USS Constellation headed for Texas scrapyard

FoxNews.com ^ | June 14, 2014 | FoxNews.com

[WhiskeyX]

The Navy announced Friday that a $3 million contract has been awarded to International Shipbreaking Limited for the towing, dismantling and recycling of the USS Constellation, a ship first used in the Vietnam War, and last deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The ship, nicknamed “Connie” by its crew, is part of the Navy’s five-year scrapping plan that also sent the USS Forrestal and the USS Saratoga to Brownsville for dismantling.

[SeeSharp]

Interesting. I thought Independence was the last conventional powered carrier in service. I remember there was some hoopla about it when they replaced it at its home port in Japan with a nuclear powered carrier. Rumsfeld told the Japanese sorry it’s what we’ve got.

[Lower Deck]

A complete shame. Obozo and the leftist want to make sure they can never be decommissioned.

Returned into commission for what? She was 41 years old and worn out. Money would be better spent on maintaining the carriers still in commission.

Bozo rushed the space shuttle scuttling for the same reason.

Rather than rush the space shuttle into retirement, NASA under Obama scheduled an additional mission. The shuttles in general served longer than originally planned.

[Mycroft Holmes]

Seems to be a long road from decommissioning to razor blades. From the Wiki:

After 41 years of commissioned service, the USS Constellation was decommissioned at the Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on 7 August 2003. The ship was towed, beginning 12 September 2003, to the ghost fleet at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Bremerton, Washington. On 2 December 2003, the ship was stricken (formally removed from the Naval Vessel Register) when Admiral Vern Clark decided against expenditure of maintenance costs.

Constellation is currently in Reserve Category X, meaning it receives no maintenance or preservation, and only security against fire, flooding, and pilferage is provided. Reserve Category X applies to ships that have been stricken and are awaiting disposal by scrap, sale to foreign countries, as a designated target in a live fire exercise, memorial, or donation, as applicable.[14]

As of February 2008, Constellation is scheduled to be disposed of by dismantling in the next five years, along with USS Independence.[15]

As of 26 January 2012 the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command posted a notice of solicitation for the towing and complete dismantlement of multiple CV-59/CV-63 Class Aircraft Carriers in the United States, to include ex-Forrestal (CV-59), ex-Independence (CV-62), and ex-Constellation (CV-64).[16]

The Constellation will be scrapped at Brownsville, Texas in 2014.[17]

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[microgood]

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is going to dismantle the Enterprise.

[gaijin]

Gift her to Taiwan or the Aussies, I say.

[Nowhere Man]

My cousin served aboard the Connie ans Independence.

[twister881]

Can you still get a Cubi Dog & an ice cold San Miguel?

[cva66snipe]

It's a sad end but the truth is mothballed conventionals can't be restored because of structural, time, and cost restraints. The Navy could in a pinch using the last conventional plan put out a 1200 PSI plant in a couple of years. You are not going to bring one out of the boneyard quicker. Boilers all 8 of them would have to be replaced. That means taking the hull down to the keel as the boilers are one of the first things installed in construction and the ship built around them.

These are not typical boilers. They are 1200 PSI systems {every modern super carrier except for Forestall had 8-1200 PSI steam plants}. Forestall had 600 PSI system. Those boilers with a leak the size of a pencil lead can decapitate or dismember you and you will not see or hear the leak. This is not typical steam it is dryer superheated steam.

One of the few conventional carriers that in theory had another 20-25 years left was America CV-66. Back in about 1992 - 1994 a decision was made to skip her S.L.E.P. Ship Life Extension Program for the last half of her estimated 50 years service life and instead decommissioned her. She was later sank as a research project for the USS Gerald R Ford project a new class of carriers.

The JFK the last conventional built will be in no shape for recommission either. She suffered substantial neglect on maintenance due to policies first put in place in about 1990 by Poppy's administration and approved by congress to downsize the Navy and military. First things cut were maintenance budgets then the very number of soldiers, sailors, Marines, and Airmen on active duty. It cost quite a few mid career service members their vested time in.

