With the current ‘issues‘ with China, this is kinda surprising…
The aircraft carrier George Washington is slated to depart for South America in the coming months, marking the carrier’s first deployment in nearly a decade.
The Southern Seas 2024 deployment is the first for the carrier since it underwent its mid-life refueling and complex overhaul maintenance, or RCOH, starting in 2017 in Virginia.
Full article, HERE, from Navy Times.
Of course another ‘issue’ with the GW going west is the restrictions on the Panama Canal right now. Especially the ‘depth’ restrictions. GW would be within 3 feet of bottoming out, much less having to queue up for possibly days to make the passage.
I think both of those are contributory factors to the decision to go the ‘long’ way back. But I’m not sure I’d want to ride a small boy through Drake’s passage.
The liberty calls will be great though…
– Rumblings about Iran/Israel direct conflict in the next 48 hours.
– West coast of South America is about equally distant (both ways) from the Persian Gulf/Gulf of Oman. While it doesn’t take the George Washington out of play, it does lengthen her response time to that location.
– How many pallets of U.S. Dollars were shoveled at Iran in spite of them being an enemy state?
Just looking at some puzzle pieces and not liking how they’re potentially fitting together…
I suspect the moment Iran declares war, it’ll go nuclear. Israel has more warheads and better delivery mechanisms. Iran does have more area and probably a large population. But if you can destroy the government leaders, Iran will fold like a wet napkin.
I just hope we don’t get involved there.
So which one do you think opens up the canned sunshine first?
My totally uninformed opinion: Iran. Followed by a bunch more from Israel as they seem kinda pissed-off and fed up with things as they have been until recently.
Yeah, Iran will go nuclear as soon as they are able to buy one. So far the Israeli’s have kept them from building them, and no one has been stupid enough to sell them any, as they know very well that Iran will instantly use it. The potential seller has to be concerned that Israel will nuke the shit out of anyone that supplies Iran. Either way, a significant portion of the M.E. will quickly resemble a glow-in-the-dark glass parking lot when the dust settles.
When USS George Washington made the trip in 2015, she transited via the Straits of Magellan, not the Drake Passage.
Much easier on the small boys.
Ag- Good question… sigh
TGreen- You’re correct, my bad!
Again, Navy Slimes screwed it up. Even with the widening of the canal to I think 33 Meters (110′) could a CVN get through the “ditch,” I think they are somewhere in the neighborhood of 135′ at the waterline and fuggedaboudit with the flight deck over hangs
I mostly loved my time in the US Navy. Now, I’m starting to think being an old fart ain’t all bad. From time to time I awake feeling nostalgic about living on the USS Constellation CV-64. Sigh. Safe travels to the GW…