MOSCOW, 29 Mar-RIA Novosti, Nikolai Protopopov. The Biden administration returned to the issue of the early decommissioning of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The ship should serve for at least another 25 years, but most likely, it will be cut into metal much earlier. However, this is not the first time that the fierce discussions around the US aircraft carrier fleet have arisen. About how to decide the fate of the "symbols of democracy" - in the material of RIA Novosti.
They attacked the sacred
Under Donald Trump, it was also proposed to withdraw the USS Harry S. Truman from the fleet to save budget funds, but he immediately rejected this proposal. Indeed, the ship was launched in 1998, it still has to serve and serve.
But the initiative was supported by high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Navy. If you write off the Truman 25 years ahead of schedule, you will free up billions allocated for its maintenance and refueling of the reactor with nuclear fuel. These funds can be used for the development and purchase of promising types of weapons-underwater and surface drones, high-precision strike weapons, as well as the construction of aircraft carriers of the new Ford class.
Congress took this idea with hostility. One of the arguments: if you write off the "Harry Truman" in the mid-2020s, then by 2050 the Navy will have only nine ships of this class, and the navy needs 11. Most congressmen are sure that "floating airfields" are a strategic advantage of the United States over potential enemies, with their help you can control the entire World Ocean.
Even earlier, in 2014, under Barack Obama, it was proposed to write off the USS George Washington. Then, too, the initiative was cut down on the root.
Nevertheless, some military experts still tend to believe that aircraft carriers are rapidly losing power in the conditions when the likely opponents of the United States are adopting more and more high-precision missile systems, including hypersonic ones. In particular, the Americans are concerned about the appearance of China's long-range anti-ship missiles with a range of a thousand nautical miles.
U.S. Navy aircraft carriers USS Harry S. Truman and USS George H. W. Bush
Image Source: © Photo : U.S. Navy / MC3 Jamie Cosby
A long-standing problem
Disputes over the fate of the aircraft carrier "Harry Truman" continued after the change of administration. Many are still against early write-offs. Too much has been invested in this ship to take it out of service in the middle of its life cycle, they say in Congress.
The parliamentarians also point out that this is contrary to the US Navy's development program and an increase in the number of ships by several hundred units. The fact is that former Defense Minister Mark Esper, before his resignation, managed to present an updated plan until 2045, according to which the fleet should have at least 500 ships by that time.
"Any attempt to delay the purchase of Ford — class aircraft carriers or the maintenance schedule for Nimitz-class aircraft carriers is strategically and financially irresponsible and will undoubtedly meet with the same resistance as in 2014," Rep. Rob Wittman wrote in the article.
In fact, the Battle Force 2045 strategy involves increasing the pace of construction primarily of new Virginia-class attack submarines. It is expected that there will be 80 of them. In addition, the focus will be on various types of drones, which will partially replace missile destroyers and reconnaissance ships.
US F/A-18 fighter jets take off from the flight deck of the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf
Image source: © AP Photo / Hasan Jamali
The Pentagon's Headache
Congressmen are even in favor of increasing the number of aircraft carriers. And they refer to the "Chinese threat". So, Senator Roger Wicker (Roger Wicker) at the hearing asked whether 11 aircraft carriers would be enough to contain the PRC in the Pacific Ocean, while simultaneously operating in the Middle East and other areas of the world Ocean.
The military reassures the parliamentarians. The commander of US operations in the Pacific region, Admiral John Aquilino (John Aquilino), assured that the aircraft carriers will cope, unless, of course, there are additional difficulties.
The fleet of aircraft carriers in 11 units was approved as part of the naval strategy of 2007. It was assumed that these ships would be required only in two main theaters: in the western Pacific and the Persian Gulf. Now the United States is concerned about the sharp strengthening of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic.
At the same time, admirals are increasingly reporting serious technical problems with aircraft carriers and rising maintenance costs. For example, in 2019, only the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower remained combat-ready on the east coast of the United States. The rest were in various stages of modernization and major repairs, and the power supply system on the Harry Truman failed.
Things are not going well with the commissioning of new "floating airfields". The first aircraft carrier of the next generation, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has not been brought to mind for more than 15 years. The ship was laid down in 2005, launched in 2013, and planned to start full operation in a year. However, numerous design defects were immediately identified. And so serious that it is not possible to eliminate it until now.
Aircraft Carrier "Gerald Ford"
Image source: © Photo : official website of the aircraft carrier "Gerald Ford"
