Posted on 10/06/2021 6:20:38 AM PDT by Enlightened1
The US Navy sold two old aircraft carriers for a cent each to a ship-breaking firm.
The USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy had been decommissioned for years.
They are due to be broken up by a firm in Texas, who can make money from the scrap metal.
The US Navy sold two aircraft carriers to a ship-breaking company for 1 cent each after decades of service.
The cut-price fee reflects the fact the company will profit from selling the ship metal for scrap, officials said.
Naval Sea Systems Command, a US Navy sub-organization, said it had agreed to sell USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy to International Shipbreaking Limited (ISL), which is based in Brownsville, Texas, USA Today reported.
Towing and ship-breaking is a costly process and the Navy has previously paid ISL large sums of money to recycle its ships, the Brownsville Herald reported.
"The contract values reflect that the contracted company will benefit from the subsequent sale of scrap steel, iron, and non-ferrous metal ores," said Alan Baribeau, a spokesman for the Naval Sea Systems Command in a statement cited by USA Today.
Both ships were launched in the 1960s and were capable of carrying dozens of aircraft. The Kitty Hawk was deployed in the Vietnam War and the John F. Kennedy featured in the Gulf War.
USS Kitty Hawk was decommissioned in 2017 and USS John F. Kennedy in 2009. Both have spent their time since being maintained in naval yards.
The ships are due be towed to Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping in the coming months, an ISL spokesperson told the Brownsville Herald.
Read the original article on Business Insider
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
CVA-63 Tonkin bump
“ The real money is probably in the bronze, copper and electronics(gold).”
And most of that is pulled before they get towed to scrape.
I imagine mooring fees on a 1000-foot long (derelict) boat are pretty substantial. At least they didn’t pay someone to scrap them.
On the other hand, they would have made very nice artificial reefs. And ships sunk properly (Lulu, Benwood, Hilma Hooker, et al) make for very popular scuba diving sites.
“The US Navy Sold 2 Obsolete Aircraft Carriers To Scrap Dealers For 1 Cent Each”
I fear today’s Obama Navy’s military acumen is as piss poor as it’s business sense.
Don’t be so sure. One of the reasons that the dollar is the world’s reserve currency is that it benefits from US military power, including our aircraft carriers. Use the dollar and ally with the US and you get US aircraft carriers on on call to help keep the peace. In effect, Medicare is solvent because of US aircraft carriers.
Seems the harder I try the more mester uped my righting becomez.
“Don’t worry, they’ll again see the ocean as carriers...except they will be under the Chinese flag as we’re more of a ‘service industry’ country now.”
The image of a WWII propaganda poster made for the current times (in a war with China) comes to mind.
Do you Part! and shows images of bearded and bespectacled millennials driving ubers, flipping burgers and tatted up dykes pouring beer from bar taps.
It’s wonder they didn’t give them to the invaders for housing.
Probably comes from the same idiot mentality Milley told Trump “It’s cheaper to leave them there in Afghanistan Sir than to transport out, Sir. ‘What? the $85BB of equipment?’. Sir, Yes Sir.”
idiots.
True. I saw a note somewhere that that work had started in 2017. Not sure if it is the same contractor.
The Kitty Hawk is still sitting at PSNS. They’ve been stripping it for years. Then, because of yet another lawsuit by the local Indian tribe, she’ll be pushed into dry dock and the bottom cleaned, prior to towing out to scrap.
.
No...
Our communist masters at work!
Just one more disgraceful action to be added to the thousands of other recent disgraceful actions...
The same JFK also tried or was preparing to wind down and get out, not jump in with both feet(LBJ did jump in) , to a regional war that would likely become nothing but a hellhole and a drain on this nation when it was already in the midst of a Cold War, civil unrest and itching for reform in its own gubamint.
Add the carrier’s fate to his scrapped legacy.
Useless hunk of metal? Not quite.
Modern US Navy aircraft carriers have only two means of ultimate disposal: scrapping in a US ship breaker’s yard or being sunk in the very deep ocean. The intention is to deny access to their methods of construction by our potential enemies since they incorporate lessons learned over nearly a century of building and operating this ship class; lessons sometimes learned at considerable cost in battle.
Here is a link to the USS America, one of the USS Kitty Hawk’s class sisters. She was scuttled in over 16,000 feet of water in 2005 after being subjected to four weeks of underwater and above water explosive tests:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_(CV-66)?wprov=sfti1
This is a very lengthy article and there is no hyperlinked index. Scroll directly to the bottom of the entry then scroll up to the section labeled Post Decommissioning Service to read about the 2005 tests off of Cape Hatteras and her subsequent scuttling.
A final note. Contract law requires something of value be exchanged for payment. The $1.00 notional sale price is required to create a contractual relationship between the seller (US government) and the buyer (commercial ship breaker). By doing this, the buyer becomes bound by the terms of the sale which, in addition to the various US environmental regulations, probably include specific restrictions on access to the ship breaker’s yard and to construction details that might be uncovered during the demolition process.
WOW! I actually saw her there 13 or so years ago. Was attending the graduation of one of my offspring. The KH and the Forrestal were there.
Oops.
What’s that red coloed cylinder with fins doing in the corner over there?
5.56mm
“..the Forrestal were there.”
Nope. That went to the east coast yard. We’ve had The Connie, the Independence, and the Kitty Hawk all dismantled here prior to being hauled to scrap. The Constellation and the Kitty Hawk were sister ships.
I was on the Connie back in the day.
I looked at an old freighter docked on the Sabine once...decent size....450 foot....prolly 14 foot draft fresh water empty...7000 dwt
Auction
Swedes bought it....for around one million or four times what I woulda paid
This ship was up near the Port Arthur basin but I’m with you I don’t think ships go into Sabine lake
And the KH is big....35 foot draft.....wow
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