United States Navy

====World War I and interwar years====
During [[World War I]], the U.S. Navy spent much of its resources protecting and shipping hundreds of thousands of soldiers and marines of the [[American Expeditionary Force]] and war supplies across the Atlantic in [[U-boat]] infested waters with the [[Cruiser and Transport Force]]. It also concentrated on laying the [[North Sea Mine Barrage]]. Hesitation by the senior command meant that naval forces were not contributed until late 1917. [[United States Battleship Division Nine (World War I)|Battleship Division Nine]] was dispatched to Britain and served as the Sixth Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. Its presence allowed the British to decommission some older ships and reuse the crews on smaller vessels. Destroyers and U.S. Naval Air Force units like the [[Northern Bombing Group]] contributed to the anti-submarine operations. The strength of the United States Navy grew under an ambitious ship building program associated with the [[Naval Act of 1916]].

Naval construction, especially of battleships, was limited by the [[Washington Naval Conference]] of 1921–22, the first arms control conference in history. The aircraft carriers {{USS|Saratoga|CV-3}} and {{USS|Lexington|CV-2}} were built on the hulls of partially built battle cruisers that had been canceled by the treaty. The [[New Deal]] used [[Public Works Administration]] funds to build warships, such as {{USS|Yorktown|CV-5}} and {{USS|Enterprise|CV-6}}. By 1936, with the completion of {{USS|Wasp|CV-7}}, the U.S. Navy possessed a carrier fleet of 165,000 tonnes [[displacement (ship)|displacement]], although this figure was nominally recorded as 135,000 tonnes to comply with treaty limitations. [[Franklin Roosevelt]], the number two official in the Navy Department during World War I, appreciated the Navy and gave it strong support. In return, senior leaders were eager for innovation and experimented with new technologies, such as magnetic torpedoes, and developed a strategy called [[War Plan Orange]] for victory in the Pacific in a hypothetical war with Japan that would eventually become reality.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Holwitt |first=Joel I. |title=Reappraising the Interwar US Navy |journal=[[Journal of Military History]] |type=Book review |date=January 2012 |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=193–210}}</ref>