I’m not qualified to make the observations you have. What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. This is being passed off as being of little value change overall. That’s bogus, and it gripes me considerably to see folks here act as if this is just a minimal tweak.
We’re not going to have crews trained to the best of their abilities. We’re asking for trouble.
The America needs constant attention. Commissioned in 1965, it is showing its age. A month before leaving Norfolk, a senior enlisted crew member complained to his congressman: The ship was operating on only two of its six electric generators, without radar and unable to pump fuel. This would be its third six-month cruise in three years, and without the standard 18 months at home for repairs, salt water and full steaming had taken their toll.
That doesn't mean the ship was in port for 18 months it meant it missed needed yard times. She did three six month deployments in three years an abuse of the other extreme. What the article doesn't mention was the boiler room explosion that happened a few days after returning to Norfolk.
These cuts started immediately after Gulf War One. America's Ship Life Extension Program {SLEP} was not done and the ship decommissioned at 50% of it's service life. I do have enough knowledge of that ship to say the conditions were likely. Why no radar? Because there was only two functioning generators. The electronics were heat sensitive. Two of six generators would only allow for lights, fire pumps, pumps for boilers, and little else. The ship had six - 200 ton, three 150 ton, and one 300 ton A/C unit. The 200 ton units took about 1200 amps start up and 220 amps at 460 volts to run. A/C was the largest single electrical load. No A/C? No Radar or other electronics. I worked on that ships A/C units.
Fast forward to immediately after the 9/11 attack. The JFK had at that time been used as a reserve carrier missing maintenance. The Kitty Hawk also lacked funding. Cutting the military was popular by every POTUS since Reagan's last day in office - present as well as congress approved all these cuts while expanding non Constitutional programs.
The America's lessons were ignored. The lessons of 9/11 have been ignored. This nation is well below a relative to needs of the era level of military readiness ever allowed in our nations history. Who did it? Both parties for over 20 years now.