I'm John Batchew with my friend and colleague and co-host Gordon-Chang at Gordon G. Chang.

Range, I use the technical term. It applies to the capability of the United States Navy.

Range. I welcome Rebecca Grant, Vice President of the Lexington Institute and are informant on

naval matters to understand why it is that the Gerald Ford,

the latest super, super carrier now designated to the Caribbean to support the effort off Venezuela,

and the Abraham Lincoln, a supercarrier, now designated to the Middle East in some fashion,

have a limitation that is unwise in the 21st century range.

Rebecca, a very good day to you.

What does that mean for the Navy?

What does it mean for the F-18 wings on board those aircraft carriers?

Good evening to you.

Hello.

Well, for naval flight operations off of aircraft carriers. Good evening to you. Hello. Well, for naval flight operations

off of aircraft carriers, range is the number one tactical planning factor. Now, we know

aircraft carriers are a top response option. President Trump loves to use those aircraft carriers.

We've got, as you say, the USS Gerald R. Ford, our newest carriers,

still down in the Caribbean, and the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz class carrier on its way

from Indo-Pacom over to the Middle East, where we have had carriers for such a long time with all the

crisis with Iran, et cetera. Now, the issue is, what's the range off those carriers?

And while the F-18 superpointed has been a super platform for naval aviation, they also have

the South EF-35, but the Navy needs a new fighter and attack plane. They call it F-AXX. It's an experimental

plane. Boeing has a prototype.

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