[Xie Zhao, special correspondent of the Global Times] The USS Truman nuclear-powered aircraft carrier suffered a ship collision near the Suez Canal at the beginning of this year, which made the Pentagon lose face. More ironically, U.S. Navy sailors recently broke the news to the U.S. "Business Insider" website that at the recent celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Navy, when U.S. President Trump gave a speech in front of the "Truman" aircraft carrier, the huge poster beside him was actually used to cover the damaged part of the aircraft carrier. This move caused ridicule and criticism from American netizens: for eight months, the U.S. Navy failed to repair the "minor injury" of this aircraft carrier.

The "War Zone" channel of the US "Power" website said on the 10th that due to external pressure, the US Navy responded that the damaged parts of the "Truman" due to the collision will be completed during the "mid-term refueling overhaul" of the ship's upcoming shipyard in Newport News.

In February this year, during the so-called Red Sea escort operation, Truman crashed with a merchant ship in the port of Siddhartha, Egypt, causing a noticeable crash and deformation of the surrounding pipelines in the vicinity of the aircraft carrier's right-wing elevator. The U.S. Navy did not disclose the specific damage of Truman, but said the crash caused damage over the water line and did not affect the safety of the nuclear reactor, "not affecting the operational capability." After the crash, the aircraft carrier went to the Greek port for emergency repairs. According to the U.S. Navy's statement, at the time, a new cabin wall was installed for each damaged cabin, "to ensure the integrity of the wind-proof inside of

Truman then resumed operational deployment missions and returned to the North American naval base in Norfolk in June.

But at the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy, held on October 5 at the Norfolk Naval Base, a photo shared by a U.S. Navy sailor on the ¡°Business Inside¡± website revealed the truth: Trump is next to the ¡°Truman¡± aircraft carrier with a huge poster hanging, the poster ¡°just¡± covered the part of the aircraft carrier injured in the collision.

According to the report, this photo immediately went viral on social media, and was considered to be the embarrassing situation of the US Navy trying to cover up the "aircraft carrier damage" in front of Trump. The US media mentioned that Trump has long paid close attention to the appearance of US Navy ships. Previously, he repeatedly criticized the rust of the main US Navy ships, and also commented from an "aesthetic point of view" that "an ugly ship There is no need to say that it is invisible". According to the report, during Trump's visit to the Yokosuka base of the US Navy in Japan in 2019, the White House asked the US Navy to try to cover a destroyer deployed at the base, because the warship was named after Trump's rival, the late Senator John McCain.

American netizens constantly ridiculed that the U.S. Navy failed to repair the collision site of the USS Truman aircraft carrier in eight months: "It's so embarrassing." "This is the same as the current situation of our country." "The U.S. Navy repaired the damaged USS Yorktown aircraft carrier in only 72 hours during World War II. Now it took us eight months, but it only took us a layer of paint on the USS Truman?"

In the questioning and criticism of the outside world, the U.S. Navy spokesman responded that "the external damage of the Truman will be repaired during the "middle-term replacement major repair" during the "War Zone" website explained that this is the normal upgrade maintenance process during the service of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, "Truman" served in 1998, it will be in this multi-year upgrade, replace fuel bars for nuclear reactors, and make major repairs, upgrades and modernizations to shipboard equipment to ensure they continue to operate for 20 years.

However, Chinese experts interviewed by the Global Times reporter said that there are unspeakable difficulties behind the Truman's "minor injuries that cannot be repaired". Although a spokesman for the U.S. Navy stressed that the combat capability of the USS Truman was not affected by the collision accident, the U.S. Navy is committed to achieving rapid maintenance of main battleships around the world. "This proves our lethality and synergistic advantages with our allies". However, according to relevant domestic laws and regulations in the United States, the main maintenance work of the U.S. Navy's combat ships (such as aircraft carriers, destroyers, and nuclear submarines) must be carried out in American shipyards. On the one hand, this is due to technical and safety concerns, because combat ships integrate a large number of sensitive technologies, and the United States is worried that overseas, even if allied shipyards undergo overhauls, there is a risk of core technology leakage; On the other hand, it is also hoped that "fertilizer and water will not flow to outsiders" and the lucrative military ship maintenance business will be kept in the United States.

U.S. Navy Association website previously revealed how the "Truman" in February collision damage the internal pipeline, can not only observe the appearance, may need to enter the dry boat for a comprehensive repair. But the reality is that with the decline of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, now the entire U.S. only remains a few dry boats of the Newport News shipbuilding and the Pujit Bay Navy shipbuilding have the ability to maintain the 100,000-ton super aircraft carrier, now they have been occupied.

In addition, due to factors such as a large number of maintenance operations accumulated by delays, excessive use caused by high-frequency overseas deployment, and long service time, the actual situation of the 11 super aircraft carriers in active service of the U.S. Navy is not good, usually only 3-4 aircraft carriers have deployment capabilities. The accidental damage to the Truman during normal deployment exacerbated the "stretch" in the use of the US Navy aircraft carrier. Many American netizens have no choice but to admit that the U.S. Navy insists on the USS Truman aircraft carrier "minor injuries and not repairing", which is really a last resort.