Navy: Is ‘Big E’ work breaking the bank?

[unhappycamper]

The aircraft carrier Enterprise, here returning to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., in December 2007 after its most recent deployment, has been in dry dock since April 2008.


Is ‘Big E’ work breaking the bank?
By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 4, 2010 9:15:22 EDT

ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HARRY S. TRUMAN — The half-billion-dollar program to keep the aircraft carrier Enterprise in service so it could do one final float is 31 percent over budget, seven months overdue, and has stretched and pulled the deployments of other carriers.

And the shockwaves go beyond deployment schedules.

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in April 2008 was awarded a $453.3 million contract for the 16-month extended dry dock availability. Twenty-four months later, Big E has yet to return to service, and 11 contract modifications have increased costs by $140.1 million.

Because of the delay, Nimitz, which deployed from San Diego on July 31, saw its cruise stretched to eight months. The Dwight D. Eisenhower group, having deployed for five months in 2009, deployed again to the Middle East in January. The Harry S. Truman is slated to go any day, and it will conduct its second eight-month deployment in as many years.

The shift has been hard on Truman, which was fully qualified and ready to deploy in October. It will instead deploy in April, and has lost nearly one-third of its Battle “E”-winning crew during the delay. Among those who have transitioned are five of 19 department heads and the ship’s command master chief.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/04/navy_enterprise_040410w/

[SpiralHawk]

1. Is this a brainstorm of xCommander AWOL Bush & Republicon Cronies?

Enterprise came in in 2007 -- gotta be one of AWOL's brilliant strategeries. Bush & Dickie 'Five-Military-Deferments' Cheney.

What a pathetic pair of FAIL Freak chickenhawk republicons...

[Thothmes]

4. Perpetuated by the Congress of the United States.

They mandate how many Carriers the U.S.Navy must have. The current administration could easily havee stopped work or refused to allow growth. Did neither,they continued to pour big money into the Enterprise.

[Lasher]

2. I've got an idea. Maybe there's too many missions and they should cut back.

There's ten of these monster carriers in service, not counting enterprise. If ten is not enough, then just maybe we're sending them places they don't need to be.

[Statistical]

5. DING DING DING. We have 10 super carriers rest of world has a combined total of 0.

Although in name of full disclosure I should report that the rest of world in building 3 Super Carriers (of course they are all by allies 2 in UK and 1 in France).

The reality is the US received a one time "bank error in your favor collect $200 trillion" after WWII. With rest of modern world's manufacturing capabilities destroyed everything came to us. This wasn't a permanent change but we received a headstart. As a result we actually could afford a massively inflated military budget for decades.

Then rise of Cold War & NATO continued that trend.

The reality today is the US is just "another empire past its peak". Just like the UK which maintains a respectable but no longer empire spanning navy we must accept reality that we are no longer a superpower.

Fleet should be cut by 60% and missions cut back by 70-80%.

[TheMightyFavog]

9. Ummm....

May I Present the French Carrier Charles de Gaulle?



And the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, One of two proposed carriers slated to enter Royal Navy service by the end of the decade?

[Statistical]

11. C.D.G. is a medium carrier not a super carrier. If you want count that as a half.

Charles De Gaulle - 42,000 tons displacement.
Enterprise Class (1 remaining) - 89,000 tons displacement
Nimitz Class - 101,000 tons displacement.

Other than the De Gaulle & Kuznetsov every other operating carrier in the world is 11,000 - 30,000 tons.

They don't call the Supercarriers for nothing.

I accounted for planned future carriers:

"Although in name of full disclosure I should report that the rest of world in building 3 Supercarriers (of course they are all by allies 2 in UK and 1 in France)."

[Lasher]

22. Hey, that was a trap! You knew somebody would bite.

Nicely done, and you are correct on all counts. Well, except for one minor thing: We have 11 active supercarriers right now, not 10. The fleet stood at 10 since Kennedy was decommissioned in 2007. We somehow managed to keep the Viking hordes from our shores until the USS Poppy Bush came on line last year, bringing the total to 11.

