Chapter 1357 - Construction of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the Ford class begins

Newport News Shipyard.

This is a century-old shipyard in the United States. It was founded by Huntington in 188 and is adjacent to the city of Newport News. After years of development, it has long become the largest private shipyard in the United States.

Newport News Shipyard is not only the largest shipyard in the United States, but also the only shipyard that can design and build nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and replace nuclear fuel and overhaul nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Therefore, it is responsible for the construction of 100% of the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the US Navy, and is also one of the two major nuclear submarine manufacturers in the United States and 50% of the destroyers.

It can be said that it is not an exaggeration to call the Newport News Shipyard a national treasure of the United States.

Today, the United States held a groundbreaking ceremony for the "Ford" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with great fanfare.

Barack personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony, and Newport News Shipyard also invited George Wharton to participate.

Newport News Shipyard regards George Walton as its best friend. During George Walton's two terms in office, Newport News Shipyard can be said to have made a lot of money.

The U.S. Navy gave Newport News Shipyard four Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier construction orders and ten nuclear-powered submarine construction orders. Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier construction orders and nuclear-powered submarine construction orders are still benefiting even now.

It was also during George Walton's two terms in office that Newport News Shipyard received an order to develop a new type of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Ford-class, and received orders to build up to ten Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

The Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is a new generation of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the United States, which is to replace the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. This class of aircraft carriers uses many high-tech technologies, mainly including integrated electric propulsion and electromagnetic catapult technology, and is positioned as the middle of the U.S. Navy's maritime strike force in the 21st century.

After years of research and development, the Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has completed its design, and now it is finally time to start construction.

Even with the reconnaissance satellite, you can see the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier being built in the shipyard.

Although Barack and George Walton both attended the groundbreaking ceremony, they were far apart. It was obvious that the relationship between the two was very ordinary, and they were too lazy to do even the superficial work.

The person in charge of the Newport News Shipyard stood between the two, but was more inclined to George Walton, and the relationship between the two was obviously better.

There was no way. During George Walton's term, the Newport News Shipyard got too much.

Not to mention other things, the research and development funds for the "Ford-class" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier were as high as 6 billion US dollars.

The construction cost of the first "Ford-class" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was as high as 13.5 billion US dollars, making it the most expensive ship in the history of the US Navy.

As early as George Walton's first term, the Newport News Shipyard received as much as 73.5 billion US dollars, of which 67.5 billion US dollars were for the construction of 5 "Ford-class" nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and 6 billion US dollars were for research and development funds. Later, during George Walton's second term, he added an order for the construction of five "Ford-class" nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which was another $67.5 billion.

It was precisely because of the large orders from George Walton that the Newport News Shipyard has been very prosperous in recent years. Even during the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic crisis, the Newport News Shipyard was not affected at all.

After all, all the money was taken.

Even because of the inflation caused by the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic crisis, the Newport News Shipyard applied to the US government for a bailout of up to $30 billion.

And this $30 billion bailout was approved with the help of George Walton.

This time, the Newport News Shipyard applied for another bailout of up to $25 billion. It was also with the help of George Walton that it was included in Barack's $870 billion bailout plan, and Barack had to accept it in order to pass this plan.

Naturally, the Newport News Shipyard became closer to George Walton.

Many media reporters came to the groundbreaking ceremony, even authoritative media from other countries came.

Fox Broadcasting Company also broadcast live across the United States, so you can imagine how grand the groundbreaking ceremony was.

Barack delivered a speech, in which he highly praised the Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as a very advanced aircraft carrier, the most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world, and the most powerful combat platform of the US Navy in the future. With the Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the US Navy will dominate the ocean in the 21st century.

Since the Age of Exploration began, the world has officially entered the Age of Exploration.

Whoever dominates the ocean dominates the world!

Some people say that the West has dominated the world for 500 years, and the basis for this statement is that the West opened the Age of Exploration.

As a maritime power country, the United States attaches great importance to maritime power.

No mistakes in one song, one post, one content, one book, one bar, one 6, one 9!

In the world, there are theories of land power and sea power, and therefore countries in the world are divided into two types: land power and sea power.

What is land power?

Simply put, it is a theory of power or hegemony that controls the world through land.

This theory was proposed by the British Mackinder, who believed that with the development of land transportation, the "heartland" of the Eurasian continent became the most important strategic area. Mackinder published "Britain and the British Sea" in 1902, which is recognized as a milestone in British geographical literature.

Two years later, he gave a speech entitled "The Geographical Pivot of History" at the Royal Geographical Society of the United Kingdom. In this speech, Mackinder did two main things: First, he proposed the land-centered theory, that is, the heart-land theory. While he called Eurasia and Africa the "world island", he called the most remote place in the world the "hinterland".

The "hinterland" can be ignored. The "world island" and its "heart" are such a concept: the central area from Eastern Europe to Central Siberia is the heartland, and its periphery is divided into two crescent-shaped zones according to the distance: one is the inner crescent, including Germany, Austria, Turkey, India and China; the other is the outer crescent, which refers to the continents and islands outside Eurasia, including Britain, South Africa, Australia, the United States, Canada and Japan. Mackinder's central argument is that the heartland is the hub of world politics, rich in human and material resources, far away from the ocean, almost isolated from the world, and the forces of maritime powers cannot enter, making it the world's largest natural fortress.

Therefore, Mackinder believed that Eastern Europe was the gateway to the heart of the ‘world island’, or in other words, Eastern Europe was the heart of the ‘world island’. Whoever ruled Eastern Europe could control the heartland. Later, he further proposed that whoever ruled the heartland could control the world island; whoever ruled the world island could control the world.

These are also Mackinder’s three famous quotes on the theory of land power.

These three quotes are also very familiar to many people. (End of this chapter)