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Posted on 08/16/2026 9:27:46 AM PDT by thegagline
President Donald Trump's war against Iran is stretching the limits of U.S. aircraft carriers and leaving the western Pacific without one of the key American warships as China shows more signs of aggression.
The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. *** .***
The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program***. Instead, the U.S. is "doing the exact opposite" of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.
American allies in the Pacific are unsettled over the unpredictability of the Republican administration, Poling said, while Beijing “is quite happy with U.S. distraction, with the frustration of U.S. allies and partners."
*** Clark, of the Hudson Institute, said the squeeze on the nation's aircraft carriers stems from the lack of preparation and planning for the Iran war.
“If we were going to mobilize to do this kind of conflict, and we anticipated it might go this long, we might have done some changes to the carrier schedule to make sure more would be available,” Clark said.
Clark said the Navy has 11 aircraft carriers and typically deploys two or three at a time. But it could soon deploy four if the USS Theodore Roosevelt leaves San Diego for the Middle East, allowing the Washington to return to Pacific.
But the massive warships will need maintenance, likely causing a bottleneck at the nation's only two carrier shipyards. *** “We’ll probably have less carrier presence than we’ve had in the previous years because carriers will be lined up to get into the shipyard.”***
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
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That is not a military issue, it is a media spin.
It will be a great time for the PRC (China) to take the ROC (Taiwan).
Can’t wait for the usual suspects to decry NewsMax as ‘defeatist, anti-American propaganda’ for simply reporting on the wretched state of our military capabilities.
Why would China do that. They practically already control Taiwan with all their moles embedded there, and they can trick us into thinking Taiwan is still opposed to China so we can give them our best technologies.
China is never taking Taiwan militarily .
“...on the wretched state of our military capabilities.”
Could you provide us with some examples of that wretched state? After all, there are many, many components that would make our military capabilites wretched.
Could you also footnote where you got all your information?
Or is it just an assertion you pulled out of your TDS ass?
China has not started any wars in decades. China is busy buying land, factories, mines, ports, etc all over the world. China wants to own and dominate the world, not waste resources fighting wars.
Regardless of claims of mental health and supply problems this impulsive action has caused serious problems with days and weeks of action turning into months.
It is unrealistic that our carrier maintenance process is so labor intensive and drawn out that we can’t keep but 4 on line out of 11. If that is so it is horrible efficiency.
DoD looks more and more like DuD to me in the way it is managed or rather not managed well at all.
Carrier shortage will get worse, if the Navy has to rip out the EMALS and elevators systems on the Ford and replace them with steam, per 47’s order.
They will have to strip the ship down to bare essentials and rebuild it in its entirety because the ship, and others in its class, where never designed for steam. Figure another $10 billion or so just for the Ford. Then there will have to be years of sea trials etc before it would become operational again.
Pure Genius ...
We had 4 years after 2020 where the military was a gay and leftist clown show. Why anyone though we would be ready for a war with Iran when it was started is perplexing.
I suspect its less to do with efficiency and more to do with how complicated and complex the ships are. Not to mention union labor ... Only 2 shipyards does not help either.
THAT IS AN ABSOLUTE FALSEHOOD.
Truth: "47" wants the Navy to consider redesigning carriers starting with CVN-81 (to be named for Doris Miller) with steam cats vice the EMALS.
I think it's an ill-considered and foolish thing to do. However NOBODY, least of all "47", is suggesting to rip up Ford, JFK, and Enterprise.
Check again...Trump was referring to carriers under construction or planned for now...Not existing ships...
It will be a great time for the PRC (China) to take the ROC (Taiwan).“
Not going to happen. China is watching the grind that is Ukraine and the Rubrics cube of Iran. Taiwan will is being taken slowly without a shot.
New piping to the Catapult launcher is required but doesn't appear to be a huge modification for new or retrofitted carriers.
Sounds like the key problem is "only two carrier shipyards." We need more naval shipyards that can work on ships their size. Not only size-wise, but we may need additional infrastructure for unique (eg. nuclear) features of these ships. But more places where they fit, to do even more generic repairs, could be key in a wartime emergency. Recall Pearl's ability to patch Yorktown super fast won Midway. More places that can do more common maintenance tasks will keep more of the carriers in active service. Obviously expanding shipyards is very expensive, but compare the return from investments in building new carriers to the return in keeping more old ones active. Suspect there's a lot where the latter offers a better return. And the benefits from increased naval shipyard capacity are not limited to carrier maintenance.
If China was going to take Taiwan, they would have done it when Biden was the “President”.
All-new steam piping and the large piston systems, among other elements, would have to be installed in spaces not currently designed to accommodate them. The ship’s flight deck would have been reconfigured, as well.
I disagree. Is the only solution to spend more money on more shipyards that probably are downright and consistently inefficient?
The Yorktown was repaired in less than 72 hours in only ONE shipyard by people who pulled all the stops and worked their butts off. Doubt very much we see either in action now.
Just building more ship yards is the equivalent of spending more money for education because we are graduating stupid children from terrible schools.
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