Posted on 07/16/2012 3:29:53 PM PDT by moonshot925
The Pentagon is sending an aircraft carrier to the Middle East several months early to make sure at least two carriers will constantly be present in the troubled region.
There are two carriers in the area now, but one was scheduled to leave before its replacement arrived to fill that gap, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has approved sending by late summer the USS John C. Stennis strike group, which also includes the Aegis guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay and some 5,500 sailors.
The extra presence was approved late last week on a request by Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, Pentagon press Secretary George Little said Monday.
Questioned about whether the deployment is a response to problems with Iran or perhaps the violence in Syria, he declined to be specific. Little said the need comes from a "wide range of security issues" in the region.
"This is not about any one particular country or any one particular threat," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Thanks moonshot925. Maybe they wanted to gas it up while the price was low.
I thought it was general knowledge that the Stennis was heading over there late Summer... it least it’s been known in my hometown (and hers) Bremerton.
$425/gallon isn’t cheap!
Navy Takes Biofuels Campaign Into Uncharted Waters
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2011/January/Pages/NavyTakesBiofuelsIntoUnchartedWaters.aspx
Since 2006, the Defense Logistics Agency has procured more than 36 million gallons of ethanol-and-petroleum blends for the military. The Navy in September ordered an additional 150,000 gallons of algae-based fuel from San Francisco company Solazyme. The new agreement is seven times the size of the initial 20,000-gallon contract awarded last year. The Navy is paying big bucks for these fuels.
The service consumes an average of 1.2 billion gallons of petroleum each year at a cost of $3 billion — about $2.50 per gallon. The service paid Solazyme $8.5 million to provide just 20,000 gallons of algae-based fuel —
$425 per gallon.
At that rate, it would cost the Navy some $142.8 billion for the 8 million barrels of biofuel needed to meet its 2020 goal.
Camelina-based fuel is a bit cheaper but still more expensive than petroleum. In September 2009 the DLA’s defense energy support center paid Montana’s Sustainable Oils $2.7 million for 40,000 gallons of camelina-based fuel. That comes to about $67.50 per gallon.
Watch out for a September or October, “Wag the Dog”. Obama knows only Chicago style political tactics. If his re-election looks iffy he’ll start a war in a jiffy.
Where is the big ‘E’ now ?
Arabian Gulf
This story is a mess. Where do they get their info?
The Stennis left Bremerton a week ago and is on a training cruise in the Pacific. They just came off deployment the end of March so an August deployment is possible.
The Enterprise is just north of the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, 5th Fleet, on duty.
The Abraham Lincoln just left the 5th Fleet and passed through the Suez Canal, joining the Eisenhower in the Med this morning and then on to Norfolk, its new home port.
It is the Eisenhower that is heading for the 5th Fleet to relieve the Abraham Lincoln in a few days.
We don’t have two CVN carriers in the Gulf right now.
Doncha worry! The Iwo Jima with the 24th MEU onboard are deployed in the Persian Gulf and just finished a port call at Hibb Bahrain a few days ago.
One of the turnovers is happening in the Med - this is about Syria...
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