On March 18, the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford of the United States Navy departed from the Red Sea heading toward Crete.
There, at the naval base of Souda, the ship will be inspected and repaired.
The Gerald R. Ford is one of the two United States aircraft carriers that Trump sent to the war with Iran.
Like the other aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, it was forced to abandon the “battlefield” early.
On March 17, American newspapers reported that a major fire had broken out on the ship, which burned for days.
According to the official version, the fire, which lasted 30 hours, started in the laundry compartment.
Several sailors, exhausted from a ten month voyage, during which the Gerald R. Ford had previously supported a United States special forces operation off the coast of Venezuela, set fire to a ventilation pipe in order for the ship to head to the nearest port due to an emergency.
Apparently, the perpetrators miscalculated and the fire that broke out was more intense than they had anticipated.
Eventually, 600 people, out of the 4,500 on board the ship, including aircraft pilots, were forced to fight to extinguish it.
The New York Times did not report malicious intent on the part of the sailors, but noted that dozens of crew members suffered poisoning, while hundreds “lost their beds and were forced to sleep on floors and tables, under difficult conditions, without access to laundry facilities.”
The Central Command stated that the fire “did not cause damage to the ship’s propulsion system and that the aircraft carrier remains fully operational.”
In reality, the version about a laundry fire resembles the recent announcement by CENTCOM about “technical malfunctions” in two refueling aircraft in western Iraq, which led to the crash of a KC 135 Stratotanker, resulting in the death of six people, while the second, with severe damage to its tail, narrowly managed to land at an airport in Israel.
According to the same version, both aircraft were shot down by pro Iranian forces.
A similar story appears to have unfolded in the case of the Gerald R. Ford. Here is what independent journalist Jonas E. Alexis stated:
On March 11, an Iranian drone of the Shahed 136 type breached the defensive perimeter of the aircraft carrier strike group of the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Persian Gulf.
The drone cost 20,000 dollars, while the aircraft carrier it struck is valued at 13 billion dollars.
This results in a cost to value ratio of 650,000 to 1.
The Aegis radar
The drone was flying at an altitude of 15 meters above the sea surface, below the detection threshold of the Aegis radar systems, which are designed to track ballistic missiles.
Within 14 minutes, it covered 47 nautical miles and struck the command area near the refueling station.
The impact caused a fire in fuel, which spread to adjacent compartments. More than 400 sailors were evacuated and flights were suspended.
The aircraft carrier Ford was ordered to move to a distance greater than 200 nautical miles from the Iranian coast.
This is the first time since the Vietnam War that a United States aircraft carrier is reported to have been forced to withdraw due to hostile fire.
The Gerald R. Ford is the newest United States aircraft carrier and entered service in 2017.
It is protected by the Aegis combat system, a complex of radars, computers, and missiles worth approximately 4 billion dollars, designed to create a powerful defensive umbrella.
However, Aegis has a critical weakness, it struggles to reliably detect small, slow moving targets flying at very low altitude above the sea surface.
Flights at such altitude exploit radar interference from waves and sea spray.
The Shahed 136 was flying at an altitude of 15 meters with a speed of about 185 kilometers per hour.
Although Aegis can detect ballistic missiles at distances of up to 1,000 kilometers, it struggles with drones moving slowly and low over the sea.
The drone struck an area near elevator number 3, causing damage to fuel pipelines carrying thousands of gallons of aviation fuel.
The fire was brought under control, however assessments showed severe damage to fuel transfer equipment and damage to storage areas.
The repair cost is estimated between 800 million and 1.2 billion dollars, with a recovery time of 3 to 6 months.
With an expenditure of just 20,000 dollars, Iran is reported to have caused damage approaching 1 billion dollars and temporarily put out of operation a strategic asset worth 13 billion dollars.
It was not just one drone
It was not just one drone. Iran launched more than 30 drones in a coordinated attack.
Most were intercepted, but one got through. One was enough.
Iran can produce hundreds of Shahed 136 drones.
If Iran launches 100 drones simultaneously, perhaps 90 will be intercepted. However, 10 will get through.
And if 10 drones hit an aircraft carrier, the damage will be catastrophic.
The United States Navy chose to retreat rather than risk additional attacks.
It is recalled that another aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, also retreated away from the Iranian coast.
This happened at the beginning of the war, after it was attacked by four ballistic missiles.
Tehran announced that the ship, anchored at a distance of 340 meters from the coast, suffered severe damage from a combined attack with drones and ballistic missiles.
The Pentagon denied these claims, but acknowledged that the attack occurred and that sailors repelled it.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is currently in the Indian Ocean, almost 1,000 kilometers from Iran.
This creates significant challenges for aircraft and missile missions.
The combat radius of F A 18F Super Hornet fighter aircraft operating from aircraft carriers during strike missions is about 720 to 750 kilometers.
After takeoff for a mission, the aircraft can carry out a strike, but to return to the carrier deck it will require aerial refueling.
This requires support from flying tankers such as the KC 135 Stratotanker, and this is where the problems arise.
The Americans, as reported, did not only lose two flying tankers in the airspace over Iraq, but also five aircraft at the air base Prince Sultan in Riyadh.
On March 13, the Iranians launched a targeted missile strike on the Saudi Arabia airport.
The Americans then stated that the aircraft “required extensive repairs.”
According to military experts, before the start of the war, the United States Air Force had 6 to 8 flying tankers in the Middle East.
Three weeks of war have shown that the Americans have suffered serious losses both at sea and in the air.
Western media do not report these losses, but that does not mean they are not real.
It is not surprising that after such developments in the theater of operations, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany refused to send naval forces to the Middle East to support their NATO ally with firepower.
They also do not intend to participate in the operation for the “liberation” of the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump announced a few days ago.
The United States has 12 aircraft carriers, while France has one and the United Kingdom has two, which explains their stance.
Latest news, the command of the United States Navy plans to transfer 1,000 sailors from the under construction aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy to Crete.
The exhausted crew of the Gerald R. Ford needs replacement.
www.bankingnews.gr
Σχόλια αναγνωστών