Alphecca

During WWII, there was a German pocket-battleship named the Deutschland which Hitler had renamed the Lutzow simply to avoid the morale blow that would have occured if the Deutschland had been sunk.

Perhaps the US Navy should have renamed the America to something else, like the Bill Of Rights, that would have made its sinking more appropriate.

The Navy claims this test was necessary to prevent future sinkings of aircraft carriers. I didn't know we had a problem with that.

We don't, and it's tests like these that make sure we won't.

Ever see those crash tests the auto industry pay for all the time? There has to be a reason they crunch up perfectly good, brand new cars.

It's too expensive to build a bunch of warships just to see what it takes to sink or damage them. Could be that 100 pounds of Semtex in the right place could do a great deal of harm, maybe even put the ship into drydock when it's needed on the other side of the world. Better to light off some explosives on a worn out old ship and see, just to make sure.

Most people who never go to sea have no idea the kind of damage that the ocean will do to a ship, even something so big and strong as a warship. All those pounding waves, all that wind, causes the supports, metal plates and struts to flex and bend hundreds of times a day. Some of the components of the America had that happen to them for over 30 years. Ever bend a coat hanger over and over again to get it to break?

The ship was at the end of it's useful life. It would have cost huge piles of money to keep her afloat and in service, with constant pressure on the crew as they struggled to keep vital yet worn out equipment functioning. It was the end for her any way you look at it, the only question was how. She could have been sold for scrap, cut up and melted down. Or she could have one last honorable duty, giving us vital information that might just save lives.

I'm just glad she went with the sound of thunder, instead of the scream of the wrecker's saws.

James

Now see here, James, quit using logic and making sense!

In a way, I have to agree with James. The US Navy needs to find ways to keep our ships afoat & sailors safe. If a SINK-EX is the way to do it, then so be it. Remember what a couple of towelheads and a raft with explosives did to the USS Cole? Granted the Cole is a destroyer, and the America is an aircraft carrier, but still. Let's face it. We are at war with a fanatical group of people. All it would take is a cople of more towelheads (and some more explosives) and the Enterprise is on the bottom of the Arabian Sea. That would be a big blow to the US Navy, and a big boost to the fanatics!

Also, as a ship that had been decomissioned and stricken from the record, it was no longer named the America (though most would still call her that). She on a form somewhere as an alpha-numeric string, and otherwise referred to as ex-America.

Also I have to agree, some things you can't simulate, you have to test them on a real hull. A similar fate awaited many ships after WW2. If you see a clip of a nuke test at sea, you'll see a lot of ships caught in the explosion.