The Big E has set sail on what is to be its final voyage. Having served for fifty years, it is the oldest and best known American Carrier and the second oldest vessel in the fleet. The Big E is also the longest naval vessel in the world, a one of a kind ship.
Its sad to see her go. The Enterprise name has a lot of meaning to several generations of sailors and is the eighth ship to proudly bear the name.
Fifty years is a long time. She has served us well, and her replacement, the Gerald Ford is set for commissioning in 2015. The fiscal mismanagement of the national budget by ObamAA+ and the democrats means we have to make cutbacks in several areas, and its smart to cut the Enterprise now. She is a one of a kind, so maintenance is difficult. Every part is near unique, and requires hand crafting.
Many hope the ship can be converted into a museum. That is not likely to happen as the work of defueling her reactors will demolish a good portion of the ship.
The next carrier built will be the John F Kennedy, and a petition is alive to get CVN-80 named as the ninth Enterprise.
Report: Biden has Taken over 200 Actions Against U.S. Oil
22 minutes ago
4 comments:
For as long as I can remember we've had a carrier named "Enterprise", prolly have for longer than I've been around, but I wonder how much longer carriers will remain a viable show of force with sea skimming anti ship missiles like the exocet and silk worm. From what I recall the Argentinians sunk the Hermes with an exocet during the Falkland conflict. Rumor has it that it could have been worse had Maggie Thatcher not told the frogs she was willing to nuke the Argentinians if the French didn't turn over the access codes to the missiles they sold them.
Spartacus,
The Brits lost the Sheffield to an exocet. She was a destroyer. Exocets are a big threat, but have a limited range of just over 100 miles. an FA18 Whorenut has a combat range of 400 miles, and a max range with limited assets of 1250 miles, more then enough to keep exocets at bay. I am still a fan of the Tomcat. Its superior range, speed etc took the exocet out of the equation.
I believe carriers will remain an important asset in keeping harmful foes at a distance. I'd rather do our fighting in Afghanistan or Iran then here at home.
The new Ford class carriers are necesitated by advances in warfare that were testing the limits of the Nimitz class ships. Yes, they are the best in the world, but even the best need to keep improving to stay on top. We rested on our laurals a couple of times. It cost us hard.
Our carriers have proven their worth in many ways besides combat. We defend the world, but we are also the worlds 911 for medical, and our carriers have an amazing ability whe nit comes to disaster response.
Yeah, you're right about the Sheffield, I was too lazy to google it, agree with the humanitarian capabilities of our carrier fleet unless they're deployed to asswipe countries that welcome the assistance with the prerequisite that all training maneuvers cease while in their territorial waters, don't look a gift horse in the mouth fuckwads, but I'm still not sold on the long term usefulness of carrier fleets. ICBM's have been around for a few generations and they don't necessarily have to carry nuclear MIRVS. I've never heard of an exocet or silkworm effectively hitting a silo...just saying...
But don't you think lobbing nukes into the Shitholistan regions and Iran and Iraq is a bit on the heavy side? Me neither.
Post a Comment