Forrestal departed Newport a few months ago.
http://photoburns.smugmug.com/Milit...orrestal/12579077_5sdVnT#!i=903251524&k=Wzi5s
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4 Elderly Retired, but Historic Grande Dames...
- Thread starter BusyBee604
- Start date
Forrestal departed Newport a few months ago.
http://photoburns.smugmug.com/Milit...orrestal/12579077_5sdVnT#!i=903251524&k=Wzi5s
Just flew over those guys on the way back from KTCM the other day...fun to see the yards on a clear day....
Once got waved off the old Yorktown because CAG was behind me in a Stoof and the Boss wanted him to have the even thousand landing. Good Lord, couldn't have an Ensign in a Guppy get that.
I was not...back in San Diego as a RAG instructor at the time. I made the 73 and 74-75 cruises.
Copy that ...thanks.
I think that decision had to do with buying MiG-29s instead of Rhinos and it's alot easier to learn flight ops with a ski jump than a thru deck.
There is also a very big size difference between them along with the requisite crews, the Russian ship requires a crew of roughly 1600 versus more than 5000 for the former Kitty Hawk.
Are these in some sort of reserve, in case WW3 breaks out, or are they sitting there without being chopped up/made into museums for no other reason than just because?
I think it's sort of like the situation with the Iowa class BBs after WWII that were brought back into service 3 times before they were all retired for good.
Good question, perhaps for future museums, which is a tough sell in this economy with most large cities in the red. Getting "rid" of an outdated, one-piece ~80,000 ton chunk of steel is a major PIA, and a very expensive proposition. The environmental cleanup, decontamination & towing/controlled sinking of ORISKANY as an artificial reef near Pensacola, cost major $$$.
BzB
*Photo of IOWA in tow from Suisun Bay to Richmond for refurbishment - Fall 2011
Just saw where USS IOWA (BB-61) has completed major all-volunteer rehab in prep for a new peacetime career as a Battleship Museum. She was towed from her place in the "Ghost Fleet" on Suisun Bay, Benicia, CA last year, to Richmond for refurbishment. She will now be towed through the Golden Gate, then south to her new permanent home in the Port of San Pedro, CA (LA area). IOWA is slated for official turnover to the Battleship Assn., on the 4th of July, 2012. Official public opening pending final touch ups, and resolution of fund-raising & environmental issues.
Another historic major Navy fighting ship beats the "steel undertaker"!
BzB
Some are considered strategic reserves; you know, just in case... But I think it was shown in Desert Storm that some ships are too labor intensive to break out of mothballs for an emergency. Due to the complexity of a super carrier, I think they will be nearly impossible to make operable again in anything you'd consider a reasonable period.
They also serve as a 'parts locker' for another carrier that may need something. I know the ex-USS Forrestall had her radar mast removed and installed onto another carrier about 2-3 years ago. I don't know which carrier got it eventually.
Capital ships, by law, cannot be scrapped in a foreign country. Trying to scrap a ship here is very expensive due to the enviromental mediation costs. Sink-ex's are also close to being cost-prohibitive.
Most of the carriers are available to become a museum but it's big bucks to do it. The ex-USS JFK was offered up to a couple of places, most notably in Boston at the JFK museum. The museum could not afford the cost of dreging the channel to get her near the museum in addition to the costs that are assocaited with cleaning the ship up and making it presentable. The ship will also need to be dry-docked for inspection every few years (I think it's 25 years) and who ever is using the ship as a museum has to suck up some of the cost associated with moving and dry docking.
Not many places in the world have an extra 1000' of pier space that is required for a museum carrier.
If you get to see the ex-USS Saratoga here in Newport, she is the test-bed for a lot of different hull paints. The ship has about 15 different color paints all over the hull and it looks like it's painted in really bad urban camo from the 1980's. So, while the ship may not in service, that's not to say it can not be useful.
