The fifth USS Saratoga (CV-3) was the second aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. She was commissioned one month earlier than her sister and class leader, USS Lexington which is the third actually commissioned after USS Langley and Saratoga. As Saratoga was visually identical to Lexington, her funnel was painted with a large black vertical stripe to assist pilots in recognizing her. This identifying mark earned her the nickname "Stripe-Stacked Sara."

She was laid down on 25 September 1920, as Lexington class Battle Cruiser #3 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, a division of the American Brown-Boveri Electric Corporation at Camden, New Jersey; construction cancelled and re-ordered as an aircraft carrier and reclassified CV-3 on 1 July 1922, in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armaments; launched on 7 April 1925; sponsored by Mrs. Curtis D. Wilbur, wife of the Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned on 16 November 1927, Captain Harry E. Yarnell in command.

1928 – 1940
Saratoga, the first fast carrier in the Navy, quickly proved the value of her type. She sailed from Philadelphia on 6 January 1928, for shakedown, and on 11 January, her air officer, the future World War II hero, Marc A. Mitscher, landed the first aircraft on board. In an experiment on 27 January, the rigid airship Los Angeles moored to Saratoga's stern and took on fuel and stores. The same day, Saratoga sailed for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She was diverted briefly between 14 February and 16 February to carry Marines to Corinto, Nicaragua, and finally joined the Battle Fleet at San Pedro, California, on 21 February. The rest of the year was spent in training and final machinery shakedown.

On 15 January 1929, Saratoga sailed from San Diego with the Battle Fleet to participate in her first fleet exercise, Fleet Problem IX. In a daring move, Saratoga was detached from the fleet with only a single cruiser as escort to make a wide sweep to the south and "attack" the Panama Canal, which was defended by the Scouting Fleet and Saratoga's sister ship, Lexington. She successfully launched her strike on 26 January and, despite being "sunk" three times later in the day, proved the versatility of a carrier-based fast task force. The idea was incorporated into fleet doctrine and reused the following year in Fleet Problem X in the Caribbean. This time, however, Saratoga and the carrier Langley, were "disabled" by a surprise attack from Lexington, showing how quickly air power could swing the balance in a naval action.

Following the fleet concentration in the Caribbean, Saratoga took part in the Presidential Review at Norfolk, Virginia, in May and returned to San Pedro on 21 June 1930.

During the remaining decade before World War II, Saratoga exercised in the San Diego-San Pedro area, except for the annual Fleet Problems and regular overhauls at the Bremerton Navy Yard. In the Fleet Problems, Saratoga continued to assist in the development of fast carrier tactics, and her importance was recognized by the fact that she was always a high priority target for the opposing forces. The Fleet Problem for 1932 was planned for Hawaii and, by coincidence, occurred during the peak of the furor following the "Manchurian incident," in which Japan started on the road to World War II. Saratoga exercised in the Hawaii area from 31 January to 19 March and returned to Hawaii for fleet exercises the following year between 23 January and 28 February 1933. On the return trip to the West Coast, she launched a successful air "attack" on the Long Beach area.

Exercises in 1934 took Saratoga to the Caribbean and the Atlantic for an extended period, from 9 April to 9 November, and were followed by equally extensive operations with the United States Fleet in the Pacific the following year. Between 27 April and 6 June 1936, she participated in a Fleet Problem in the Panama Canal Zone, and she then returned with the fleet to Hawaii for exercises from 16 April to 28 May 1937. On 15 March 1938, Saratoga sailed from San Diego for Fleet Problem XIX, again conducted off Hawaii. During the second phase of the Problem, Saratoga launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor from a point 100 miles (200 km) off Oahu, setting a pattern that the Japanese copied in December 1941. During the return to the west coast, Saratoga and Lexington followed this feat with "strikes" on Mare Island and Alameda. Saratoga was under overhaul during the 1939 fleet concentration, but between 2 April and 21 June 1940, she participated in Fleet Problem XXI, the last to be held due to the deepening world crisis.