In the early 1970s, the
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO),
Elmo Zumwalt, proposed that the US Navy build the
Sea Control Ship (SCS), a small aircraft carrier equipped with helicopters and
V/STOL aircraft such as the
AV-8A Harrier which was intended for convoy escort operations. The austere SCS design was heavily opposed by factions within the US Navy, including Admiral
Hyman G. Rickover and much of the Naval aviation community and plans to purchase the SCS were rejected by the US Congress in 1975. Zumwalt's successor as CNO,
James L. Holloway III abandoned plans for the SCS and instead proposed a larger and faster design, the VSTOL Support Ship, or VSS. Holloway hoped to develop a series of advanced V/STOL aircraft, including a supersonic fighter and a utility aircraft for Anti-Submarine and Airborne Early Warning duties which could operate from the VSS as well as from the Navy's existing carriers, although these types were never fully defined. A third variant, the VSS III, evolved by July 1978 as a result of a requirement to protect the ship's
magazines. In order to cope with the extra weight of the armor, the ship had a new hull form with less
freeboard but allowing greater speed. The final VSS III design was
long overall and
at the waterline, with a beam of and a
draft of .
Displacement was light and full load. As well as the ship's aircraft, two quadruple
Harpoon anti-ship-missile launchers were to be mounted on the
fantail, with two
Phalanx Close-in weapon systems were to be fitted. ==See also==