Key Points – The USS United States, a post-WWII “supercarrier” designed to launch heavy strategic bombers, represented a bold vision for naval air power but was canceled just five days after its keel was laid in 1949.
-Championed by figures like Admiral Marc Mitscher, the massive, flat-decked carrier was intended to be a sea-based platform for long-range bombers, potentially carrying nuclear weapons. However, its fate was sealed by post-war budget cuts and a fierce inter-service rivalry.
-The newly independent US Air Force successfully argued that long-range strategic bombers should be its domain, leading Defense Secretary Louis A. Johnson to scrap the promising naval program.
USS United States: The Giant Supercarrier the Navy Almost Built
The USS United States was to be the first ship of a new supercarrier class: lightly armed but enormous. They would have been immense launching pads for some of the heaviest bombers in American service.
One of the leading proponents of the new supercarrier was Admiral Marc Mitscher, commander of the USS Hornet. This carrier launched 16 B-25s that made up the air fleet of the Doolittle Raid that targeted the Japanese homeland following the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Mitscher envisioned what he thought would have been the ideal aircraft carrier for the Doolittle Raid: a 100,000-ton flattop that could fly at least 16 and possibly up to 24 heavy bombers, likely without fighter escorts, with enough internal storage space for about 100 sorties before needed to head back to port for more fuel and weapons.
Each of the four planned new enormous carriers would fly alongside other, smaller carriers: a pair of Essex-class carriers and a Midway-class would carry a mix of different aircraft to complement the larger flattop’s heavy bombers.
While a completely flat surface, without any control towers, would undoubtedly have helped push many aircraft into the air quickly, it also had a less obvious benefit now that the world was in the age of the atom.
A completely flat surface would help the carrier “duck” the immense shockwave of a nuclear explosion, allowing it to ride through the shock without risking intense structural damage.
The logic of the time was sound, and the idea held promise. But it was not to be.
The Bomb
Following the end of the Second World War, the United States looked for areas where they could cut military expenditures and reduce overall government spending. To that end, all the branches experienced some belt-tightening. The United States was also involved in the Marshall Plan and was spending heavily to lift Europe out of the ashes of the war.
During the war, the United States Air Force had the branch tasked with dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Following the war, the US Air Force made a strong case for why it should be the primary branch responsible for the United States’ nuclear deterrence.
The case that long-range, heavy strategic bombers would be the bedrock of American security in the future was convincing.
Looking to trim fat wherever possible, then-Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson canceled the USS United States — a mere five days after the first sections of the keel had been laid down, and in effect ending the rest of the new carrier program.
The Korean War
Following the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, President Truman decided that nuclear weapons would not be an option, at least at the outset of hostilities. He ordered a naval blockade of the peninsula — but the order could not be entirely completed thanks to the austerity measures that had rocked the armed forces after the war’s end, particularly the US Navy.
The Korean War ultimately validated arguments against austerity and cutting defense spending, which would not see a significant dip until the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union decades later.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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