Veteran US Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal sold for scrap… for just 1-cent!

Talk about a bargain! The USS Forrestal has been sold for scrap… for just 1 cent!

The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the lead vessel of her class and was commissioned into the United States Navy in 1955, serving until 1993. All four Forrestal-class aircraft carriers are slated for scrapping, despite strong campaigns to preserve at least one as a museum ship and to sink one as an artificial reef.

USS Forrestal, Navy’s first ‘supercarrier,’ sold for one cent

The aircraft carrier USS FORRESTAL (CV 59), escorted by a pair of tug boats, passes under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge as it approaches New York City for Fleet Week on April 29, 1989. (U.S. Navy)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) — The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, out of service for 20 years, is being sold to a Brownsville, Texas, scrap company for a penny, the Navy says.

All Star Metals bid $0.01 for the job, the Navy said in a news release Tuesday. The company’s offer was based on its estimate of how much it can net from the sale of metal from the Forrestal.

The Forrestal, the first of the Navy’s “supercarriers,” was launched in December 1954 in Newport News, Va., and commissioned on Sept. 29, 1955. It was named after James V. Forrestal, the last Navy secretary to sit in the cabinet and the first secretary of defense, who committed suicide in 1949.

The carrier was decommissioned in 1993. The Navy offered to donate it as a museum or memorial but no suitable organizations offered to take the vessel.

The Forrestal is currently docked in Philadelphia.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/23/USS-Forrestal-Navys-first-supercarrier-sold-for-one-cent/UPI-16381382560484/

Royal Navy frigates will be towed to Turkey for scrap this week

Well said, Pete Sandeman: ‘If they were being scrapped to make way for new ones, that would be one thing. But we’re not likely to see the next generation of frigates until after 2020, which is a huge gap.’

Frigates head for the scrapyard

HMS Cumberland, HMS Cornwall, HMS Chatham and HMS Campbeltown in Portsmouth Harbour. Picture: Sarah Standing (121766-5274)

by Sam Bannister
sam.bannister@thenews.co.uk

THE Royal Navy’s former HMS Chatham today started a sad exodus of frigates from Portsmouth Harbour.

The former Type 22 frigates Chatham, along with her sister ships Campbeltown and Cumberland, are all leaving Portsmouth for the last time this week, bound for a Turkish scrapyard.

A fourth frigate, Cornwall, will remain until a later date.

The four ships, which were all axed in the government’s 2010 defence cuts, were sold to two different firms for recycling.

Three of the frigates will go to Leyal Ship Recycling, the same firm which is cutting up Ark Royal. The fourth frigate will go to a UK shipbreaker.

Pete Sandeman, of savetheroyalnavy.org, told The News: ‘It was a very sad day for the navy when the Type 22s were scrapped.

‘They had capabilities that the remaining Type 23s don’t have.

‘The navy made the right choice to get rid of them because they are very expensive to run, but it’s the government’s fault for forcing them to do it.

‘If they were being scrapped to make way for new ones, that would be one thing.

‘But we’re not likely to see the next generation of frigates until after 2020, which is a huge gap.’

Chatham is due to leave Portsmouth under tow today at around 2.30pm.

Campbeltown will leave on either Thursday or Friday.

Cumberland may leave next Tuesday.

There is no date yet for the departure of Cornwall.

A spokesman for the MoD said: ‘Following competitions, two contracts have been awarded to recycle the four former Type 22 frigates Cumberland, Campbeltown, Chatham, and Cornwall.

‘A contract for three of the ships, Cumberland, Campbeltown, and Chatham, has been awarded to the Turkish recycling company Leyal Ship Recycling.

‘The contract for the fourth ship, Cornwall, has been awarded to Swansea Drydocks, a UK recycling company based in South Wales.

‘All four ships will be recycled.

‘The sale of all four ships will result in a total receipt to the MoD of just under £3m.’

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/frigates-head-for-the-scrapyard-1-5562698

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal at Cairnryan breaker’s yard 1980

HMS Ark Royal. Seen at Cairnryan – her last resting place prior to being broken up here in 1980. She arrived at Cairnryan on the 28th Sept 1980 demolition completed by 1984. (via Jim Bavin)

Pentagon budget cuts mean USS Miami will be scrapped, not repaired

The USS Miami will be scrapped, not repaired.

Navy drops plans to repair submarine Miami

Smoke rises from a dry dock as fire crews respond Wednesday, May 23, 2012 to a fire on the nuclear submarine Miami, SSN 755, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on an island in Kittery, Maine. Seven people were injured, including a firefighter. (AP Photo | The Herald, Ionna Raptis)

PORTLAND, Maine

The Navy has decided to scrap the Miami instead of repairing the nuclear-powered submarine because of budget cuts and growing costs of repairing damage from a fire set by a shipyard worker while the vessel was in dry dock at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, officials said Tuesday.

Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge, director of undersea warfare, said repairing the Groton, Conn.-based sub would have meant canceling work on dozens of other ships because of new budget restraints.

He said that would’ve hurt the Navy’s overall readiness.

“The Navy and the nation simply cannot afford to weaken other fleet readiness in the way that would be required to afford repairs to Miami,” Breckenridge said in a statement.

Inspections revealed that a significant number of components in the torpedo room and auxiliary machinery room would require replacement, further driving up the repair costs for the Miami. The Navy originally said it planned to repair the submarine, but the discovery of additional damage raised the cost, originally estimated to be about $450 million.

A shipyard worker, Casey James Fury of Portsmouth, N.H., was sentenced to 17 years in prison after admitting he set fire to the Miami, which was undergoing a 20-month overhaul at the Kittery shipyard.

It took 12 hours and the efforts of more than 100 firefighters to save the Los Angeles-class attack submarine. Seven people were hurt.

The fire, set on May 23, 2012, damaged forward compartments including living quarters, a command and control center and the torpedo room. Weapons had been removed for the repair, and the fire never reached the rear of the submarine, where the nuclear propulsion components are located.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine and Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire issued a statement blaming the decision to scrap the submarine on the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.

“We are disappointed by the Navy’s decision to discontinue repairs to the USS Miami. Inactivating the Miami will mean a loss to our nuclear submarine fleet — yet another unfortunate consequence of the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration. We will continue to work together to find a responsible budget solution that replaces sequestration,” they said.

The Navy announced last summer that it intended to repair the Miami with a goal of returning it to service in 2015. The Navy said it would be cost-effective because the 22-year-old submarine could serve another 10 years.

The decision to deactivate the Miami was a difficult one, “taken after hard analysis and not made lightly,” Breckenridge said in his statement. “But in exchange for avoiding the cost of repairs, we will open up funds to support other vital maintenance efforts, improving the wholeness and readiness of the fleet.”

The repairs have potential implications for both Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers and workers from Electric Boat in Groton, who expected to play a major role in the repair effort.

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/navy-drops-plans-repair-submarine-miami