The U.S. carrier America was sunk, off North Carolina, on May 14th, after 25 days of tests to see what effect various anti-ship weapons had on the 84,000 ton ship. The details of the tests, and the results, were kept secret. This is because the information gained reveal which weapons (torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and bombs) have what kind of impact on the ship. According to the navy, none of the weapons used sank the ship, as the actual sinking was done as a controlled sinking in 6,000 feet of water. The $22 million series of weapons tests, and controlled sinking, was cheaper than scrapping the ship. Environmental rules make scrapping prohibitively expensive.
The America served from 1965-96, after which it was put in reserve. No one has made an attack on a modern carrier (the latest ones weigh 90-100,000 tons), and several generations of new anti-ship weapons have appeared since the last time (1945) an American carrier came under enemy fire. Protection for these ships, and damage control methods, are all derived from theoretical damage from different weapons. Computer simulations have been used as well. But the navy knows that simulations and calculations dont catch everything, so the tests on the America were meant to obtain information needed to improve protection and damage control methods a bit more. This was the largest warship to ever be sunk, in war or peace. The previous record holder was also an aircraft carrier, the Japanese Shinano (a converted Yamato class battleship), that displaced 72,000 tons. Shinano was sunk by four torpedoes from an American sub, and went down largely because the interior of the ship was not complete, and all the compartments were not yet water tight.
