Posted on 10/24/2018 1:26:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is continuing to evaluate a proposal put forward by the U.S. Navy to procure two nuclear-powered Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers under one contract as a cost- and time-saving measure.
“We are conducting an evaluation to ensure we have the warfighting capabilities to compete and win,” U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan was quoted as saying by Bloomberg News on October 19. “Any decision will factor in strengthening the industrial base and delivering best value for taxpayers.”
While U.S. Congress approved the block procurement in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, U.S. ship maker Huntington Ingalls Industries – Newport News Shipbuilding (HII-NNS), the Ford-class’ builder, has far failed to meet the U.S. Navy’s cost-cutting requirements. According to one U.S. Navy estimate, the service would save around $2.5 billion with a single buy....
(Excerpt) Read more at thediplomat.com ...
Gerald Ford was a deck officer on the light carrier USS Monterey, not an aviator.
But he did go through Halsey’s Typhoon and did real well in that event as I recall.
Just think of the torque on those center sections when that ship is in high seas.
Jimmy Carter was a very good submariner hand picked by Rickover to develop the weapons system on the 2nd SSN, the Seawolf.
Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew that joined other American and Canadian service personnel to assist in the shutdown of the reactor.
The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor.
But his father dropped dead and he returned to Georgia to work the peanut farm, later becoming governor and president.
He almost certainly would have made admiral instead he became a mediocre president.
twofer
Risky IMO.
The Age of the Aircraft Carrier may be over in 20 years. If not, some old ones can be kept going.
Military-industrial pork.
Indeed. It looks like two full-sized carriers, conjoined. I hope each "half" has its own "auxiliary control" room, for obvious reasons.
“We’ll make it up in volume.”
“He almost certainly would have made admiral instead he became a mediocre president.”
Would have been better for all of us if that had happened....
Aircraft Carriers: Great for sinking the Imperial Japanese Navy circa 1945. Very large and easy targets for anti ship ballistic missiles from peer and near peer adversaries today. Or supersonic torpedoes. Or cruise missiles. The Navy’s obsession with this obsolete technology is odd. Even fourth rate powers like the Iranians and North Koreans can threaten our ships... the Chinese can sink any within their theater of operations.
Over today. A cheap anti ship ballistic missile can take out our carriers and we have essentially no counter measures. They are useful in fights against tiny weak countries but otherwise way more vulnerable than they are useful.
I expect drone tech to lead to very inexpensive and effective counter-measures to those wapons.
And then, I expect drones to lead to better platforms than ACs too.
I first read about him in “Halsey’s Typhoon”
President Ford’s decisions saved his ship and the lives of everyone on it.
I was shocked
CV6 fought in every major Pacific battle except Coral Sea and won 20 battle stars. Almost every ship to bear her name has become a legend.
I wish the would revert to previous carrier names like Wasp, Saratoga, Hornet, Constellation, Intrepid, Ranger and Yorktown.
Much of those ship names have been used on amphibious warfare ships of the Tarawa, Wasp, and America class.
CVN's are more expensive so they name them after people that vote appropriations...
They are also very useful for staging raids, providing air cover, or insertion/extractions near places that don’t let us stage from their nations. The options that concern you are occur only in cases of all out war.
I like that....resurrect some of the historical ships!
I spent time on the original JFK, and I would rather see the carrier named Saratoga, Midway, Lexington, America, Kitty Hawk, Constellation, or Essex before John F. Kennedy.
I am sick of these ships being named after Politicians, even murdered ones.
They will get them out eventually. I don’t have any doubt of it.
We agree on this. Definitely Enterprise. I would like to see another Kitty Hawk or America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.