Enterprise Class AEGIS 1980s Upgrade (NTU)
Built between 1958 and 1973, and serving as some of the largest warships in USN service during the Cold War the Enterprise-class are six nuclear powered supercarriers displacing over 90000 tons. These ships are one of the most threatening ways that the USN has to project power away from the US coastline. In the early 1980s, the Enterprise-class would be chosen to receive the AEGIS Combat System in place of the SCANFAR array, also receiving Phalanx CIWS, RIM-7 Sea Sparrow, and Mk26 GMLS. In the early 90s, the Enterprise-class would again be chosen for refit, replacing the Mk26 systems with two 32-cell blocks of Mk41 VLS for self defence. Despite cost concerns with Enterprise herself in the late 1950s and early 1960s, insistence by President Kennedy would see Congress authorize the remaining five ships of the class, with Enterprise’s first sisters, United States and Reprisal, laid down in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Three additional ships would be authorized and built between 1964 and 1973, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Kearsarge. Enterprise and her sisters would be the first ships to embark the new wave of American naval aircraft, the F-14D, A-7F, and A-6F. These aircraft would bring to the table new weapon systems, mainly the AIM-98A Seekbat II, an air-launched SM-2ER used on the F-14D, and the AGM-109 Tomahawk, found on the A-6F. The A-7F would also bring great speed and capability improvements over its legacy counterparts, gaining Harpoon capability and afterburners for supersonic flight.
This was another fun one to make, I felt Enterprise deserved a proper phased array radar and thus this thing was born. Because there is a VLS variant included, NTU is required as per usual, nothing out of the ordinary there. I definitely had fun making the improved air wing, the F-14D with the Seekbat II especially, very nutty to be knocking out Backfires at 200 nautical miles, looking forward to seeing the shenanigans you lot conjure up with them. Credit for the sponsons goes to MitcheLL600. For the sake of brevity, that’s all from me for now, enjoy.
Update Note: Latest update as of 2/22/25 has allowed the addition of custom textures without the use of SeaLifter or other dependencies, meaning these now include all hull numbers and names to go with. Aircraft also reflect the appropriate respective carrier names.
