Billion dollar carrier sells for a penny

People are reading the words "super carrier" and immediately jumping to "Nimitz", and couldn't be farther from the truth.

Compared to a WWII Essex, or a Jeep carrier, she was huge. Compared to a modern carrier, she was about their size.

teachtaire
Carrier sells for one cent

In a time where financial aid doesn't even cover the cost of tuition, we've sold a carrier for one cent.

That is right, one cent.

What are your thoughts on this ATS?

Further investigation into the matter reveals that the $0.01 tag is the net price.

In short, net price is "...the final charge you pay for a product or service after discounts and sales taxes are computed." My guess is that the contract includes more carriers to be dismantled at the list price but that is speculation.

Trying to tie in financial aid to this is just ignorant in my opinion.

ownbestenemy

teachtaire
Carrier sells for one cent

In a time where financial aid doesn't even cover the cost of tuition, we've sold a carrier for one cent.

That is right, one cent.

What are your thoughts on this ATS?

Further investigation into the matter reveals that the $0.01 tag is the net price.

In short, net price is "...the final charge you pay for a product or service after discounts and sales taxes are computed." My guess is that the contract includes more carriers to be dismantled at the list price but that is speculation.

Trying to tie in financial aid to this is just ignorant in my opinion.

Yeah, when you put it that way, a $2 billion dollar aircraft carrier for 1 cent was a little bit too expensive, if anything. Perhaps of 75% one credit is what I'd pay for such a piece of junk. I doubt it could even outrun a Star Destroyer.

reply to post by teachtaire


And the company who won the bid is probably putting up to the penny (mind the pun) in what it will take to meet governmental red-tape to tow and dispose of the ship.

I am curious, has anyone seen the contract and what it all entails for this company to fulfill to achieve the goal of scraping this ole' gal?

Might have to put it back in service!!

The company moving it is spending a small fortune to do it.

They took the burden for a penny!

Is this one of the carriers Clinton decommissioned?

teachtaire
Carrier sells for one cent

In a time where financial aid doesn't even cover the cost of tuition, we've sold a carrier for one cent.

That is right, one cent.

What are your thoughts on this ATS?

This article is kind of misleading when the government decommissions a ship to legally turn it over to a private company there must be a sale. Then the company begins salvage operations on the salvage operations the government will get a percentage depending on the deal with the company. So the sale of the ship doesnt matter its just paperwork what counts is how much they get from salvage operations.

I sure would like to see something like that used to replace our multi-million dollar prison system!
You could just load 'em up,ship 'em out, and anchor away from humanity. (In shark infested waters...:lol
No guards needed. Let them police themselves.
FEMA could use it for practice in delivering supplies....

Ms. Nugget

reply to post by teachtaire


People are awfully free with that $2B cost for the Forrestal. Has anyone actually bothered to do any research into what it actually cost? Because, again, it was nowhere near $2B. Sail away cost, brand new, in 1955 was approximately $217M.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Here is a link that I found. But, then there is sunk value and all that stuff. Also, chance to bid & expendable budget vs benefits.

1955 to 2013 dollars

Good news everybody!

You can buy aircraft carriers on eBay as well! I

reply to post by teachtaire


It doesn't matter what the cost is in 2013 dollars. They didn't build it or buy it in 2013. They built it, and payed for it in 1955. In 1955 it was $217M, that's all that matters. You can try to spin it any way you want, but $2B is hyperbole.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Well, it would count as a one of a kind piece of artwork, couldn't it?

That would give you a LOT of legal leverage, especially for shipping purposes. But I could be mistaken.

Assigning "historical value" or "national treasure" value isn't really appropriate in this situation; there is no legal merit.

srry, double post.

Zaphod58
reply to post by teachtaire

 

People are awfully free with that $2B cost for the Forrestal. Has anyone actually bothered to do any research into what it actually cost? Because, again, it was nowhere near $2B. Sail away cost, brand new, in 1955 was approximately $217M.

$217,000,000 in 1955 → $1,866,045,580.52 in 2013 so the article is probably close counting retrofitting done along the way.

reply to post by dragonridr


Life cycle costs are seperate from the cost of the carrier. And as I said above, they didn't pay for her in 2013, so the cost in 2013 dollars is irrelevant.

reply to post by Zaphod58

People are awfully free with that $2B cost for the Forrestal.

Maybe they added up cost of all the refits and upgrades. That and maintenance. Accountants love that.

reply to post by intrptr


Maintenance costs are separate, but from what I'm seeing of upgrade costs, they wouldn't even add another $2-4M to it. Since she was small, and conventional powered, upgrades were cheap by comparison to the Nimitz and the nuclear powered carriers.

She did have a lot of repairs due to fires, and a couple flooding incidents. But even some of those that I found costs for were less than $100,000.

reply to post by teachtaire


times change. That's a lot of good steel just rusting away. Why not dismantal it and recycle the steel right? It's a good idea. They don't need that many big air craft carriers anymore. Even a handful is way more than enough. 2 on each coast and 1 sent abroad to raise hell. Thats' it. The rest are scrap.

reply to post by spartacus699


And what are you going to do when two of your five carriers are down for refit/refueling? And then the third has to have emergency maintenance? Oh look, now you have no carriers anywhere. Because you're almost always going to have one doing workups, and one doing training for new pilots.

There's a reason to have a bunch of them (it's called redundancy).

spartacus699
reply to post by teachtaire

 

times change. That's a lot of good steel just rusting away. Why not dismantal it and recycle the steel right? It's a good idea. They don't need that many big air craft carriers anymore. Even a handful is way more than enough. 2 on each coast and 1 sent abroad to raise hell. Thats' it. The rest are scrap.

yeah, practically anyone with a welding torch can build one too nowadays; it isn't like they're hard to find on the market

When I become a billionaire... I'm buying one. It'll be on donation to the military academies to use for training if it isn't a floating bat cave.

Maybe I could marry my daughter off to a Saudi prince and then have my grandchild bid on it... MWAHAHAA.


I wonder if you could time share something like that?

Former shipmates of mine came over from that carrier and said it was haunted.
They would stand watch down in the main spaces and hear someone calling to "Dc Central, we have a fire going on here and need help!

Fire Crews showed up in one of the occasions with surprised looks from the crew.

Playing around with calls of a fire is nothing to joked around with in the civilian world, much less a military ship.

For those that do not know, the Forrestal was involved in many fires with the most infamous involving the 1967 Forrestal Fire that all sailors have to watch in Boot Camp.

All navy personnel since then have been trained in fire fighting techniques and the use of AFFF Aqueous Film Forming Foam was always introduced then to cover the ship deck in the event of a flight deck fire.


Edit: The crew heard it over Sound Powered Phones.
A remarkable yet old technology that requires no power since the sound of your voice powers it.
if the ship looses power under an attack, assuming the lines are not severed, you can still communicate.