Source: Replacement named for Kitty Hawk

ARLINGTON, Va. — The USS George Washington will replace the Kitty Hawk in 2008 as the U.S. carrier based in Japan, a Navy source said on Friday.

But despite media reports that the George Washington, a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered ship, would take the Kitty Hawk’s stead, the official word from the Defense Department is no decision has been made on the Kitty Hawk’s replacement.

In October, the Navy announced that a nuclear carrier would replace the Kitty Hawk at Yokosuka Naval Base, but officials did not say which carrier would take the Kitty Hawk’s place.

On Friday, The Virginian-Pilot first reported the Navy had decided to send the Norfolk, Va.-based George Washington to Yokosuka, attributing the information to an anonymous “senior defense official.”

Then Navy Times reported the Navy planned to announce the George Washington would take the Kitty Hawk’s stead, also citing an unnamed senior defense official.

The Navy source confirmed the information in the media reports, but Defense Department officials did not confirm that the George Washington would replace the 44-year-old Kitty Hawk.

“There has been neither a decision nor an announcement on which carrier will replace USS Kitty Hawk,” wrote Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Brian Maka via e-mail.

Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Lisa Brackenbury said any talk of which carrier would take the Kitty Hawk’s place is just speculation.

Regarding The Virginian-Pilot story: “Since no decision has been made, it’s not accurate,” Brackenbury wrote via e-mail.

Navy spokesman Lt. John T. Schofield said he could not say when the Navy would announce the Kitty Hawk’s replacement.

The story about the George Washington comes about a month after Japanese newspapers speculated that the USS George Bush would replace the Kitty Hawk.

“The statement, ‘no announcement made,’ covers any and all carriers that have rumored to be the Kitty Hawk’s replacement,” Schofield said.

The Kitty Hawk was commissioned in 1961. The next year the carrier was brought to full alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis while off the Siberian coast.

The carrier was deployed to Vietnam six times during the war, and afterward it aided Vietnamese refugees trying to escape the communist country.

Since 1998, The Kitty Hawk has been based in Yokosuka and been called to support operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the war on terror.