Japan welcomes deployment of US aircraft carrier
Japan’s government welcomed Friday the announcement that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington will arrive later this month at its new home base south of Tokyo.
The George Washington, which can carry a crew of up to 5,600 and 70 aircraft, will replace the USS Kitty Hawk as the U.S. Navy’s only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier. It is to arrive on Sept. 25 at the port of Yokosuka.
“The government of Japan welcomes the arrival of the USS George Washington, as the continuous strong presence of the U.S. Navy will contribute to the security of Japan and the maintenance of peace and security of the region,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In much the same way that a dog may be said to welcome his fleas.
US Navy cmdr dismisses Russia bombers as US threat
The commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet said Thursday his forces were keeping an eye on Russian Blackjack bombers that have landed in Venezuela for training exercises — but he dismissed the deployment as a major challenge to the United States.
The Russian bombers flew down to Venezuala in order to provide humanitarian assistance to Caribbian countries hit by a series of hurricanes over the last few weeks. No, wait: That’s the USS Kearsarge – which, so far as I can tell is, very nearly, the whole Fourth Fleet – delivering humanitarian assistance, bombers don’t usually do that sort of thing.
The Blackjacks are down this a-way’s to podner up with Venezuelan proto-fascist Hugo (“Don’t call me ‘hew-go’”) Chavez, who sees the reinstitution of the US Fourth Fleet as some kind of threat to his fervid regional aspirations.
In this way, Russian leadership counterbalances US humanitarian assistance to recently dismembered, democratically governed Georgia.
Hey, when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Contract awarded for first carrier of new class
And the winner is:
The Navy awarded Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding a $5.1 billion contract Wednesday to begin construction of the first ship of a new class of aircraft carrier.
Northrop’s Newport News, Va., shipyard will build the carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), lead ship of the first new class of nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carriers in more than four decades.
No doubt NGC – known chiefly for building airplanes and UAVs – earned the Navy’s confidence through their brilliant performance on the LPD-17 contract.
God Lex, you are good. It’s why we keep coming back.
Kind of apples and oranges isn’t it? Newport News is the only yard in the country that can build nuclear carriers anymore-and I thought they had a pretty good track record on carriers. Most of the overruns that I recall came from Navy changes to specs et al.
IIRC the yard that makes LPD-17 is one NGC took over in a buyout kind of thing-but I could be wrong.
As chokingly as I say this, Skippy is right. In fact, NG just rolled the Gulf Coast shipyards under the folks at NN to try to solve the problems.
The “Gerald R Ford” Yeah, that’s a fighting name fer sure — put it at the top of my dreamsheet.
where they’re building it, isn’t that kind of near Chevy Chase? how appropriate! maybe he’ll come to the commissioning ceremony.
Well, considering it’s the *only* shipyard building carriers, much less nuke carriers, who else was going to get the award? And NN has a pretty good track record at least since the 3rd Nimitz class-CVN (Vinson) for costs once all the perturbations of a new class get settled. Nimitz and Ike had “issues”…
And yeah, would’ve preferred that the next gen carriers start off with a new naming convention,(Midway/Coral Sea anyone?) but that’s black water out the bilge…
- SJS
Oh and RRM – it’s 137 nm as the crow flies from Chevy Chase to NN. But short of the Resurrection, I don’t think Gerry ’s going to be coming to the commissioning…
Should have been named America!
SJS, I think he meant comedian Chevy Chase, who of course was famous for his portrayal of Ford’s stumble down the stairs of AF1.
Ford wouldn’t have been my choice for a carrier class name, but he ain’t bad. He had a great record as a non-flying officer on one of the light carriers, either Monterey or San Jacinto.
Langley. Franklin. Intrepid. Hornet.
Impeccable carrier pedigrees all, and they haven’t been used for quite some time.
Also, Oriskany and Shangri-La; “pure” carrier names, having only ever been used once.
Goram it, they deserve to grace carriers once again.
Yup. I don’t like this business of naming ships after elected officials – it gets to be a game of partisan one-upmanship.
And there are too many good names reeking of tradition that need a home.
Sorry, didn’t mean to diminish the memory Pres Ford. He was an honorable, faithful man who stood in the gap at difficult time. Just that (as noted) there’s so many historic fighting ship names sitting on the shelf.
Just for fun, could any of you sea dogs speculate what kind of nickname the Gerald R. Ford is going to end up with? What a lost opportunity with all the great historic names like Sara, Ranger, Lex…
Not mention all the things about Ford the car?
FWIW-I own a Ford now, and it works just fine for me. I have to drive it too much is all.
Avondale (bought by Ingalls, bought by NG) has been building junk for at least two decades. I was on the USS Ashland several years after commissioning, and the yards were still trying to sort out the shoddy work put into her during construction. I wouldn’t buy a canoe from Avondale, but I’m not sure NN should be painted with the same brush merely because they now share a corporate logo.
Rivet-
First glance I would guess her “official” nickname will have something to do with football or Michigan. “Wolverine” would be a cool one – a ref to both the ship and the U of M. USS Wolverine (along with her sister USS Sable) was a side wheeled carrier used to train ‘Hookers in the Great Lakes back in the day.
Course, it could be “Clumsy” or “Pardon” too. What do I know?
I just wann know if USS Abraham Lincoln has an Ensign Pinkerton in her complement, and if she goes to Japan, whether he’ll be allowed ashore or not.