.

There was little margin for growth, as the ships' post-war careers showed.Independence was expended as an atomic bomb target, and the rest were laid up in 1947. Five returned to service in 1948–53, two with the French Navy. Two were used as training carriers, whileBataan sawKorean War combat duty with Marine Corps air groups. She andCabot received anti-submarine warfare modernizations in the early 1950s, emerging with twofunnels instead of the original four. All but the French ships were decommissioned in 1954–56 and were reclassified as aircraft transports in 1959.Cabot got a new lease on life in 1967, when she became the Spanish Navy's carrierDédalo, serving until 1989 (in Spanish service, she was the first carrier to regularly deploy theHarrier jump jet). Despite efforts to preserve her,Cabot was scrapped at Brownsville in 1999–2003. Preservation efforts continued until the hull was half scrapped.^{[citation needed]}

• Ibuki-class cruiser – Japanese cruiser converted into a light aircraft carrier (not completed)

Media related toIndependence class aircraft carrier at Wikimedia Commons

• Faltum, AndrewThe Independence Class Aircraft Carriers, Nautical & Aviation Publishing,ISBN 1-877853-62-3
• Wright, C. C. (1998). "Design Histories of United States Navy Warships of World War II: An Example of an Official History–USS Independence (CVL-22)".Warship International.XXXV (4):342–370.ISSN 0043-0374.

• Light aircraft carrier classes
• Independence-class aircraft carriers
• World War II aircraft carriers of the United States
• Cold War aircraft carriers of the United States
• Korean War aircraft carriers of the United States
• New York Shipbuilding Corporation
• Ship classes of the French Navy
• Steam turbine-powered ships

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