U.S. Navy Shows That What America Can Do, Brazil Can Do As Well
April 30th, 2008 by WILLIAM KERN
When one of Brazil’s leading columnists, William Waack, visited the Nimitz-class USS George Washington this week, what he came away with might surprise American readers.
Among some of the interesting observations Waack made were these:
“The George Washington has 85 combat aircraft, including the Super Hornet, the most powerful carrier-based aircraft. On a single aircraft carrier of this class (the Nimitz) there are more late-generation fighter aircraft flying than the total number available to the entire Brazilian Air Force. … American pilots and technicians probably fly more hours per week in conditions similar to the real thing (45 percent of flights, for example, are nocturnal) than their Brazilian and Argentine colleagues do in a year.”
And this - in telling of his realization that Brazil and its neighbors are incapable of defending their own waters:
“The message [of the visit by the US Navy] has been known for some time by Brazilian Navy officers: we have very few resources to protect the sea that we declare to be ours. And neither do we have anything to compare with a ’strike group’ like that of the USS George Washington (the cost of construction for which was almost twice the Gross Domestic Product of a country like Bolivia, for example).”
And Waack explains another interesting experience he had on board:
“The names painted on the fuselages of modern fighter aircraft, the name tags on the uniforms of technicians and sailors and a great portion of the officials on board are Latino. One hears much Spanish on board the George Washington, which is considered a model in terms of combat training and capability. Obviously, this capability is a function of the ‘workforce’ on board, and not the hardware or software of weapons systems.”
“My reading of this short visit by the USS George Washington has two angles. First: yes, these waters of the Atlantic must be ours not only by law, but in fact. Secondly: we can and we must be as good as they are.”
By William Waack
April 29, 2008
Translated By Brandi Miller
Brazil - O Globo - Original Article (Portuguese)
Few soldiers like to say that their activities are for political purposes - and the Americans that command the aircraft carrier George Washington are no exception. In a brief visit to the main vessel of the UNITAS maneuvers this Monday (Apr. 28), Admiral Phil Cullom, the commander of the George Washington Strike Group [see photo and video, right], only eluded to in the broadest possible way, the “political significance” of the presence of the George Washington in the South Atlantic.
Indeed, the arrival of the powerful warship for maneuvers - the heart of an attack force known as the Strike Group 8 - together with the Brazilian and Argentine navies, set an important political precedent. Amongst Brazilian Naval officers there was enormous discontent that three years ago, UNITAS (the official name of these maneuvers - Spanish for ‘Unity’) wasn’t carried out because of political interference that Brazilian officials attributed to [Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez.
“Since the Brazilian government doesn’t provide us with the funds to reequip the Navy, why can’t they at least let us participate in these maneuvers with a fleet so much more advanced, so that we can learn things that aren’t in the manuals?,” asked a major Brazilian commander a few months ago, who preferred to remain nameless.
In that sense, the “message” given by the Americans is reasonably clear. The George Washington has 85 combat aircraft, including the Super Hornet, the most powerful carrier-based aircraft. On a single aircraft carrier of this class (the Nimitz) there are more late-generation fighter aircraft flying than the total number available to the entire Brazilian Air Force.
I would venture to guess that American pilots and technicians probably fly more hours per week in conditions similar to the real thing (45 percent of flights, for example, are nocturnal) than their Brazilian and Argentine colleagues do in a year. One of the Brazilian pilots that watched the spectacle of ultramodern planes taking off and landing every three minutes (almost the pace of an international civil airport) from the flight deck of the George Washington, commented with obvious admiration: “What they do isn’t that different from what we do - the difference is in the amount of times they do it.”
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of U.S. relations with Latin America.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Newspapers, Pentagon, Military Affairs, Columnists, Latin America (Central/South), Foreign Affairs. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
