10 May 2014

A Far Better Carrier Suggestion

Rather than scrap aircraft carriers for a penny, why not hand it over to the Aussies, or the Philippines, or South Korea, and teach them how to use them, to start building a solid naval deterrent to the Chinese infestation that's spreading across the Pacific. Heck, even the Brits might want to operate one 'til their next one is ready to go.

The 56,000-ton Saratoga was commissioned in 1956 and saw action off North Vietnam in 1972 and 1973.
In 1985, fighters from the Saratoga helped capture terrorists who hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean, forcing a jetliner carrying them to land at an air base in Sicily.
The carrier was also part of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and air operations over the Balkans in 1992, 1993 and 1994, according to Navy records.
The Saratoga will follow the former USS Forrestal to dismantling in Texas. That ship was towed to All Star Metals of Brownsville earlier this year, with the Navy paying a penny to the ship recycler under a contract awarded last October.
The recyclers make money from selling the metal they salvage from the warships.
A third carrier, the former USS Constellation, is expected to meet a similar fate soon, according to a Navy statement.

1 comment:

Brian said...

I would like to think that the Navy considered this option, before scrapping them for a penny.
Hell, they could have enticed Donald Trump into buying one, for use as a floating casino.
Perhaps the Aussies and Flips didn't want a carrier; those thigns are expensive to run, just to have another 30-40 aircraft you could put somewhere.