The US Navy emerged from World War II as by far the most powerful fleet in the world. And its strength was determined, first of all, by the fantastically developed naval aviation in 1941-1945, which in May 1945 could operate with 28 aircraft carriers in the fleet and 71 escort aircraft carriers! Of course, the US Navy officers were well aware of this, so throughout the Cold War, up to the present day, they have strived and strive to maintain the most powerful naval aviation forces in service. After 1945, these were mainly modernized Essex-class aircraft carriers, which were decommissioned on a large scale only at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, the US Navy introduced the Midway-class aircraft carriers after 1945, and a major breakthrough was the launch of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the fleet - USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which entered service in 1961. On the other hand, from the mid-1970s, powerful Nimitz-class aircraft carriers began to enter service, and only in 2017 were they replaced by the Gerald R. Ford ships. Of course, along with the development of the ships, the development of the machines that operated from them also went. Already in the 1950s, piston-engined machines gave way to jet machines - one of the first such machines was, for example, the North American FJ-2 Fury. During the Vietnam War (1964 / 1965-1975), the American airline was based on such successful aircraft as the F-4 Phantom, the Grumman A-6 Intruder or the Vought F-8 Crusader. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the mainstay of the US Navy's air force was already the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, Boeing F/A-18 Hornet or Grumman E-2 Hawkeye long-range radar detection aircraft. Currently, in the second decade of the 21st century, the US Navy is introducing the F-35 C Lightning II fighter and upgrading the existing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft.
