USS Belknap collision and fire

Destroyer Belknap collided with carrier JFK, hit below hangar deck; jet fuel landed on Belknap's aluminum superstructure and gutted the ship. Combined with HMS Sheffield (Exocet hit, Falklands) this drove ~$100M NAVSEA program at David Taylor Annapolis on waffle-steel superstructure to replace aluminum. Note in editorial register: Tom calls Sheffield "a cruiser"; it was a Type 42 destroyer — preserved as Tom said it.

The Belknap, a destroyer, ran into the John F. Kennedy in one of his early operations. It hit right below the hangar deck or the elevators that take aircraft up from the hangar deck to the flight deck. Some of the jet fuel landed on the Belknap and started a fire in the aluminum superstructure, and the Belknap was toast. The joke in the Navy at the time was that a couple of gallons of aviation fuel would wipe out any capital ship in the fleet. This was not long after the British Sheffield, which got hit by an Exocet missile — it's a cruiser. Aluminum fire in the superstructure wiped out the whole ship.

Destroyer Belknap collided with JFK carrier; jet fuel ignited Belknap's aluminum superstructure. "Gallon of jet fuel beat the Exocet."

You might say, oh, those silly British. Well, before that, the original JFK — the Forrestal-class carrier — the destroyer Belknap ran into the JFK on maneuvers. He was right underneath one of the aircraft elevators, and some jet fuel dropped down on top of the Belknap and ignited the superstructure. It wiped out the Belknap. The joke at the time was: the gallon of jet fuel beat the Exocet missile.

Belknap (destroyer with all-aluminum superstructure, 70s-early 80s era) collided with USS John F. Kennedy under a hangar deck elevator; jet fuel ignited the aluminum superstructure and wiped out the ship. Tom personal connection: Virginia Beach High School classmate's father was the original JFK captain.

When the Navy, about twelve or fifteen years ago, decided they were going to the littoral battlefield, they had to have fifty-knot ships, and they had to be aluminum. Well, they didn't have a lot of experience with aluminum in the Navy, and the experience they had wasn't very good. It was superstructures catching fire, and becoming a big flare. I told you about the Belknap disaster. Anybody else know about the Belknap disaster? It's in the book on disasters. If you're finished with that I'll take it back sometime. I do want it back, otherwise I have to buy another one. If you want one for the library you can buy yourself one — there's the Air Force disasters too. There's a series of these books.