Do you even understand the different between Hull and Deck?? and what HSLA 115 and 65 were being used??
This is from page 22 of the GAO report
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-13-396.pdf
The hull of a ship is the most important as well as the most noticeable part of the ship. It is the watertight part of any vessel or even boat.
www.maritimemanual.com
en.wikipedia.org
In short, a hull is the entire watertight structure of a boat, a deck is to cover the hull in order to strengthen its structural integrity, a hull may not have a deck to cover the hull (in dinghy or most sail boat or row boat). And I was talking about hull, not deck.
In the old days, carrier used wood for their deck, but steel for their hull, because using armoured steel deck on an aircraft carrier is going to be top heavy, result in them being capsize. When Jet age come, you cannot use wood in deck anymore, jet flame will burn the deck off and you need light weight reinforced steel to be able to insulate the heat.
Steel would have been perferred hull material in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but it was replaced by Composite Material since then. Older ship like Nimitz built in the 70s may still use steel for their hull, it's no longer a material of choice since 90s
Ford Aircraft carrier is built twin hulls one for structure (Shell) and one for Armor the shell wrap around the armor, nobody in ship building industry uses "cast iron steel:" hull anymore because you will add a whole lot of weigh on the side and eat up the waterline, the armor may have steel composite in it (Most strengthened armor do), I don't remember the exact composition and even if I do know I probably cannot tell you.
Stop pretend to be internet expert when you know shit on the topic and only copy them from internet. My dad was Navy for almost 20 years and served on board a carrier during Vietnam, my brother was a Marine and fly FA-18 off USS Carl Vinson and my cousin still active duty with the USCG. When you can't even distinguish the term Hull and Deck and started to call people out, dude, this is embarrassing even for you