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Tag: aircraft carrier

  • Chuck Hagel, Defense Secretary, To Visit China

    It looks like Chuck Hagel will be missing out on the NCAA men’s basketball championship game Monday night. Hagel, the U.S. defense secretary, will be making a trip out of the country on Monday.

    Hagel will be heading to China to start off his work week and while there it is expected he will visit China’s sole aircraft carrier.

    Washington’s request to visit the aircraft carrier while Hagel is in the country for three days was quietly approved by Beijing. According to an anonymous U.S. official, the aircraft carrier visit had not been previously disclosed. The official added that Hagel will head to China from a trip to Japan, first landing in the port city of Qingdao. Hagel will then head to a Chinese naval base where he will visit the Liaoning.

    In 1998 the Liaoning, a Soviet-era ship, was bought from the Ukraine. Since then the ship has been re-fitted in a Chinese shipyard. The Liaoning has been seen as “a sign of Beijing’s ambition for greater global influence and a reminder of its growing military might.”

    According to the official they believe not only will this trip be a first for a U.S. defense secretary, but also a first for an official visitor from outside China to be on board the vessel.

    The announcement of Hagel’s visit to the Liaoning came just a day after he announced he would be visiting China. At the time Hagel said he would tell Beijing to respect their neighbors and use their “great power” wisely. At a news conference at Japan’s defense ministry on Sunday Hagel said, “Coercion, intimidation is a very deadly thing that leads only to conflict, All nations, all people deserve respect.”

    Image via YouTube.

  • USS Forrestal Begins Voyage to Scrap Yard

    USS Forrestal Begins Voyage to Scrap Yard

    The USS Forrestal, the Navy’s first “supercarrier,” has begun its final voyage after having been sold for scrap for $0.01. The ship, decommissioned since 1993, has left Philadelphia, bound for All Star Metals in Brownville, Texas, where it will be parted out.

    The 1,067 foot ship, an active military vessel for 38 years, is best known as the site of a July 29, 1967 disaster in which an accidental rocket launch began a fire that took the lives of 134 crewmen and damaged 21 aircraft. Among the crew that day was future POW, Senator, and presidential candidate John McCain. The tragedy prompted the Navy to overhaul its emergency response training, as many of the firefighters on board died in the event, leaving remaining crew members to improvise firefighting methods. After seven months of repairs, the ship returned to service for a further 20-plus years.

    After decommissioning, the ship waited in Newport, R.I., before being transferred to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, which houses more than 20 ships awaiting sale, transfer, or conversion to artificial reefs.

    Naval authorities had hoped that the Forrestal would be purchased as a museum or memorial, but received no viable proposals. Maintenance on the ship would make such a project financially problematic, according to Navy veteran and former Forrestal crewman Ken Killmeyer: “If they’re not painting them or working on it somehow, it’s an odd day because they’re always maintaining something to keep them afloat. The weather plays havoc on their exterior no matter what climate they’re in. The biggest expense is maintenance.” Killmeyer was aboard for the 1967 fire and says the devastation remains fresh in his mind. “As crew members, we relive July 29, 1967, every time we hear a loud, unexplained noise, whether you’re at the beach or you’re in your office. Or, some people are affected by certain odors. When you smell flesh burnt from jet fuel, it kind of stays with you forever. You can’t get away from it.”

    The ship left Philadelphia at 5:31 a.m. on Tuesday. Its final voyage down the east coast will take 17 days, according to Nikhil Shah, President of All Star Metals. “This is the largest ship that we’ve ever dismantled,” Shah said, “and the largest ship the U.S. government has ever awarded to be dismantled. It’s a very big job to us.” While Shah did not have a specific figure for the salvage value of the vessel, he confirmed that the Forrestal, as scrap, could be worth millions.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • USS Gerald Ford Gets Christened By Navy

    USS Gerald Ford Gets Christened By Navy

    The Navy christened its newest, most efficient carrier which will join the fleet in 2016. The USS Gerald R. Ford is the prime ship in the next fleet of aircraft carriers in the Navy. This represents the first new aircraft carrier design in more than four decades.

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    image via Wikipedia

    The USS Gerald R. Ford is named after President Gerald R. Ford, who served on the carrier USS Monterey during World War II. Gerald R. Ford later became president of the US after President Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate scandal.

    According to CNN, one of the things the ship will be able to do is to launch jets faster than previous carriers and will need fewer crew members. This will save the country about $4 billion over the next 50 years (the Ford is expected to survive until 2057).

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     image via Wikipedia

    “She will carry unmanned aircraft, joint strike fighters, and she will deploy lasers.” Said Jonathan Greenert, who is Chief of Naval Operations Administration in a webcast ceremony at the Newport, “She is truly a technological marvel.”

     

    Layout Of USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier

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    image via militaryphotos.net

    The ship is indeed a classic example of a technological marvel as it features state-of-the-art naval architecture and is nuclear powered. The ship will use electromagnetic force to propel planes off the deck instead of the pressurized steam used in today’s fleet. It also features an arresting gear that grabs planes when they land. Moreover, the gear will be software controlled so as to prevent wear and tear on the planes.

    The sponsor of the ship is the former Ford’s president daughter, Susan Bales Ford. She also had the duty of performing the ceremonial breaking of the bottle of American sparkling wine into the ship.

    In her speech, the daughter of the former president said that she hopes that future sailors will show the integrity her father showed in his time of public office. “Dad, their message fills this shipyard. You kept your promise. You healed the nation. You gave the American people a president that was a shining beacon of integrity at the helm,” she said. The keynote speech was delivered by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

    (main image via militaryphotos.net)

  • First Unmanned Plane Lands on Aircraft Carrier

    First Unmanned Plane Lands on Aircraft Carrier

    In a first for the United States Navy, or any combat for in history for that matter, an unmanned combat air vehicle has been landed on an aircraft carrier, with no onboard pilot whatsoever. The X-47B “Salty Dog 502” landed on the USS George H.W. Bush, sailing off the coast of Virginia, on Wednesday.

    Capt. Jaime Engdahl on the Navy Live blog says that, “Landing on a carrier’s flight deck is one of the most challenging tasks for a naval aviator – one that takes extensive training and regular practice to perfect.”

    He went on to explain that the unmanned flight landed “autonomously without the guiding hand of an experienced pilot, but rather using precision GPS navigation, a high-integrity network connection and advanced flight control software to guide itself through the turbulent air behind the aircraft carrier and onto the moving flight deck.”

    Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration team, the group that has accomplished this feat, is proud of their accomplishment. It is a huge step for American combat readiness.

    “Our extremely professional and hardworking X-47B integrated test team has distinguished itself as the group who expertly proved an integrated system of an unmanned, tailless X-47B airframe, autonomous software, high integrity networks and ship based control systems. In fact, for the second consecutive year, our the team was recently recognized by the Association of Naval Aviation and Naval Air Systems Command with the Edward H. Heinemann Award for its significant contribution to aircraft design.”

    This particular craft is not combat-ready, but after this test there certainly will be more.

    While the X-47B itself is not intended for operational use, the UCAS program has developed the concept of operations and demonstrated the technology for follow-on unmanned carrier based aircraft. The program demonstrated the ability to seamlessly integrate unmanned systems into the carrier environment with only small incremental changes to the existing equipment and concept of operations.