 U.S. plan to deploy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka endorsed Akahata on February 2 reported that the U.S. Department of Defense is requesting a budget for the next fiscal year that includes a U.S. plan to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Yokosuka to replace the conventional aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. The Akahata article is based on the February 5 issue of the Navy Times that reports that the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, one of two conventional carriers in active service, will retire by the autumn of 2006 under the Pentagon plan, leaving only nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to replace the Kitty Hawk. If a nuclear carrier is to be deployed to the U.S. Navy Yokosuka Base in Kanagawa, more than 20 million people in the capital area will be forced to live with a huge atomic reactor comparable to an average nuclear power plant reactor, the paper warned. Last year in the U.S. Congress, Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, suggested that the Kitty Hawk will be replaced by a nuclear carrier, arousing strong opposition in Japan, especially among Yokosuka citizens who have been opposed to the use of Yokosuka Port as a U.S. carrier homeport. The U.S. now has ten nuclear and two conventional aircraft carriers. It has been reported that the John F. Kennedy will retire in 2018, and based on this report some said that it might replace the Kitty Hawk in 2008. The U.S. DoD Program Budget Decision included the item: "Retire one conventionally powered aircraft carrier in FY 2006, resulting in a carrier force of 11 vice 12 ships." (end) |