Navy discounts Kitty Hawk scuttlebutt

[unhappycamper]

The future of the Kitty Hawk remains uncertain.


Navy discounts Kitty Hawk scuttlebutt
By Mark D. Faram and Philip Ewing - Staff writers
Posted : Friday Feb 29, 2008 21:33:07 EST

Typically, hot rumors need something spicy to get started — sin, scandal, etc. — not 80,000 tons of old steel. But when it comes to the future of the carrier Kitty Hawk, which is to leave its forward-deployed assignment in Japan later this year, the scuttlebutt is flying: Will the ship stay in the fleet as a training carrier? Will the Navy give it to India?

Official answers: no and no. But mess-deck intelligence has a way of enduring past denials.

Aboard the carrier George Washington, which is to take the Kitty Hawk’s place in Japan this year, rumors are circulating that the older ship will move to Naval Station Mayport, Fla., to become a training carrier, a junior officer said. But sources at Naval Air Forces in San Diego have said that “no such ideas are currently being entertained” and that the ship will steam to San Diego and leave service.

The Feb. 27 visit of Defense Secretary Robert Gates only enflamed speculation in the Indian and Russian news media — and, more recently, in a U.S. magazine — that the Pentagon could give the Kitty Hawk to India if New Delhi agrees to buy a number of U.S.-made F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. The idea was to drive a wedge between the Indian government and the Russian defense industry, which has struggled to deliver an old Soviet aircraft carrier that India bought years ago. With the Kitty Hawk, India would get a carrier, Russia would lose its sale and Boeing would move a nice set of brand-new aircraft.

Not gonna happen, the Navy says.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/navy_kittyhawk_rumors_080229w/

[DainBramaged]

1. Nah, India will turn it into a call center

Hello, Kitty Hawk customer service, thank you for calling.


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: