I think we should hold off on naval expansion and use the money for investigating government corruption by corporations, and for education and environmental protection, instead.

These things don’t come cheap but it would be almost worth it if we could call it USS Covfefe.

I hope North Korea sinks it on its first voyage.

One step forward to outer space travels. Hope it has cool stuff to show off

For the wars we’ve been fighting, against Afghan weddings and guys in sandals with AKs and IEDs, it’s ridiculous overspending.

For wars against more powerful adversaries, it’s a sitting duck for ballistic missiles and swarms of drone aircraft, boats and submarines.

The money would be better spent on:
1) Smaller amphibious assault ships for low-intensity conflicts
2) Submarines, aircraft, and surface ships firing cruise missiles
3) BOOSTING EDUCATIONAL AND ECONOMIC STRENGTH IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES SO THEY HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN JIHAD (crazy talk, I know).

You’ll need it in the South China Sea. Just under half the worlds shipping does through it, it supplies food for most of SE Asia, and oil and gas is under the seabed. There will be a fight over this territory someday. That is a promise. Might as well be ready.

No need now the world comes to an end at Pittsburgh city limits.

I have no idea if that’s a reasonable price or not. I don’t know how much it costs to build it. My gut reaction is that is a ridiculously high number, and I can’t imagine that’s a legitimate price.

@josie . I agree that war on the SCS seems inevitable. But China and Russia both have developed anti-ship missiles that the US has no countermeasures for. North Korea doesn’t have a dependable missile for nuclear warheads yet. But couldn’t they just hide a nuke on a fishing boat, and detonate it outside of the identification zone of the US fleets there? They shouldn’t have to get too close to be devastating to our navy there…

It seems like an expensive piece of outdated technology. Not useless. But incapable of performing the job it was built for.

@MrGrimm888

Estimates on the highest yield North Korea has managed range from 10 – 30 kilotons. That is puny by nuclear weapons standards (by comparison the highest yield nuclear device ever detonated was the Soviet Union’s “Tsar Bomba” at 50 megatons). Even considering the high end (30 kt) is true the blast radius would be a few blocks, and the radius of radiation burns would just about (though not quite) reach across Manhattan island (east to west). Any North Korean boat would likely be sunk before it got close enough to do any damage to US ships. North Korea would accomplish nothing and would only ensure its own destruction.

@MrGrimm888 At this point there are no implemented countermeasures. By the time it is ready for service, they will be. Indeed, the missile is fast, shockingly so, supersonic in fact.
But there are countermeasures.

But there are countermeasures

Not for multiple missiles screaming down from almost straight overhead, mixed with decoys.

The first shoot down of an icbm-like target occurred this week, but the program has a success rate below 50% and that’s with months of preparation against single targets on planned trajectories.

Are we actually discussing if some other country will try to nuke a aircraft carrier? Yeah, that is not happening. And even if it did why should anyone care? The aggressor will be dead in a half hour. Nobody is this stupid.

This is simply wasting money that could go to healthcare, teachers, or water without lead.

^If North Korea feels an attack is imminent, I believe they would use all weapons at their disposal. Kim has repeatedly threatened the US mainland, Japan, and South Korea with nuclear weapons. Why would a carrier be an unrealistic target?

@Lucky_Guy. The ship was just delivered to the US navy. I’m not sure how long until it is “active.” The Russians developed those hypersonic missiles specifically with US,and British carriers, and defenses in mind.

I realize that sinking a US carrier would be an act of war, but stranger things have happened in history. Trump is poking a lot of wasp nests, somebody may get stung….

Kim has repeatedly threatened the US mainland, Japan, and South Korea with nuclear weapons

North Korea has no nuclear weapons that can reach anywhere. They’re trying but they aren’t there yet. Their tests have been stationary devices.

^I’m aware of North Korea’s limitations. But they still have nukes. You don’t have to put them on a missile, to make them lethal. Besides, that point was more toward the opinion that sinking a carrier would be “stupid.” Nothings off the table for NK…

I would not count on North Korea being stupid or crazy. Dismissing our enemies like that has been a mistake the US has made far too many times.