US Navy wants to get rid of an aircraft carrier to buy new weapons needed for a next-level fight wit

[Eugene]

Source: Business Insider

US Navy wants to get rid of an aircraft carrier to buy new weapons needed for a next-level fight with China

Ryan Pickrell 4h

The US Navy plans to retire one of its aircraft carriers decades early, a highly controversial move to free up funds for the new weapons needed to fight a powerful adversary.

"We made the difficult decision to retire CVN 75 (USS Harry S. Truman) in lieu of its previously funded refueling complex overhaul that was scheduled to occur in FY 2024," the Navy stated in an overview of the fiscal year 2020 budget released Tuesday, referring to the mid-life overhaul during which the carrier's reactor cores are refueled.

The purpose is to free up funding for new weapons that are more likely to survive were the US to go to war with China, a senior defense official told Breaking Defense, which first broke the story about the Pentagon's plans to mothball the Truman.

-snip-

The decision to retire the Truman decades early, which reportedly came from Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan, "is in concert with the Defense Department's commitment to proactively pursue diversified investments in next-generation, advanced, and distributed capabilities," the Navy said, noting it would be looking into both manned and unmanned systems.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.thisisinsider.com/us-navy-to-cut-carrier-to-buy-new-weapons-needed-against-china-2019-3

[Cartoonist]

1. What a waste

All our aircraft carriers, submarines, jets, and nuclear misses couldn't defend us from 19 Saudis armed with box cutters.

I guess we need a new carrier.

[procon]

2. No, we don't. The type of warfare those ships were designed for isn't

going to be needed in future conflicts. The Navy is looking at high tech automation with fast response in "unmanned missile boats to fire on targets identified by the robotic scout vessels," read the whole article. Congress will probably nix the plan because politicians can approve modernization and efficiency if it means losing jobs in their districts.