Pretty stupid if you ask me. There are certainly ways to save money without resorting to this:
Under heavy pressure to find real cuts, Navy officials are seriously considering decommissioning a nuclear aircraft carrier halfway through its planned lifespan, two Pentagon sources said.
George Washington’s three-year-long refueling overhaul, scheduled to begin in 2016, would be canceled under the scheme, and the ship would be decommissioned as its reactor fuel ran out.
Along with the carrier, the Navy could also disband one of its 10 carrier air wings — a move which would save roughly as much money and people as cutting the ship.
Decommissioning GW would leave the Navy with a 10-ship carrier fleet, a move which would need to be approved by Congress. U.S. law currently mandates an 11-ship force.
Navy officials would not confirm or deny the story.
So lets think this all the way through. Rather than refuel GW-and keep the rotation that is barely sustainable with 11 carriers, we would cut to 10 or even 9. All the while, CENTCOM and PACOM get away with 2.0 and 1.7 carrier commitments in each theater. Why not just end the wars-and reduce the OPTEMPO to 1.0 apiece? That would save a lot of money-and a few lives to boot. Or better yet, really shrink NAVCENT? Close NAVCENT forward in Kuwait, reduce JTF Horn of Africa, and reduce the size of the presence at Ft. Apache-er I mean NSA Bahrain. Real savings there. Off shore all but essential functions back to NAVEUR or PACFLEET.
And lets not even talk about the cost to change a home port again for a CVN………