Hornet

13.3

Aircraft Carrier | U.S.A. | Tier VIII

Tech Tree Position

Battle Levels

12345678910

VIII

Special

Hornet — American special premium Tier VIII aircraft сarrier.

USS Hornet, the third Yorktown-class aircraft carrier, participated in the renowned Doolittle Raid and fought at Midway and in the Solomon Islands campaign. During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Hornet damaged aircraft carrier Shōkaku but also suffered several hits from air attacks. The carrier's power plant was knocked out, and a decision was made to abandon the ship. Despite nine torpedoes and several hundred 127 mm shells being fired at her by American destroyers, the aircraft carrier stayed afloat, but only until Japanese destroyers dealt the final blow.

Hornet was first released for sale on 15 April 2022.

Modules

	Hit Points (HP)	Armor (mm)	Armor (mm)	Main Turrets (pcs.)	Secondary Gun Turrets (pcs.)	AA Mounts (pcs.)	Torpedo Tubes (pcs.)	Hangar Capacity (pcs.)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
Hornet	50,000	13	102		8	30/4/8				0	0

	Maximum Torpedo Damage (HP)	Speed (knot)	Hit Points (HP)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
Douglas TBD Devastator	4,667	112	1,710		0	0

	Maximum Bomb Damage (HP)	Speed (knot)	Hit Points (HP)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
Douglas SBD-5		122	1,890		0	0

	Maximum Speed (knot)		Research price (exp)	Purchase price ()
Propulsion: 120,000 hp	32.5		0	0

Compatible Upgrades

Slot 1
Slot 2
Slot 3
Slot 4
Slot 5

Player Opinion

Performance

Warning. The data presented in the AA Defense sidebar section may be incorrect.
Refer to the in-game Port screens for more useful data.

USS Hornet is a premium American aircraft carrier with a large plane hangar and a tactical bomber squadron. However, the carrier's primary strike wing consists only of torpedo bombers and AP Dive Bombers. With these squadrons, Hornet is most effective against larger ships. All in all, Hornet’s planes hit hard, and are only hindered in combat effectiveness by her slower plane speed.

North American B-25 Mitchell
These tactical bombers are Hornet’s defining air group. Each strike consists of six planes with four high explosive bombs each. Like the Royal Navy level bombers, it is almost impossible for destroyers to dodge all of the 24 bombs if lead appropriately. As each bomb deals 2433 damage, even a single hit will heavily damage a destroyer and lucky strikes will cripple them. The high explosive bombs also have 42mm of penetration and high fire chance, making them very effective on capital ships. Expect good strikes to deal upwards of 20,000 damage, not including subsequent fires. Finally, despite their low maximum speed - even with engine boost - their high health lets them punch through most anti-air auras with ease. As a tactical squadron, these bombers come with unlimited reserves, but also a long three-minute preparatory delay. Unlike the tactical squadrons of supercarriers Eagle and United States, Hornet’s tactical squadrons will recharge their engine boost in flight. Despite these drawbacks, the B-25 Mitchell remains the most powerful strike squadron in Hornet’s arsenal. Captains should prioritize using this squadron whenever possible, mixing in other squadrons between tactical strikes.

Douglas TBD Devastator
These torpedo bombers are the more powerful of Hornet’s two standard squadrons. With eight planes per squadron and four per attacking flight, each strike drops four Mk.7 torpedoes. Like most US Navy torpedoes, these torpedoes have a slow base speed of only 35 knots. However, they make up for this with decent damage per torpedo (4667), a short arming distance, and a decent flood chance. Like Ranger, the torpedoes aim very quickly, which makes landing two consecutive attack runs relatively easy, especially with the in-flight repair active. Due to their high efficiency against capital ships, captains should prefer using torpedoes instead of dive bombs whenever the tactical squadron is unavailable.

Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless
These dive bombers are Hornet’s weakest air group, and mostly suited for attacking capital ships. With two flights of five aircraft per strike squadron, each attack run drops 5 armor piercing bombs, and deals up to 18 thousand damage. Unlike the German carrier Manfred von Richthofen, Hornet’s AP bombs have an excellent penetration on paper - 328mm worth - with good dispersion. However, due to poor training, Hornet’s bombers perform glide-bombing attacks rather than true dive-bombing attacks, resulting in a drop profile more akin to Royal Navy carpet bombers. This results in poor bomb hit angles, reducing the likelihood of penetrating citadel armor and greatly increasing the chance of ricochets. The small diameter of the bombs prevents them from overmatching 16mm superstructure plating. A long fuse time combined with a relatively high arming threshold (30mm) also makes these bombs ineffective against ships with low freeboard or thin citadel decks.

Because of these traits, captains should avoid using these planes in most situations. The poor hitting angle, small bomb diameter, and high arming threshold make them unreliable against most ships, and the low damage of each bomb results in poor damage on normal penetrations.

Combat Capability - Tactical Bomber Squadron

Similar to supercarriers, Hornet carries a Tactical Bomber Squadron in addition to her regular aircraft. Unlike typical tactical squadrons, Hornet's B-25s can regenerate their engine boost in-flight, and have access to the Engine Cooling 

consumable. While the squadron's speed is slower both cruising and boosting compared to her regular squadrons, they are significantly more durable and carry powerful bombs.

