No one, it seems, is ready to let JFK die. Certainly not U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who has proposed that NATO take ownership of the soon-to-be-mothballed U.S. aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy. Not that they can afford the thing. Or have the aircraft to fly off of it.
Read the hilarious details in Aerospace Daily.
Hunter apparently envisions NATO operating helicopters and “vertical-lift aircraft” (ie, tilt-rotors, which no NATO nation besides the U.S. owns). While NATO has successfully pooled its resources to operate a small fleet of E-3 AWACS, and will probably do the same with future fleets of ground-surveillance aircraft and airlifters, it neither needs an aircraft carrier nor has the $200 million per year it would take to keep one in service. For the record, NATO’s annual budget is just $1.5 billion, a third of which comes from the U.S.
This is the latest — but not wackiest! — scheme to keep the JFK in service. Last year, when the Navy proposed axing the Kennedy to fund new shipbuilding, Rep. John Warner (R-Vir.) and his allies with economic ties to big naval facilities tried a million and one things to save the old ship. The loopiest scheme involved foisting the flattop on the Coast Guard — yes, that Coast Guard — for use as a mobile disaster-relief base.
Madness.
For the record: while cost-effective in terms of their ability to persist in hostile environments and put lots of bombs on targets, carriers are enormously expensive and manpower-intensive. Except for long-term, high-intensity operations, they’re not worth the hundreds of millions of dollars annually it takes just to keep them afloat. That’s why only the U.S. Navy (and soon the Royal Navy) operates large carriers. If the Coast Guard were to take on a carrier, it would have to abandon its long-overdue Deepwater shipbuilding plan.
Besides, disaster relief is a secondary role that carriers in Navy service can undertake while working up for or winding down from combat deployments. Keeping a carrier on Coast Guard retainer would mean a very expensive vessel doing nothing for 11 months out of the year.
NATO cannot afford a carrier any more than the Coast Guard can. Nor does NATO need a carrier when member states such as the U.S., Great Britain, France, Spain and Italy already contribute large and small carriers to NATO operations.
But this isn’t really about giving NATO carrier capability. This is about sour grapes. Hunter: “Typically the United States brings the T-bone steaks and some of our allies bring the plastic forks. The John F. Kennedy might be a center for … inspiring our allies to do more with respect to defense.“
Yes, it’s true that most of our NATO allies spend less of their GDP on defense than we and the Brits do. A serious commitment to collective defense is in order. But saddling the cash-strapped alliance with an old, redundant aircraft carrier is not going to help.
In fact, it would only hurt.
The JFK’s ship has sailed (ha ha). Let her go.
–David Axe
Duncan Hearts JFK, Hates Cash
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
“vertical-lift aircraft”
Err… the Brits have something that falls in that category. You might have heard of it.
Now, while I think buying an old conventional carrier is silly, I do think the Brits would have been better off to queue up for a new carrier from us instead of building half-size carriers, but that quickly becomes a jobs issue rather than a defense issue.
“[O]nly the U.S. Navy (and soon the Royal Navy) operates large carriers.”
Well, the Frogs have the Charles De Gaulle, which is sort of a large carrier (but it’s such a lemon that they really don’t brag about it much).
Screw it. Sell it to the Chinese. They alread have a few older ones. Make some money to pay for those F-22′s that the AF wants so badly.
To address some of these comments … the French De Gaulle carrier is barely half the tonnage of a U.S. carrier, thus it remains “small”.
A Nimitz-class carrier exceeds 100,000 tons displacement. The French and Russian carriers are around 50,000 each. The Brit, Italian and Spanish carriers are even smaller. The new Brit carriers will exceed 60,000 tons.
And “vertical lift” has never meant jump jets, i.e. Harriers. The term indicates platforms intended to “lift” things, as in “(air)lifters”. That means cargo helos and their hybrid cousins, tilt-rotors.
