Book Review: U.S. Aircraft Carriers by Norman Friedman

Topic & Content

This is technically the second book of Norman Friedman’s design history series. Published in 1983, this is the original volume (not the 2022 revised edition) that follows U.S. aircraft carrier development from its beginning with the USS Langley in the 1910s up to the introduction of the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class and the amphibious assault ships in the late 1970s and early 80s. The book is organized as follows:

• 1. The Role of the Carrier in the U.S. Navy
• 2. Beginnings: The Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga
• 3. Carrier Spectrum Studies and the USS Ranger, 1922-29
• 4. The Yorktown Class
• 5. The Return to Smaller Dimensions, 1934-39
• 6. The ORANGE War Mobilization Carriers
• 7. The Essex Class
• 8. Austere Carriers for War Production
• 9. The Midway Class
• 10. The New Fleet Carrier of 1945
• 11. The Super-Carrier United States
• 12. The Forrestal Class and Its Successors
• 13. Carrier Modernization
• 14. Nuclear Carriers
• 15. Return to the Small Carrier: CVV, 1972-78
• 16. Postwar ASW Carriers
• 17. The Amphibious-Assault Carriers

Appendices

• A. Out of the Mainstream
• B. Catapults
• C. Arresting Gear
• D. Magazine Loads
• E. Carrier Characteristics
• F. Vital Statistics of Carrier Types

Thesis

This book (like others in Norman Friedman’s design history series) traces the design of these vessels themselves, as opposed to their aircraft or operations. Friedman observes that despite the threat of submarines and missile-firing surface ships, the aircraft carrier maintains flexibility in its ability to deploy an infinite variety of weapons systems with its aircraft, and remains without any successor to this day.

Author’s Background

Norman Friedman is a prominent naval analyst and theorist. Earning a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University, Friedman specializes in strategic and technical issues, has consulted with various U.S. government agencies, and has served as the deputy director of national security studies at the Hudson Institute. His six-book series on U.S. warship design, of which this book is part, has been highly regarded as a standard reference on U.S. naval warship development.

Critical Observations

Positives

This book is a very detailed look at the design and development of U.S. aircraft carriers. Much of the discussion is focused on the growing size (and expense) of carriers insofar as they needed to accommodate larger aircraft and air groups.

The book is well illustrated with extensive use of photos and very clean line drawings by A.D. Baker. Whereas WWII saw the need for larger carriers due to the need for larger air groups, the advent of jet aircraft postwar saw aircraft size increase and necessitated the addition of angled flight decks to existing large carriers and the building of the Forrestal-class; the first supercarriers and the predecessor to today’s supercarriers.

Additional discussion is devoted to the improvement in carrier technology, specifically related to upgrading the catapults and arresting gear, as well as the air defense capabilities of the ship. Being large capital ships, aircraft carriers also need large powerplants for propulsion, which is also discussed.

Negatives

As with just about every of Friedman’s books I’ve read, my biggest issue is the writing and editing. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Friedman’s writing, but I find it to be fairly dry and with abrupt transitions. It just doesn’t flow very smoothly and the organization leaves something to be desired. The narrative tends to jump from subject to subject without much in the way of transitions and there’s a complete lack of subheadings to inform the reader of the topic.

Those looking for a discussion on aircraft carrier operations, tactics, weapons, or specific aircraft will be disappointed. Much of the text is filled with information on details like flight deck length, hangar size, where to put the boiler uptakes, how thick to make the flight deck, and Congressional funding for the carriers. But that’s par for the course when it comes to Friedman’s design history books.

My biggest problem with this book, apart from the writing, is that it feels really decontextualized. Since there’s little discussion on carrier aircraft and their operations, the design of aircraft carriers comes off as happening in a vacuum. Rather than discussing these ships as part of a weapons system, it comes off as these ships merely happening to have aircraft on them rather than the air groups being an integral part of their ability to project power. In comparison, Norman Polmar’s two-volume study of aircraft carriers, while not as focused on the design details, contextualizes their construction and service. Friedman’s book is much more focused on the fiscal and technological aspects of the design. Given that Friedman’s book is also older, the information is a little dated, and the reader may wonder why the book just stops with the Nimitz-class and the amphibious assault ships. Again, Polmar’s books were revised and republished to include info up to the early 2000s. I feel that Polmar is a better writer and his books provide better context for the ships under examination.

Whereas other Friedman design history books discuss the advancing technology of warships concerning their weapons and sensors, and in some ways how that led to doctrinal changes, this book is mostly devoid of any such information. For example, his book on postwar submarines has large sections covering sonar and fire control, and his book on battleships examines changing armor schemes and gun size. In contrast, this book references changing radar technology and anti-aircraft weapons, but it’s mostly limited to the fact that these systems were upgraded to better versions.

The final chapters are an examination of USS Enterprise (CVN-65) the first nuclear-powered carrier, and the (then new) Nimitz-class. It concludes with a couple of chapters on the amphibious assault ships coming into service. Since this is the first edition of the book, the information on these vessels is fairly scant and it seems like these chapters were almost an afterthought. I haven’t read the revised edition, so I can’t comment on the quality of it; however, several reviewers have commented that the paperback versions are poor reprints with lower-quality photos and drawings. Even the typos are the same. While some say that the added information about the Gerald R. Ford-class is worthwhile, others say it’s not enough to justify the cost.

Evaluation (Does the content support the thesis?)

Despite my criticisms, this is another good Norman Friedman design history on U.S. warships. The text is highly detailed but tends to be rather dry. The narrative is also choppy and could use another round of editing, but this book is second to none when it comes to those researching the design of U.S. aircraft carriers.