Requirements:

The tactical squadron is not prepared for launch at the start of a battle and takes several minutes before it is ready. The squadron also does not return to the carrier, the full preparation time must elapse again before it can be launched again.

Effects:

Tactical Bomber Squadron: Six B-25s, each armed with four high explosive bombs.
Tactical Bomber Squadron preparation time: 180 seconds

Pros:

Tactical bombers drop 24 HE bombs with strong alpha and 42mm pen.
Torpedo bombers drop 4 torpedoes with good aim time.
Bombers drop 5 AP bombs with solid pen.
Tactical planes have a cooldown but are unlimited in use.
Hanger holds many planes in addition to the tactical planes.

Cons:

Worst AP bomb alpha of all T8 carriers.
AP bombers use glide bombing attacks rather than dive-bombing, resulting in poor hit angles.
AP bombs cannot overmatch superstructure.
Worst torpedo alpha of all T8 USN carriers.
Torpedo bombers drop center torpedoes slightly ahead of the arming line.
All planes have low cruising speed.
Standard squadrons have very low health.
Individual torpedo damage is worse than on Ranger, having 900 less maximum damage.

Research

As a premium ship, Hornet has no module upgrades to research.

Optimal Configuration

Upgrades

The recommended upgrades are:

Slot 1: Air Groups Modification 1
Slot 2: Aircraft Engines Modification 1
Slot 3: Aerial Torpedoes Modification 1
Slot 4: Bombers Modification 1
Slot 5: Concealment System Modification 1

Commander Skills

It is recommended to use Alexander Ovechkin for improved Survivability Expert.

Note: Hidden Menace states that your planes reach safe altitude at 50% lower height which is not true because your planes are still vulnerable to flak, therefore the skill is bugged and not recommended.

Recommended Commander Skills
Cost (points)	Attack			Defense		Support
1	Last Gasp Completely restores engine boost for the last attack squadron.	Improved Engine Boost +10% Aircraft engine boost time. ★★★	Engine Techie -20% Engine Cooling cooldown time.	Air Supremacy -5% aircraft restoration time.	Direction Center for Fighters +1 fighter to CAP squadrons.	Search and Destroy +10% to action radius of Patrol Fighter and Interceptor squadrons.
2	Torpedo Bomber -10% torpedo arming distance. ★★	Swift Fish +5% to torpedo speed.	Improved Engines +2.5% aircraft squadron speed. ★★★	Repair Specialist +1 In-flight Repair consumable +10% its action time. ★	Secondary Armament Expert +10% flak and continuous damage -10% secondary battery reload time.	Patrol Group Leader +1 fighter to Patrol Fighter or Interceptor squadrons.
3	Sight Stabilization +7.5% aiming speed.	Enhanced Armor-Piercing Ammunition +3% damage from AP bombs and rockets.	Pyrotechnician +1% chance of HE rockets causing a fire. +5% chance of HE bombs causing a fire.	Aircraft Armor -10% continuous AA damage while in an aura. ★★★	Survivability Expert +25 aircraft HP per ship tier. ★★★	Interceptor Interceptors replace Patrol Fighters: +10% action radius. Invulnerable to fighters. Cannot attack fighters. Cannot spot ships.
4	Bomber Flight Control +5% speed all bomber types. ★★	Proximity Fuze -10% (absolute) to target's torpedo protection.	Close Quarters Expert Secondary batteries: +20% range -30% dispersion.	Enhanced Aircraft Armor -25% damage from flak. ★★	Hidden Menace -15% ship detectability range. -20% Damage Control Party cooldown. +50% aircraft return time.	Enhanced Reactions -80% time before activated Patrol Fighters or Interceptors attack. +25% action time. +50% cooldown time.
Key: ★★★ - Extremely Useful ★★ - Frequently Useful ★ - Occasionally Useful No stars - Not Useful

Consumables

Hornet equips the following consumables:

Aircraft Carrier:

Slot 1: Damage Control Party  unlimited
Slot 2: CAP Fighter

All aircraft carrier consumables are automatically activated.

Torpedo Bombers:

Slot 1: Engine Cooling 
Slot 2: Patrol Fighter 
Slot 3: In-flight Repair

Bombers:

Slot 1: Engine Cooling 
Slot 2: Patrol Fighter

Tactical Bombers:

Slot 1: Engine Cooling

Camouflage

As a premium ship, Hornet comes with Default permanent camouflage and a set of permanent combat bonuses.

Signals

As a carrier, Hornet has no risk of detonating.

Note: Carriers burn at 1% health per a second while all other ships burn at 0.3% a second. So even though Carriers burn for only 5 seconds for each fire, if caught off of DCP, multiple fires can be set over and over again making a carrier lose more health to fires than any surface ship within a short duration. Also, Tier X carriers have tier 6 fire reduction coefficient which makes them 30% more likely to be caught on fire than Tier X surface ships.

