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2009-05-13 Science & Technology

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Posted by Anonymoose 2009-05-13 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 Ok fine, now turn her into a floating hospital ready to respond in case of a hurricane, earthquake, volcano, etc. Replace the planes with helicopters, turn her insides to wards and operating rooms. She could still be a great asset to this nation.

Posted by crosspatch 2009-05-13 01:19|| 2009-05-13 01:19|| Front Page Top

#2 Sayonara, shitty kitty.

Posted by gromky 2009-05-13 04:17|| 2009-05-13 04:17|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm still rooting for us to sell it to India. It would leapfrog their technology far beyond the Chinese, who would then have to focus on catching up to the Indians instead of us, spending far more than they wanted to on outdated carriers.

Meanwhile, the USN would be increasing its lead.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-05-13 09:09|| 2009-05-13 09:09|| Front Page Top

#4 Sell her to the Japanese, paint her pink and rename her Hello Kitty.

Posted by DarthVader 2009-05-13 09:21|| 2009-05-13 09:21|| Front Page Top

#5 I'm with Moose and have been advocating this. Sell her to India for $1 plus the cost of refurbishing, that to be done in an American port. Let the Indians crawl all over her while that's being done. And let them buy some ~~Lawn Darts~~ F-18As to fly from her deck.

I'm betting the Indians could get 10 to 15 years out of her, and that's all they would need to learn how to operate a fleet super carrier.

Posted by Steve White 2009-05-13 09:34|| 2009-05-13 09:34|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm good with that. They might just decide to cut their losses and stop payment to the Russkies as well

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-05-13 09:37|| 2009-05-13 09:37|| Front Page Top

#7 The Kitty is 50 years old and millions of miles behind her. She earned her rest and will be available if the ball goes up.

Posted by ed 2009-05-13 10:10|| 2009-05-13 10:10|| Front Page Top

#8 I thought the Kitty was in Oakland/Alameda.

If not, what's the flat-top sitting there named?

Posted by mojo 2009-05-13 10:20|| 2009-05-13 10:20|| Front Page Top

#9 That would be the Essex class Hornet - now a museum ship.

Posted by .5MT 2009-05-13 11:14|| 2009-05-13 11:14|| Front Page Top

#10 Sell to India for $1 and the rebuild work to be done at a US shipyard (overhaul/replace nearly everything, like we have done with B-52's) is the dream result.

It pulls us and India closer, and gives them a grade-A presence in the region. Especially off the coast near Pakistan.

Posted by OldSpook 2009-05-13 11:40|| 2009-05-13 11:40|| Front Page Top

#11 Given the amount of money the Indians have been willing to pay, and the huge pile of crap they have been given from the Russians for that POS Admiral Gorshkov, plus the Chinese building a modern deep water port at Gwadar for the Pakistanis, I can well imagine the Indians being pretty dang frustrated.

In their shoes, I would build a completely new deep water port just for the Kitty Hawk and its fleet clones, as well as a major reconfiguration of their entire economy, and promise to be America's bestest buddy in the whole freaking world for 100 years in exchange for that aircraft carrier goodness.

I would schedule 20-30 years ahead for reverse engineering, and production of four or five Kitty Hawk clones, double the size of the Indian navy, and pay every book publisher a subsidy to crank out naval adventure novels oriented towards small boys.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-05-13 13:22|| 2009-05-13 13:22|| Front Page Top

#12 The engines and other systems on this ship must be at their end-of-life, in spades. And the boilers/turnines/etc. on it inherently require a large crew of specialists on equipment that is not in use anywhere else on earth. Its not going to be a bargain to anyone to run this ship even if they get it for $1.

Posted by Goober Phinegum8506 2009-05-13 13:33|| 2009-05-13 13:33|| Front Page Top

#13 Fair point, Goober, and I'm no naval engineer. Even if the Kitty Hawk can't do but limited sea duty the Indians would still learn how to operate a fleet super carrier. As Moose points out, it would be a major benefit to their naval construction and engineering education.

After all, if the KH was truly ready for the junk yard we wouldn't keep her in the reserve fleet, she'd just go straight for scrap.

But if this can't work, sell the Independence or any other conventionally powered carrier still in the reserve fleet.

Posted by Steve White 2009-05-13 16:57|| 2009-05-13 16:57|| Front Page Top

#14 The point is, even if expensive, it makes India a great naval power in a region we are no longer going to be able/willing to secure after the Obama Admin is done. A navy with one carrier is a navy with a target for its enemies to aim at (Argentina was smart enough to hide their one carrier in port during the Falklands war). A navy with two or more carriers is a real power.

Posted by rjschwarz 2009-05-13 17:14|| 2009-05-13 17:14|| Front Page Top

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