Anyway the military gained under Reagan was being dismantled by political pressures rather than practical reality from about 1990 on. The end result we witnessed at the 9/11 attack. For likely the first time in post WW2 history two carriers were unable to get underway due to maintenance/readiness issues. These issues were not cause by the ships Captain or crew but rather by defunding shipyard work. It continues still today.

We went from four carrier construction shipyards to one. CONNIE I think was the last carrier not built in Newport News Shipbuilding Company. She was built at NAV SY/NEW YORK aka Brooklyn. And that folks is the sum total of the Bipartisan congressional and Executive Branch dismantling of our Navy.

[Repeal The 17th]

CVN70
bump

[MasterGunner01]

I’d always hoped the USS CONSTELLATION (CV-64) would have been preserved in her home port of San Diego, CA. Instead, USS MIDWAY (CV-41) got there first. The old “Connie” was a great ship. She deserves to be preserved somewhere and not scrapped.

[riverdawg]

The Kennedy and the Kitty Hawk, essentially twins, we’re the last conventionally powered carriers. Interestingly, they were built after the Enterprise which was the first nuclear powered carrier. I worked on the Kennedy in 1968, helping to get it ready for delivery to the Navy.

[riverdawg]

The Enterprise is 50 years old. A complete overhaul would cost about half what a new carrier would cost.

[Lower Deck]

The Enterprise is 50 years old. A complete overhaul would cost about half what a new carrier would cost.

And you would add, maybe, ten years to its life. A new carrier is good for the next 50 years.

[cva66snipe]

The Kennedy and the Kitty Hawk, essentially twins, we’re the last conventionally powered carriers. Interestingly, they were built after the Enterprise which was the first nuclear powered carrier. I worked on the Kennedy in 1968, helping to get it ready for delivery to the Navy

Construction order was Kitty Hawk CVA/CV 63, Connie CVA/CV 64, Enterprise CVN-65, America CVA/CV 66, & JFK CV-67. Kitty Hawk & JFK were their class name but three other carriers two CV's and one CVN built in between. 63, 64, & 66 were essentially the same except for one notable difference. CV 66 America had a Sonar Dome in the hull. It was taken out during either in the 1980 or 85 overhaul.

There was a rumor America was to be a nuke and McNamara changed the plan. Quite impossible to do as the keel had been laid before he became Sec of Def. The rumor IMO was likely created because for some reason an error was make on her blue prints saying slashed CVN with CVA 66 on some of the piping charts. I do remember seeing that on some chill water piping prints in Central and thinking it odd.

JFK would have fallen under McNamara scrutiny, was created as a separate class conventional the first and only Kennedy class carrier, and built later and contract awarded under LBJ. Award Date: 04/30/1964. America was ordered under Ike's tenure and Keel laid 01/09/1961.

[riverdawg]

“I do remember seeing that on some chill water piping prints in Central and thinking it odd.”

Thanks for the correction. I had obviously confused the America and Kitty Hawk.

I believe the Kennedy started out as a Kitty Hawk class carrier, but underwent so many Navy modifications on-the-fly that it became essentially a one-off. I know that shipyard officials were constantly frustrated at the Navy's design changes. I recall hearing at the time that the JFK had also originally been designed to be nuclear-powered. Any truth to that?

I saw some radioactivity safety markings at various places on the JFK. I remember laughing at the time, and thinking that that NNS&DD Co. had used some signs and piping covers left over from the Enterprise ...!

[cva66snipe]

If JFK was at one point to be a nuke it would have had to have been before the contract was awarded and keel laid. If there was such a change it would make sense because Nam was heating up. When America was awarded and keel laid Nam was not an issue. Once the keel is late it's too late. The ship is literally built around the propulsion plant with either boilers or reactors being first thing installed down on the 6th deck. The bulkhead thickness would also be different I assume. But the boilers or reactor is ordered way ahead of time and must be delivered and place inside.

The markings could have possibly been from where the yards do extensive piping X-Rays checking wields and for any wear flaws. The radioactivity is such it has to be done remotely IIRC. I know in our overhaul in 1980 we had a lot of X-Rays taken. I remember lots of warning signs on the entrances to the spaces being X-Rayed.