Known as "America's Flagship" and one of the fastest ships in the Navy (in spite of her 82,538 ton full load displacement), the USS Constellation (CV-64) was a Kitty Hawk Class Supercarrier whose crews served in some of the most important US military engagements of the Cold War era and the decade that followed. Commissioned on October 27, 1961 and decommissioned on August 6, 2003 the "Connie" (as she was known by her crews) is probably best known for her service during the Vietnam War. The Connie is being towed to the scrapyards as of this post's writing.
Yesterday evening the Cold War Era US Navy Destroyer USS Edson passed through Detroit (picture below) along the Detroit River, the river also separates the US and Canada, on its way to its final berth as a floating museum at the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum. Pulled and pushed by tugs, the Edson left Philadelphia on July 18th on a 2,500 mile journey to its final destination.
Launched in 1958 the Edson is a Forrest-Sherman Class Destroyer that most notably saw extensive service in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War.
The Center For Strategic and Budgetary Assessments(CSBA) gave a presentation on Tuesday detailing major trends in ground combat that will impact ground vehicle modernization. Buried in the slides was an interesting info-graphic on the accelerated cost of force protection - meaning the price paid to equip the average combat rifleman in the U.S. Military. These costs have risen dramatically. According to the CSBA the average cost of clothing and equipping:
