China’s new unnamed home-built aircraft carrier leaves Dalian for sea trials on May 13. / Xinhua via AP
The first domestically-built aircraft carrier in China’s naval fleet began sea trials on May 13, Chinese state media said.
The 65,000-tonne Type 001A aircraft carrier, which has yet to be named, left the shipyard in northeastern Dalian at 6.45 a.m., Xinhua reported. Continue reading
The US Navy received the first of its new generation aircraft carriers, USS Gerald R. Ford, on June 1, moving the $13 billion ship closer to becoming operational. It is expected to be commissioned this summer. Two other Ford-class carriers, the John F. Kennedy and Enterprise, are also planned. The ship can carry more aircraft, weapons and fuel with its larger flight deck and features the newly designed electromagnetic aircraft launch system. Once commissioned, the Ford will undergo a series of tests and is slated to be operational in 2020.
She carries 75-90 aircraft. Ships of the Ford class are intended to sustain 160 sorties per day for 30-plus days, with a surge capability of 270 sorties per day. Continue reading
Caption: USS Gerald R. Ford (U.S. Navy)
The most expensive warship ever built can’t go to war.
America’s new, most expensive, most advanced aircraft carrier doesn’t work properly.
According to a June 28 memo obtained by Bloomberg News, the $12.9 billion uss Gerald R. Ford “may struggle to launch and recover aircraft, mount a defense, and move munitions.”
“You gentlemen make life and death decisions in the Tank almost every day,” a somber Cooper said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, looking straight at Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Air Force Gen. Mark Welsh and Marine Gen. James Amos. “We are unwilling to even come up with a budget for America.”
Even the usually partisan HASC Chairman Buck McKeon, after offering a very short defense of the House and GOP’s actions on sequestration, spoke the truth to the Joint Chiefs and the packed hearing room: ”It’s not your fault. It is us.”
How bad will it get if the United States Congress does not reverse the Budget Control Act, the foundation of sequestration?
Three of the four Joint Chiefs told the HASC that they would not be able to execute the most basic strategic requirement of the US military: defeating an enemy in a single major theater operation. Only Gen. Amos, Marine Commandant, said his self-sufficient force could handle one MTO, but could not handle more than that. Continue reading
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