Miloch
May 3rd 19, 04:06 AM
more at
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27755/parts-from-the-retired-uss-enterprise-are-keeping-her-successors-ready-for-combat
It may take more than 15 years for workers to completely scrap the
now-decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, but the Navy is already
recycling parts and raw materials from the ship. Components from "Big E" are
already on certain Nimitz-class carriers and more could find their way onto new
Ford-class carriers, including a future flattop that will also carry the name
Enterprise.
Defense One's Marcus Weisgerber and Brad Peniston got the details on how the
former Enterprise will continue serving the Navy during a visit to Huntington
Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia on May
1, 2019. The one-of-a-kind ship, the first ever nuclear aircraft carrier
anywhere in the world, has been at the shipyard since 2013. The flattop had
first entered service in 1961 and the Navy finally decommissioned her officially
in 2017.
"She’s a unique [nuclear reactor] plant," Chris Miner, Vice President of
In-Service Carriers at Newport News, told Defense One. "But there’s still other
things that are essentially very similar that we can leverage off of."
When Newport News designed Enterprise in the 1950s, no one had ever built a
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier before, so engineers had looked back to
previous flattops that used multiple oil-fired boilers to drive the steam
turbines that powered the ship, according to Defense One. But instead of
boilers, they substituted eight relatively small nuclear reactors on Big E, two
for each of its four propeller shafts. The subsequent Nimitz- and Ford-class
nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, all of which Newport News has built, feature
two larger nuclear reactors to provide the immense amount of power required for
a modern supercarrier.
The complexities of Enterprise's dated and unique reactor plant design, coupled
with the fact that no one has ever had to dismantle a nuclear-powered aircraft
carrier before, has created a serious debate about how the service should
proceed. The entire process of breaking down the ship and properly disposing of
its reactors could take up to 15 years to complete and cost more than $1.5
billion, depending on what course of action the Navy chooses. You can read more
about these particular issues in detail here.
As the Navy continues to consider its options, Newport News has already been
stripping off parts of the ship to reuse and recycle. "We are harvesting as many
parts as we can from the Enterprise... She’s still giving back even today,"
Miner said to Defense One's reporters during their tour.
One of Enterprise's massive anchors is already installed onboard the
Nimitz-class USS Abraham Lincoln. It's not clear when this swap occurred, but
Lincoln finished a major four-year rehab process, officially known as a
Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH), in May 2017, three months after Big E's
decommissioning.
We don't know whether the Enterprise uses the exact same anchor design as the
Nimitz-class carriers did, at least initially, which weigh around 60,000 pounds
each. The chains that hold the anchor, 12 of them in total, add another 20,500
pounds, but it's not clear if Lincoln got those from Enterprise, too.
Regardless of the exact design, aircraft carrier anchors do not appear to have
changed much since even before Enterprise entered service. As of 2003, the
Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman was using the anchors from the conventionally
powered first-in-class USS Forrestal, which the Navy had decommissioned in 1993.
Lincoln also received components from Enterprise's steam-powered catapults.
Other catapult parts are now going into the Nimitz-class USS George Washington,
which is presently at Newport News and is in the middle of its own RCOH.
The Navy has also taken back Enterprise's four 32-ton propellers, each of which
has five blades. Newport News told Defense One that the Navy would refurbish and
possibly use them again. The new Ford-class carriers do use a 30-ton five-bladed
design. It is also possible that the screws could end up on display.
Lastly, Newport News has already melted down steel from Enterprise's hull to use
in the keel of the future Ford-class carrier that will carry the same name.
Commemorating old ships, or other notable objects, by incorporating them into
the construction of new vessels is not without precedent.
Most notably, the hull of the USS New York, a San Antonio-class landing platform
dock amphibious ship, includes steel that workers salvaged fallen World Trade
Center towers in New York City, New York, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. In 2002, the Navy had approved the naming of the ship after the state
of New York following a special request from then-Governor of New York George
Pataki.
It seems likely that in the coming years, more components, and potentially
additional raw materials, will make their way from Enterprise onto either
existing Nimitz-class carriers or future Ford-class ones. The Navy expects the
future Ford-class USS Enterprise to enter service in 2027.
If nothing else, there's more than 60,000 tons of steel and another 1,500 tons
of aluminum in the decommissioned carrier that could be salvageable. “I think it
goes to how well the material on these ships are designed and built,” Newport
News' Miner told Defense One in reference to the ability to recover useful parts
and materials from Enterprise on new carriers.
