CF, if you want that many carriers at sea, then the rest of them have to either in a Drydocking Selected Repair Avialability, getting a new core, or doing workups with the air wing so they can deploy. Ships are like cars: you run the hell out of them, but eventually you have to put them in the shop. Include with this is that relationship between the Air Wing and the ship. You can train from the beach on a nice long landing strip, but NOTHING beats getting on the boat to get the kinks out. As a matter of fact, once an aviator has spent X days without making an arrested landing, he has to get re-qualified. I’m sure Lex or Steel Jaw Scribe can give you better figures.

And this “mothball” or standby? All our carriers are nuclear powered. You can just flip the switch, lock the doors, and post one sentry on the pier. Lot’s of good rules about why you can’t do that. The ship HAS to have Sounding And Security to make sure that tanks and engineering spaces aren’t filling up with water; You’d be surprised how fast that can happen. Many, many things need to be checked on a daily basis. And last, but certainly not least, a supercarrier is much more than just a ship. It is an organism of men and machines, all of whom know their ship intimately. There is no better training than just doing it. If you mothball a CVN, it would take SIX months to meld a crew to a ship and the air wing to the ship…and that would be rushing it. Do you think a potential enemy would give us that six months? Are you willing to risk the safety of this nation on that assumption? Are you willing to risk the lives of young men and women who might die because they aren’t trained as well as they can be? Or a supply system to be able to surge to a sudden and huge demand?

Penny wise, my friend, and pound foolish.

CF,

I am not sure if your train analogy is mere coincidence but there is a book out there in the world that addresses the issue of what happens to the world when “Money” and the “producers” that create that money dry up or stop producing.

Strange weird things start to happen, like parts for engines are no longer available so trains sit idle or get stuck in their tracks and the only response the passengers have is,

“Who is John Galt?”

Exactly, what we are witnessing today. See the following.

‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years .

“For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as “the looters and their laws.” Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the “Anti-Greed Act” to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel’s promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the “Equalization of Opportunity Act” to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the “Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act,” aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn’t Hank Paulson think of that?

These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” and the “Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act.” Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion — in roughly his first 100 days in office.”