U.S.S. John F. Kennedy repair cost 3 times higher that planned(Clinton Era Military Alert)

GlobalSecurity.org ^ | 13 June 2003 | trueblackman

[Trueblackman]

Should we all be shocked?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

No.

[Prof Engineer]

Navy ping

[Rudder]

Keep it at 15 per cent. Per cent of what?

[justlurking]

A friend of mine was in the Navy, and I think he was stationed on the Kennedy.

If that was the one, he had some interesting stories about it. The Kennedy was originally supposed to be nuclear powered, but at some point late in the process, they decided to make it an oil-burner instead, purportedly to save money.

But, the late change meant that a lot of the mechanicals were in the "wrong" place, leading to a lot of jury-rigging and continuing maintenance headaches.

Plus, the unexpected exhaust stack was now too close to the radar antenna. Soot coats the antenna and degrades its performance, requiring cleaning or replacement more often than planned.

His contention was they had already spent far more money in extra maintenance than they saved by eliminating the nuclear reactor. And that was back in the mid-80's.

[stuartcr]

All true, it was and still is a bad-luck ship from the beginning.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The primary reason that the Kennedy was not decomissioned when her sister ship was (USS America, CV-66 and only a couple of years older), is the name. She ought to be decomissioned and the money put toward a new nuclear aircraft carrier. (The Kennedy is conventionally powered.)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Ae you talking about the incident with the Moosebrugger?

[Trueblackman]

The Kennedy will likely replace the Kitty Hawk and that is why she will be 50 years old at the time of her decommissioning. I say decomission her now and bring back either the Midway or Independence, the JN took good care of both and they are in great shape in mothballs.

[bribriagain]

"All true, it was and still is a bad-luck ship from the beginning"

I served on board the Kennedy back in 1976 and she was in bad shape then.

[stuartcr]

That and all the other incidents. I was on from '72-'77, and you would not believe the number of incidents that ship had....collisions, men-overboard, fires, plane losses, loss of lives, racial incidents, missile losses, etc.

[Blood of Tyrants]

There was some specification on with the Midway that prevented F-14's from being deployed on it. Up until it was decomissioned it had a couple of F-4 squadrons attached to it. It is too old any way at nearly 60. The Indy, maybe.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If she's an oil burner, she's one of the last US vessels to run this way. Nothing is as dirty as N6 fuel oil (unless it'd be coal).

[Trueblackman]

The Midway can haldle the F/A-18 as she had 3 squadrons before decommissioning and the only problem with the F-14 is the Midway's Hangers are too small for the tail like the S-3B the Midway has recovered and launched 14's in the past. The new F/A-18 E/F would make her just as powerful as any other carrier.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Would you want to be on a ship so old that a good many of the original plank owners have died of old age?

[Blood of Tyrants]

the Midway's Hangers are too small for the tail

That's what I remembered.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I'm guessing that the 15 percent is 15% of the total cost of the original carrier or the entire ship's projected maintenance budget. If the cumlative total maintenance cost for any piece of military equipment exceeds a certain point, buying a new one may be cheaper. One example is once 50% of the original price for a military vehicle is reached in maintenance cost over it's service life, it will be scrapped. The percent changes with the system.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I agree. People don't want to hear this, but nuclear power is so much better. It's much more efficient, the ship has better performance, and you don't have to refuel every 3 days like a conventional carrier. Nuclear power has a higher initial cost (installation, controls, and testing) but is cheaper over the life cycle of the ship.

[berserker]

Link to official USS JFK homepage.

[Trueblackman]

That is true.