Forty years ago, the USS Midway entered Drydock Six in Yokosuka, Japan for its third and final rebuild. Like the two prior modernization programs in 1955 and the late 1960s, this Extended Incremental Selected Availability (EISRA) was prompted by advances in carrier aviation and naval warfare, and by an urgent attempt at strengthening Midway’s increasingly over-burdened hull.
Like her previous rebuild 16 years earlier, this makeover was laced with controversy, not just over costs, but over the nature of the ship’s hull improvements. Pulling directly into the drydock from her latest deployment in March 1986, Midway’s metamorphosis stretched to the end of November. Carried out primarily by the artisans of Sumitomo Heavy Industries, the work was so pervasive around the carrier that the Midway’s crew had to be berthed on an old troop transport, the USS General Hugh J. Gaffey (IX-507).
By the mid-1980s carrier aviation had replaced the bridal launching method with aircraft able to use a tow bar on the nose gear assembly. Additionally, the venerable F-4 Phantom II and A-7 Corsair II of the Vietnam era were replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet, which combined the fighter and attack roles. Not only did this new design employ the tow bar, but the Hornet also featured new avionics and composite materials in its airframe. Furthermore, the Hornet’s engines burned much hotter than the older jets flying from Midway which required more robust jet blast deflectors behind the catapults.
A solution to the hull problem involved the installation of some 70 steel modules attached to the sides of the ship. This increased her beam by some 20 feet, and increased buoyancy that restored the ship’s designer’s draft.
Additional modifications were made as well to the rudders and catapults. All told, the upgrades made the Midway a more effective carrier for the late Cold War, but the ship’s movement in a seaway produced sharp rolls that impeded operations in rough seas. This brought about Congressional scrutiny and an admission from the Naval Sea Systems Command that the “blistering” of the hull descended from miscalculations. Completed two days early, and under budget, EISRA ’86 ultimately produced the ship the USS Midway Museum has come to know.
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