Rebecca Grant at Fox.com offers her take on President Trump visiting the aircraft carrier USS Bush:
The sight of President Donald Trump on
the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush was a great
reminder that no one fears U.S. aircraft carriers more than China.
Trump flew onto the carrier, underway in the Atlantic, as
part of the Navy’s 250th Anniversary celebrations. He brought along First Lady
Melania Trump, wearing a sleek leather flight jacket and more importantly,
closed-toe, low-heel shoes, per Navy regulation for personnel on the flight
deck. Together they watched a firepower demonstration from F/A-18EF
Superhornets, F-35C fighters and the Aegis destroyers of the strike group in
the Navy’s Atlantic training range.
Later, Trump applauded carrier operations, with a speech back at the pier at Norfolk Naval Base, Virginia. "They land screaming jets on pitching decks in the dark of night with no room for error," he said.
Despite this praise, Trump’s visit actually marks something of a
turnaround in the future of aircraft carriers. No question, Trump knows the
value of aircraft carriers. In March, Trump paired up two carriers, the USS
Harry S. Truman and USS Carl Vinson, to hit over 1,000 Houthi targets in Yemen.
Operation Rough Rider "unleashed American fury on the Houthi terrorists in
the Red Sea," Trump said Sunday, and included "the single largest
airstrike from an American aircraft carrier." Last week, the Navy’s newest
carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was in the Baltic Sea staring down Russia.
However,
carriers hit rough seas in the Pentagon reviews carried out after Trump’s
inauguration. Trump’s team was shocked to find shipyard workforce gaps and
post-COVID supply chain problems delaying carrier construction. Worse, Pentagon
staff raised doubts about the role of aircraft carriers against China.
Here’s the scoop. Aircraft carriers are lethal. Carriers have a
major fighting role in the Pacific, because they are the only mobile air bases.
You can read the rest of the piece via
the link below:
Trump’s visit to USS George H.W. Bush reminds Beijing who commands the seas | Fox News
No comments:
Post a Comment