Posted on 02/10/2010 10:20:37 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk is not up for sale to the Indian Navy as it has already “outstretched” its life, a senior US Navy officer said Wednesday.
"The ship was meant to last 48 years. It is in Wilmington (North Carolina) and not for sale. There is no intention to sell it. It has already outstretched its intended service life," Rear Admiral Allen G. Myers, the Director (Warfare Integration) of the US Navy, told IANS.
This puts to rest all reports of the decommissioned carrier being offered to India, which, at one stage, expressed interest in the vessel.
Myers, who once commanded the warship, said: "I am proud of her service. There is no other intention but to keep her in Wilmington."
At 82,000 tonne Kitty Hawk is twice the size of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov that the Indian Navy has bought from Russia and which is expected to be inducted in 2012 after undergoing an extensive refit. This apart, the keel of India's first indegenous carrier was laid at the Cochin Shipyard last year.
Commissioned in 1961, Kitty Hawk underwent three overhauls in 1977, 1982 and 1998. The ship's most significant maintenance period, however, was a Service Life Extension Programme (SLEP) at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1987. That rigorous four-year overhaul added an estimated 20 years to the originally planned 30-year life of the ship.
Decommissioned in May 2009, the Kitty Hawk's long years of service made her one of the oldest active warships in the US Navy. The carrier was replaced by the USS George H.W. Bush, commissioned in January 2009 and named after the 41st president of the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at littleabout.com ...
She served this nation well for 48 years and has earned her retirement in spades. The keel for this ship was laid in 1956 and launched in 1960.
The last thing I would want to see is this proud vessel end up like the General Belgrano (Formerly the USS Phoenix.) in a regional conflict.
With the Belgrano, she did not have any anti-missle defenses.
Correction: The Belgrano was sunk by a torpedo.
The Belgrano was sunk by 3 torpedoes from the HMS Conqueror, not a missile strike.
Historical footnote, it was the first combat ever seen by a nuclear powered submarine
See Post 4. I made the correction.
I know LOL, 40 seconds apart, I was typing as you were correcting.
Jinx, buy me a beer.
I would love to buy a beer anytime. Just name the place.
Everyone remembers just two major combat events from the Falklands War.
The sinking of the HMS Sheffield from the Exocet strike and the sinking of the Belgrano.
I agree. But it was the Sheffield that seems to be a event in the Royal Navy.After the ship was struck and her crew waiting to be rescued, the crew was singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Kitty Hawk had a tendency the last few years of dragging a screw after hitting a mooring buoy.
JFK missed a couple opportunities at going to the yards during the Clinton years, and a couple COs paid with their careers when the thing couldn't get out of port. It also had a reversed decision to move it to the Navy Reserves and back as a training carrier. It makes the Kitty Hawk look like the pride of the fleet.
If the Indians can make those aircraft carriers (the JFK and Kitty Hawk) work adequately for them until they can build their own, more power to them.
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It is quite surprising that the Indian Navy has expressed interest to procure USS Kitty Hawk considering that the transfer of INS Vikramaditya is back on track and also the indigenous Vikrant Class Aircraft Carrier is expected to join service by 2012.
"A group based in Wilmington, North Carolina is lobbying to bring the ship to the city after decommissioning and her obligatory time as Ready Reserve Fleet asset in order to serve as a floating museum alongside the battleship North Carolina.[24][25] At one time, the Indian Navy was considering the purchase of the carrier after its retirement,[26][27] but this was later rejected[28]. The navy has decided to keep Kitty Hawk in reserve until 2015, when the next nuclear aircraft carrier comes online."
That would be the USS Ford CVN-78.
Kitty Hawk in 2006:
"On 22 March 2008 Kennedy arrived, with the afternoon high tide, at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.[15] She is currently laid up in the Philadelphia reserve fleet. In November 2009, the Navy placed the Kennedy on donation hold for use as a museum and memorial. [17] A report that showed up in the Boston Herald newspaper on 26 November 2009 mentioned the possibility of bringing the Kennedy to the Boston, MA area, as a museum or memorial at no cost to the city, if desired."
Kennedy in 2003:
While that’s probably true, the Falklands is also very much a story of light infantry grit. The Brits were outnumbered on the ground, but had much higher-quality squaddies who saw them through.
A good read on the subject:
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Falklands-Hastings-Simon-Jenkins/dp/0393301982
Kitty Hawk is currently in Bremerton, Wa., moored alongside Ranger, Independence and Constellation, Admiral. It has yet to be towed to Wilmington.
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