USS Hobart Bay (CVC-5)

As the US faced more and more regional conflicts it felt the need to be able to quickly send US Marines and their equipment to different places around the globe.

As the building of new fleet carriers or Assault Ships would take too long and be too costly they decided to use commercially available ships instead.

The Royal Navy had already taken this path during the Falkland War using the container ship Atlantic Conveyor as an emergency carrier vessel.

The US Navy acquired 7 Colombo Express class container vessels of over 330m long. A flat deck was fitted and containers were used to shelter the aircraft on board from the elements. The main flight deck held AV-8 Harrier II aircraft, later replaced by the Lockheed F-35B.

The aft deck was used for various helicopters.