 Editor in Chief Bill   | 21 Mar 2019 6:54 p.m. PST |
…The greater versatility of the new Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)-class aircraft carrier will help offset decreasing the carrier fleet to ten ships…. link |
| Winston Smith | 21 Mar 2019 8:01 p.m. PST |
I kind of think numbers of competent vessels will count for much in the wars to come.
Even the Truman is qualitively superior to the competition. |
| Thresher01 | 21 Mar 2019 9:35 p.m. PST |
I disagree with the premise/conclusion. Lots of other ways to get the money for the refueling, including cutting aid to countries that loathe us, and vote against us in the UN. Also, the Ford has major issues, which last I read, had not been resolved yet, and are not known at least currently, if they can be fixed. If we still had F-14s and had the A-12 bombers, we wouldn't need the carriers to enter into littoral waters. A pity someone/many didn't voice their concerns over that more forcefully, before those were retired/cancelled. For "distributed warfighting", you need more, not less……. |
| paulgenna | 22 Mar 2019 5:33 a.m. PST |
Agree with WS and Thresh, we need to keep the carrier. Let's stop giving money to other countries |
| Rich Bliss | 22 Mar 2019 6:36 a.m. PST |
How much money you think we give to other countries? Besides Israel, of course. |
 aegiscg47  | 22 Mar 2019 6:56 a.m. PST |
"How much money you think we give to other countries?" Around 50 billion according to estimates, which doesn't include all kinds of incentives, specialized programs, military cooperation, etc., so there's money to be had. |
| StarCruiser | 22 Mar 2019 1:55 p.m. PST |
Ding, ding, ding, ding… Give that man a cigar! Truth is, there is plenty of money to keep the Truman in service. The Ford class has potential – IF – they can fix all of the glitches and faults. The solid and reliable Nimitz class has been holding the line quite well and most of them are good for another 10-30 years of service. |
| Winston Smith | 22 Mar 2019 2:43 p.m. PST |
It's almost like a zero sum game.
If we get a new carrier, we have to retire an "old" one. It wasn't always that way.  |
| Ed Mohrmann | 22 Mar 2019 4:41 p.m. PST |
One thing for sure – the bean counters in the Pentagon
NEVER LEARN… |
| Thresher01 | 23 Mar 2019 7:50 p.m. PST |
We don't "have to", but apparently some are floating the idea of "choosing to" retire it. Hopefully, this idea will be sunk quickly. |
 Herkybird | 24 Mar 2019 4:50 p.m. PST |
I fear western armies are going for a few good ships/tanks etc. probably for cost reasons.
The ol' Soviet Union went the other way to be sure, and found in Afghanistan it was sensible to use the venerable T-62 instead of the more up to date tanks in their arsenal.
As someone once noted 'Numbers have a quality all their own.'
The more specialised a weapon system becomes, the less flexible its applications…often. |
| Lion in the Stars | 25 Mar 2019 1:31 p.m. PST |
If they're not refueling the Truman, she's done. I was on a sub close to the end of her core life, and we were under some pretty significant power/operational restrictions that would probably make a carrier incapable of launching aircraft. Because of those restrictions, we spent almost all our time at 5-10 knots. But Lion, don't missile subs do that anyway, you say? We didn't even do many full-power torpedo-evasion drills, which really impaired everyone's ship-driving skills. |
| Ghostrunner | 25 Mar 2019 3:54 p.m. PST |
There I was at the con of my SSBN. We were at 5 knots and 300 feet. Do you know what happened next? Absolutely nothing. |
| Lion in the Stars | 26 Mar 2019 1:05 a.m. PST |
And the entire rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief! |
