Return of the Son of Tom Clancy Drool Fest

The US Navy has exactly one non-nuclear powered aircraft carrier left in its fleets, the USS Constellation. But let’s not retire the old girl just yet.

She might be given over to Special Operations Command, and turned into a permanent home for some of the Army’s SpecOps commando helicopters. The Army on a great big ship? Cool — but who’s gonna drive her? (That’s a joke, kids.)

Also, the Pentagon is looking at plans to convert four more Ohio-class ballistic missile subs into stealthy commando carriers. Very, very cool.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Kevin reminds me that the Kitty Hawk is also conventionally-powered. And, was also used to base commandos during the opening of the Afghan Campaign.

FURTHER UPDATE: Some days, it just doesn’t pay to make off-the-cuff statements of “fact.” Turns out the JFK, which I thought was our first nuke, was really our last conventional.