They could pick up the Kennedy for a lot less than $3 billion. It's about 7 years newer than several of the carriers in the US fleet; the Navy had initially planned to use it through at least 2018.
Except that Big John is about 37 years old, now. That is a VERY long time for steel to be subjected to salt water.
(Big John Med Cruise, '86)
You don't want the Kennedy. It is in bad shape.
JFK is the third oldest carrier in the fleet. More importantly it never had the Ship Life Extension Program, whic on the basis of the 36½ life of previous non-SLEP ships gives it an expected out of service date of March 2005.
Is it for sale? If I paid cash could I beat the sales tax?
While we can argue about the capabilities of the SeaHarrier,the fact is that it can be considered the shield of the RN,given the limited capability of their SeaDart missiles,which are being taken out of service.The RN are planning to retire their SeaHarriers & replace them with a Jointforce Harrier,designated the Harrier GR-9,which is primarily meant for the strike role.This is ,well an idiotic move,given that their carriers will need to depend on the USN for airdefence for atleast 4 years(till their Type-45 class ships come online).The ironic thing then will be that the best SeaHarriers flying will be the Indian Navy's jets which are getting an Israeli upgrade with new radars & the Derby BVR AAM.How much more crazy can the world be!!