Editing Midway-class aircraft carrier (section)

===1980s===
''Coral Sea'' was rescued from imminent decommissioning by the election of [[Ronald Reagan]] as president of the United States in 1980. Reagan's proposed [[600-ship Navy]] gave the remaining ships a new lease on life. ''Coral Sea'' underwent extensive refits to address the ship's poor condition. 

When the [[McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet]] became operational in the mid-1980s, the Navy quickly deployed them to the ''Midway'' and ''Coral Sea'' to replace the older F-4s. On 15 April 1986, aircraft from ''Coral Sea'', as well as USAF [[F-111F]]s from [[RAF Lakenheath]] in the UK, struck targets in Libya as part of "[[Operation El Dorado Canyon]]". The Hornets went into action for the first time, flying several ship-to-shore air strikes against Libyan shore installations that were harassing the fleet. During this action, the Hornets from ''Coral Sea'' attacked and destroyed the SA-5 missile site at [[Sirte]] which had been "painting" US aircraft with its radars. This was the combat debut for the Hornet, and incidentally marked the first combat use of the [[AGM-88 HARM]] [[anti-radiation missile]]. The Hornets attacked the SAM sites in bad weather and at wave top heights. All of them returned without mishap.

A 1986 refit for ''Midway'' removed her 6" armor belt and bulged her hull to try to increase freeboard. While successful in this regard, the bulges also resulted in a dangerously fast rolling period that prevented ''Midway'' from operating aircraft in heavy seas. The bulging was therefore not repeated on ''Coral Sea''.