Enterprise is now scheduled for decommissioning in 2013. After that the nation's shores will be ravaged by Somali pirates until the USS Another Loser Republican President is launched maybe by 2015, bringing the total back to 11.

[Echo In Light]

8. Hey ... it's only $

:crazy:

[unhappycamper]

13. Here's some $$$ for you

Ninitz-class aircraft carriers prior to the G.H.W. Bush --> $4.5 billion dollars
Nimitz-class G.H.W. Bush --> $6.8 billion dollars (lotsa overtime so poppy could christen it before he or barbie croaked)
new Ford-class aircraft carriers --> $11.5 billion dollars

Note that all the prices quoted above is sans people and airplanes.

[Lasher]

21. One minor correction:

Lotsa overtime so poppy could christen it before Junior left office. It was particularly disgusting how they turned a proud Navy tradition into a huge taxpayer-funded party for everyone to watch the Bush family to do victory laps.

[melm00se]

3. The name "Enterprise"

is one that is steeped in such mythos that the Navy would be incredibly reluctant to let her namesake go slowly down the tubes.

the USS Enterprise (CV6) was the most decorated US warship of WWII. She and her crews were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Commendation and an incredible 20 battle stars.

[gratuitous]

18. Oh, well, that's a good reason

I realize you weren't proffering it as an explanation, but tradition and custom are very strong forces in our society, and even the relatively short-lived traditions of the U.S. Navy (my own personal measure is a "tradition" should be at least 300 years old) are going to have their hide-bound adherents.

As others have noted in this thread, I have yet to hear the first peep out of the Tea Baggers about this colossal waste of money. Are we defending ourselves against the possibility that a bunch of goatherds in central Asia are going to suddenly conjure up a modern navy to steam across the Pacific to attack the West Coast?

[MindPilot]

6. "I have found the nuclear wessel, and Captain...

she is Enterprise.

Corny as it is, that scene always chokes me up.

Keep her operational long enough to get the next Enterprise built and commissioned.

[spanone]

7. all the wingnuts whining about the deficits NEVER mention the fucking pentagon

[arcadian]

10. Yup, never.

They hate big government but love that hole on the Potomac River into which we pour trillions of dollars.

[Dr.Phool]

12. I was on the Enterprise when it was in dry dock in 1970.

They were building the Eisenhower and the Nimitz on either side of us.

[cloudbase]

14. Shipyards are notorious money pits.

You have to stay on top of them all the time to make sure that every job is being done to spec., and that assumes that your inspectors know what they're looking at, which isn't always the case. Of course, the USN is probably throwing change orders (cha-ching!) at the yard hand over fist. At least they're not doing the work at Bender in Mobile. I wouldn't let them fix a bicycle.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Classic ship cancers...

When you open up the boat in the yard, it not unusual to find additional things that need work. The older the boat, the more likely it is. The Big E is getting old, that there are new issues found during an overhaul should surprise none of us. Be the same thing for the boats on Deadliest Catch. Extended OPs did not help the situation, nor is it helping it for the rest of the carrier fleet.

[amborin]

16. all for one final float?

[backscatter712]

17. One final refit.

That'll give her probably another decade or so of solid service before she's slated for retirement.

Though as ProgressiveProfessor mentioned, there's probably a lot that needs to be fixed in this drydock refit - she's been in service for decades, exposed to saltwater the whole time. There's probably a huge amount of rust, some of which will require entire chunks of structure to be cut out and replaced with fresh metal. Wiring will have to be replaced, as well as machinery. I'm not particularly surprised.

Am I right in how I interpreted this?

[amborin]

19. thanks! so,

"one final float" actually means one final round of service in navy lingo?

[lpbk2713]

20. Well, if they seriously wanted to save money ...

They could mothball the USS RayGun and the USS GHW Boosh and hide our country's shame in the process.

Using the "last hired first fired" principle of course. :eyes:

[Confusious]

23. We should mothball about 5 of those carriers.

The bank has already been robbed.