Whitewolf Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 (edited) The USS Kitty Hawk and John F Kennedy have both been sold for scrap at 1 cent each to the ship breakers in Brownsville, Texas. Its sad that neither will be preserved, this was the last chance to save one of the super carriers that served the US Navy so well and helped make it what it is today. Edited October 5, 2021 by Whitewolf 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 (edited) It is sad. The JFK is the only carrier I ever saw when it visited here in the mid nineties. More than that it provided one of the most spectacular moments in my life when a mixed formation of the complement over flew my house one Sunday afternoon. F14S, F18S, A6s, EA6s, and the rest. It was a surreal moment to beat all surreal moments. Later I visited a static display that was held on the ramp of my flying club. Imagine seeing an F14 parked where my Cessna 150 usually stood. I also remember the surprise of the USN F14 pilot doing his PR job when he realised that the foreign enthusiasts surrounding him knew an awful lot more about his airplane than he expected. I asked him if they'd be getting the F14D model soon. They still had A models. He said he didn't know but someone behind me told him they would be getting them next year. He was bemused and commented that we knew more than he did.😄 Great days. Edited October 5, 2021 by noelh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 18 minutes ago, noelh said: It is sad. The JFK is the only carrier I ever saw when it visited here in the mid nineties. I got on her in 1976 in Stokes Bay Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 1 cent each - looks like the US taxpayer got value for money from that transaction. At that rate, they would've been better off sinking them as artificial reefs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMA131Marine Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 3 hours ago, Rob G said: 1 cent each - looks like the US taxpayer got value for money from that transaction. At that rate, they would've been better off sinking them as artificial reefs. The scrap value of 60,000 tons of steel is around $15,000,000. Out of that, the breaker has to tow the ship to Texas and do the work of breaking it up. I doubt there is much profit in it at US wages, which is, I suppose, why so much ship breaking is done in India. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoppy Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 6 hours ago, Rob G said: 1 cent each - looks like the US taxpayer got value for money from that transaction. At that rate, they would've been better off sinking them as artificial reefs. Unfortunately to prepare them to be sunk as a dive platform would cost more than their scrap value. All the toxic and hazardous materials would have to be stripped out and passage ways cut to allow safer access, the list to prepare a ship is immense. There have been a couple done here but they are destroyer type vessels and sunk in fairly shallow water. A ship of these sizes would need far deeper water and that would introduce restrictions on who could dive. Also in todays world if any accidents happened the litigation liability would immense. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewolf Posted October 6, 2021 Author Share Posted October 6, 2021 4 hours ago, VMA131Marine said: The scrap value of 60,000 tons of steel is around $15,000,000. Out of that, the breaker has to tow the ship to Texas and do the work of breaking it up. I doubt there is much profit in it at US wages, which is, I suppose, why so much ship breaking is done in India. The profit margin is small, or supposedly small.....given they've broken 5 carriers there already it can't be that bad. I thought JFK was to be saved, although Kitty Hawk is in better overall condition.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammy da fish Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Hi I also had a nice day on the JFK back in 76. Still got all my notes of every aircraft. Even sat in a RF-8 and Tomcat. And to top that I got to visit Nimitz I think about 1978/9. simon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMA131Marine Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 5 hours ago, Whitewolf said: I thought JFK was to be saved, although Kitty Hawk is in better overall condition.... JFK was on donation hold for a long time but this was revoked in 2017. I assume none of the groups in trying to preserve her could come up with a viable plan. It would have taken a huge amount of money to restore her to museum condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewolf Posted October 6, 2021 Author Share Posted October 6, 2021 1 hour ago, VMA131Marine said: JFK was on donation hold for a long time but this was revoked in 2017. I assume none of the groups in trying to preserve her could come up with a viable plan. It would have taken a huge amount of money to restore her to museum condition. Kitty Hawk is in much better material condition having been mothballed as the reserve carrier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMA131Marine Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 10 hours ago, Whitewolf said: Kitty Hawk is in much better material condition having been mothballed as the reserve carrier. Maybe so, but JFK is unique and has the advantage of being named after a legendary president. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewolf Posted October 7, 2021 Author Share Posted October 7, 2021 14 hours ago, VMA131Marine said: Maybe so, but JFK is unique and has the advantage of being named after a legendary president. It does, but over the past few years it has deteriorated and is not in a great condition, far more money would need to be spent on it. Kitty Hawk was maintained to a degree as the reserve carrier. Its very sad that not one of the supercarriers will remain. However, as CV-67 prepares to bow out, the next 'Big John' is fitting out...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VMA131Marine Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 And, of course, none of the nuclear powered carriers will be available for preservation because the hull has to be cut up on decommissioning to remove the reactors. There was an idea to preserve the island of the Enterprise, but apparently even tat isn’t feasible. Also, the cost of properly recycling a nuclear aircraft carrier is eye-wateringly expensive: $750 million to $1.5 billion for Enterprise https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a22690208/us-navy-dismantling-uss-enterprise-nuclear-disposal/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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