The planned Queen Elizabeth class carriers rely on: JSF being available – currently we’re arguing about engines and software with our American friends
The French are supposed to be designing and building half the damm things – whoopie – another 20 years behind schedule and out of date when it arrives..
Pity we can’t afford a Ronald Reagan class which we could rename the Maggie Thatcher!
200 million a year, after you pay for the drydock overhaul that the current owners of the big John have been putting off for over a decade and has a very large price tag attached.
I think my cousin, Mr. Price, has it right.
Living in the NE part of Florida, where the JFK is mothballed^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H based, I’ve been surprised to read that one of the catapults is no longer rated for launching planes among other issues with the carrier. It’s a wonder it’s still in use.
And the folks around here are scared if it does go away. There’s talk about making Mayport nuclear support capable, but then, which carrier would be moved here?
Here’s a nice Google satellite that shows the carrier at base.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=jacksonville,+fl&ll=30.397975,-81.406159&spn=0.015454,0.033281&t=k&om=1
This proposal is simply absurd. As far as decks for VTOL and lift ships go, NATO has plenty in its fleet of LPDs/LHAs and CVS. What, anyway, are we meant to do with the Junk F. Korruption that we aren’t already doing? Who in NATO would get it – presumably one of the four European carrier navies, so the UK, France, Spain or Italy? Or the Germans? The Dutch have a big LHA – why not them? Or Canada? Or Latvia?
Or are we talking about some dumbass proposal, pulled out of the arse of the original JFK’s Multilateral Nuclear Force, to mixed-man it? Who would task it? Which aircraft would be used – F/A18s (which no-one in NATO outside North America operates), or JSF when it appears (and if you can guarantee the existence of JSF, then we don’t need the damn thing), or would we have to requalify Rafale for the ship? And who would pay for that?
Would the carrier air wing be mixedmanned, too? Does he even realise that NATO itself is only a tiny fraction of the member states’ defence budgets?
“And “vertical lift” has never meant jump jets”
Oh?
Really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_lift_aircraft
http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2001/articles/jul_01/x35b/
http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/publications/ingenia/issue20/Hutchinson.pdf#search='vertical%20lift%20harrier‘
Let’s make it into an artificial reef like they recently did with the Oriskany. Now, *that* would be a ‘ell of a dive…
She has done here expected duty and beyond,Stop wasting resourses, scrap her and take what you can.
It is so wonderful to know that all the small minds still are around. Let us not forget that history repeats itself for those that don’t learn their lessons. They don’t learn because they can’t see value in anything that got us here-
The Kennedy’s should make a museum ot of it!
save the j.f.k. carrier take it back to mass where j.f.k. was from.considering the enormous popularity,extensive media coverage and revenue it could bring to the boston area. bring big john home to massachusetts.
save the j.f.k. carrier take it back to mass where j.f.k. was from.considering the enormous popularity,extensive media coverage and revenue it could bring to the boston area. bring big john home to massachusetts.
how dare any of you orany one disrespect the U.S.S.Kennedy. Notice how I call her by her proper name. She has served our country and does not deserve to be be sunk for a goddamn reef for fish. Sold to europe or the chinese for money. Keep her in the fleet and do a total overhaul and new propolsion and update her on every issue. Or turn her into a museaum. Obviously none of any one who’s made disrespecting comment and insulting remarks about any vetern warship realize the importance of keeping carriers in the fight. Go to war like I have and hopefully you will understand
Why dont we refit HER to be nuke.She was designed to be nuke.She has the largest fresh water design because the U.S. ran out of money and never finished the nuke plant. Dont you think it would save the U.S. millions.Plus we were considered the best carrier because we had the name to live up to.Think we spend to much because of politicions and thier budies
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“[O]nly the U.S. Navy (and soon the Royal Navy) operates large carriers.”
Well, the Frogs have the Charles De Gaulle, which is sort of a large carrier (but it’s such a lemon that they really don’t brag about it much).
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