But whatever else happens, Big E is still finding ways to serve the Navy two
years after its formal decommissioning.
https://youtu.be/KlLXAFi64RI
*
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27755/parts-from-the-retired-uss-enterprise-are-keeping-her-successors-ready-for-combat
It may take more than 15 years for workers to completely scrap the
now-decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, but the Navy is already
recycling parts and raw materials from the ship. Components from "Big E" are
already on certain Nimitz-class carriers and more could find their way onto new
Ford-class carriers, including a future flattop that will also carry the name
Enterprise.
Defense One's Marcus Weisgerber and Brad Peniston got the details on how the
former Enterprise will continue serving the Navy during a visit to Huntington
Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia on May
1, 2019. The one-of-a-kind ship, the first ever nuclear aircraft carrier
anywhere in the world, has been at the shipyard since 2013. The flattop had
first entered service in 1961 and the Navy finally decommissioned her officially
in 2017.
"She’s a unique [nuclear reactor] plant," Chris Miner, Vice President of
In-Service Carriers at Newport News, told Defense One. "But there’s still other
things that are essentially very similar that we can leverage off of."
When Newport News designed Enterprise in the 1950s, no one had ever built a
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier before, so engineers had looked back to
previous flattops that used multiple oil-fired boilers to drive the steam
turbines that powered the ship, according to Defense One. But instead of
boilers, they substituted eight relatively small nuclear reactors on Big E, two
for each of its four propeller shafts. The subsequent Nimitz- and Ford-class
nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, all of which Newport News has built, feature
two larger nuclear reactors to provide the immense amount of power required for
a modern supercarrier.
The complexities of Enterprise's dated and unique reactor plant design, coupled
with the fact that no one has ever had to dismantle a nuclear-powered aircraft
carrier before, has created a serious debate about how the service should
proceed. The entire process of breaking down the ship and properly disposing of
its reactors could take up to 15 years to complete and cost more than $1.5
billion, depending on what course of action the Navy chooses. You can read more
about these particular issues in detail here.
As the Navy continues to consider its options, Newport News has already been
stripping off parts of the ship to reuse and recycle. "We are harvesting as many
parts as we can from the Enterprise... She’s still giving back even today,"
Miner said to Defense One's reporters during their tour.
One of Enterprise's massive anchors is already installed onboard the
Nimitz-class USS Abraham Lincoln. It's not clear when this swap occurred, but
Lincoln finished a major four-year rehab process, officially known as a
Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH), in May 2017, three months after Big E's
decommissioning.
We don't know whether the Enterprise uses the exact same anchor design as the
Nimitz-class carriers did, at least initially, which weigh around 60,000 pounds
each. The chains that hold the anchor, 12 of them in total, add another 20,500
pounds, but it's not clear if Lincoln got those from Enterprise, too.
Regardless of the exact design, aircraft carrier anchors do not appear to have
changed much since even before Enterprise entered service. As of 2003, the
Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman was using the anchors from the conventionally
powered first-in-class USS Forrestal, which the Navy had decommissioned in 1993.
Lincoln also received components from Enterprise's steam-powered catapults.
Other catapult parts are now going into the Nimitz-class USS George Washington,
which is presently at Newport News and is in the middle of its own RCOH.
The Navy has also taken back Enterprise's four 32-ton propellers, each of which
has five blades. Newport News told Defense One that the Navy would refurbish and
possibly use them again. The new Ford-class carriers do use a 30-ton five-bladed
design. It is also possible that the screws could end up on display.
Lastly, Newport News has already melted down steel from Enterprise's hull to use
in the keel of the future Ford-class carrier that will carry the same name.
Commemorating old ships, or other notable objects, by incorporating them into
the construction of new vessels is not without precedent.
Most notably, the hull of the USS New York, a San Antonio-class landing platform
dock amphibious ship, includes steel that workers salvaged fallen World Trade
Center towers in New York City, New York, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. In 2002, the Navy had approved the naming of the ship after the state
of New York following a special request from then-Governor of New York George
Pataki.
It seems likely that in the coming years, more components, and potentially
additional raw materials, will make their way from Enterprise onto either
existing Nimitz-class carriers or future Ford-class ones. The Navy expects the
future Ford-class USS Enterprise to enter service in 2027.
If nothing else, there's more than 60,000 tons of steel and another 1,500 tons
of aluminum in the decommissioned carrier that could be salvageable. “I think it
goes to how well the material on these ships are designed and built,” Newport
News' Miner told Defense One in reference to the ability to recover useful parts
and materials from Enterprise on new carriers.
But whatever else happens, Big E is still finding ways to serve the Navy two
years after its formal decommissioning.
https://youtu.be/KlLXAFi64RI
*