Navy pays a penny to get rid of ex-USS Saratoga

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/09/us/penny-for-an-aircraft-carrier/

(CNN) -- For the second time in two years, the U.S. Navy is parting with one of its aircraft carriers for a penny.

The Navy announced Thursday it's paying ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Texas, one cent to take the former USS Saratoga off its hands for dismantling and recycling.

The warship was decommissioned in 1994. It is now at Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island and is expected to be towed to Texas in the summer, the Navy said.

<snip>

The Saratoga will follow the former USS Forrestal to dismantling in Texas. That ship was towed to All Star Metals of Brownsville earlier this year, with the Navy paying a penny to the ship recycler under a contract awarded last October.

The recyclers make money from selling the metal they salvage from the warships.

A third carrier, the former USS Constellation, is expected to meet a similar fate soon, according to a Navy statement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Saratoga_(CV-60)

[Recursion]

1. It normally costs 2-3 million. This is an experimental contract

I hope it goes well.

[Chan790]

4. I wonder how much they'd want for a smaller boat?

That's too big and I haven't got that kind of money...but it'd be funny and fun to buy something like a decommissioned USCG Hamilton-class cutter. Use it as a personal yacht.

[Recursion]

5. You have to be bonded seven ways to Sunday -- I used to work for their competitor

We were thinking of bidding on this 4 years ago when it came out but we didn't have the resources. The bonds required on the proper disposal of all the components was way too intimidating. Glad to see they may have found a way for it to work, though...

I kept trying to convince our Navy rep to sell the USS Constitution to me (we were its maintainer contractor at the time). That would have been awesome.

[L0oniX]

2. See ...the military helps create jobs.

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. It's better than scuttling.

There are enough "artificial reefs"