So much for the long dream of bringing an aircraft carrier back to Mayport....
QuoteVisiting the USS Gerald R. Ford two years ago, U.S. President Donald Trump extolled the importance of an enlarged naval force featuring a dozen aircraft carriers—including the Ford, the most expensive ship ever built.
Having 12 of these behemoths—sometimes accompanied by a half-dozen other ships—would send an international signal of U.S. resolve and restore the fleet to its post-Cold War size during the 1990s.
The Pentagon's latest budget proposal, however, seems to do the opposite.
The Defense Department is seeking to—at least for now—shrink the carrier fleet, proposing that the USS Harry Truman be effectively decommissioned in 2024. This would mean that a multibillion-dollar, nuclear-powered super-carrier deployed in 2000 would be mothballed two decades before the end of its service life.
Full article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-21/navy-bid-to-retire-truman-stirs-debate-over-aircraft-carriers
Home port of current aircraft carriers:
Norfolk (6)
San Diego (2)
Bremerton, WA (2)
Yokosuka, Japan (1)
Still doesn't make sense to have the entire Atlantic fleet of aircraft carriers in a single port, regardless of the number of flat-tops.
How many cars can be parked on a decommissioned aircraft carrier...I'm done, just had to put it out there. It's a flat surface tho!
It's a power play by the Navy to try to get more funding. "If you don't give me more money we can't perform the needed maintance on this boat and will have to retire it earlier than planned" sort of thing. The Navy pulled the same thing in the face of budget cuts during the Obama era.
Interesting... Navy wants smaller ships while cruise lines can't build them big enough. Some cruise ships are already on par with carriers for size.
How about converting a retired carrier into a cruise ship 8)? Check out this "almost" concept of the Freedom Ship [http://freedomship.com/freedom-ship-gallery/ (http://freedomship.com/freedom-ship-gallery/)]:
(http://freedomship.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/n2.jpg)
(http://freedomship.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/n15.jpg)
Quote from: acme54321 on March 22, 2019, 03:11:30 PM
It's a power play by the Navy to try to get more funding. "If you don't give me more money we can't perform the needed maintance on this boat and will have to retire it earlier than planned" sort of thing. The Navy pulled the same thing in the face of budget cuts during the Obama era.
This. The Navy has also stated that current number of carriers was not enough to perform required tasking or surge operations... 2024 is a long way away in defense department budget planning.