Recommended Signal Flags
Combat
Juliet Charlie -100% to the risk of magazine detonation.	Juliet Yankee Bissotwo -20% to flooding duration. ★★	India Yankee -20% to fire duration. ★★	Hotel Yankee -20% to damage received when ramming the enemy. +50% to damage dealt when ramming the enemy.	Victor Lima +1% chance for HE bombs and shells with a caliber above 160mm causing a fire. +0.5% chance for bombs and smaller shells causing a fire. +4% chance of torpedoes causing flooding. ★★★	India X-Ray +1% chance for HE bombs and shells with a caliber above 160mm causing a fire. +0.5% chance for bombs and smaller shells causing a fire. +5% to the risk of your ship's magazine detonating. ★★★
Juliet Whiskey Unaone +15% chance of causing flooding. +5% to the risk of your ship's magazine detonating. ★★★	Mike Yankee Soxisix +5% to secondary battery maximum firing range. -5% to maximum dispersion of secondary battery shells. -5% to secondary battery loading time.	November Echo Setteseven +5% continuous AA damage at all ranges. +5% damage from flak bursts. ★★★	Sierra Mike +5% to the ship's maximum speed. ★★★	November Foxtrot -5% reload time on all consumables.	India Delta +20% to the amount of HP recovered when Repair Party  is used. ★★★
X-Ray Papa Unaone +10% action time of a Smoke Generator .	Sierra Bravo +10% action time of Hydroacoustic Search  -10% reload time of Defensive AA Fire .

Note: Use of the Juliet Charlie signal makes detonation impossible.

Gallery

Historical Info

References

wikipedia USS Hornet(CV-8)

Ships of U.S.A.

Destroyers	II Sampson • II Smith • III Wickes • IV Clemson • V Nicholas • V Hill • VI Farragut • VI Monaghan • VII Mahan • VII Sims • VII Sims B • VIII Benson • VIII Kidd • IX Fletcher • IX Benham • IX Halford • IX Black B • IX Black • X Gearing • X Somers • X Forrest Sherman • ★ Joshua Humphreys
Cruisers	I Erie • II Chester • II Albany • III St. Louis • III Charleston • IV Phoenix • V Omaha • V Marblehead • V Marblehead Lima • V Rattlehead • VI Pensacola • VI Dallas • VII Atlanta • VII New Orleans • VII Helena • VII Indianapolis • VII Atlanta B • VII Boise • VII Flint • VIII Baltimore • VIII Cleveland • VIII Wichita • VIII Anchorage • VIII Congress • VIII Rochester • VIII San Diego • VIII AL Montpelier • IX Buffalo • IX Seattle • IX Vallejo • IX Alaska • IX Tulsa • IX Alaska B • X Des Moines • X Worcester • X Puerto Rico • X Salem • X Austin • ★ Annapolis
Battleships	III South Carolina • IV Wyoming • IV Arkansas Beta • V New York • V Oklahoma • V Texas • VI New Mexico • VI Arizona • VI W. Virginia '41 • VII Colorado • VII Florida • VII West Virginia '44 • VII California • VIII North Carolina • VIII Kansas • VIII Nebraska • VIII Alabama • VIII Massachusetts • VIII Alabama VL • VIII Constellation • VIII Massachusetts B • VIII Alabama ST • VIII North Carolina CLR • IX Iowa • IX Minnesota • IX Delaware • IX Missouri • IX Kearsarge • IX Illinois • IX Kearsarge B • IX Georgia • X Montana • X Vermont • X Louisiana • X Ohio • X Rhode Island • X Wisconsin • ★ Maine
Aircraft Carriers	IV Langley • VI Independence • VI Ranger • VIII Yorktown • VIII Lexington • VIII Enterprise • VIII Saipan • VIII Hornet • VIII Saipan B • X Essex • X Midway • X Franklin D. Roosevelt • ★ United States

Aircraft Carriers

Japan	IV Hōshō • VI Ryūjō • VIII Shōkaku • VIII Kaga • VIII Kaga B • X Hakuryū • ★ Sekiryu
U.K.	IV Hermes • VI Furious • VI Ark Royal • VIII Implacable • VIII Indomitable • VIII Colossus • X Audacious • X Malta • ★ Eagle
France	VI Béarn
U.S.S.R.	IV Komsomolets • VI Serov • VIII Pobeda • VIII Chkalov • VIII Chkalov B • X Admiral Nakhimov
U.S.A.	IV Langley • VI Independence • VI Ranger • VIII Yorktown • VIII Lexington • VIII Enterprise • VIII Saipan • VIII Hornet • VIII Saipan B • X Essex • X Midway • X Franklin D. Roosevelt • ★ United States
Germany	IV Rhein • VI Weser • VI Erich Loewenhardt • VIII August von Parseval • VIII Graf Zeppelin • VIII Graf Zeppelin B • X Manfred von Richthofen • X Max Immelmann
Pan-Asia	VIII Sanzang
Spain
Europe
Netherlands
Italy	VIII Aquila
Commonwealth
Pan-America

Games

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Tools

Hornet

Modules

Compatible Upgrades