US warship named after Bush Snr

George Bush Senior said he was overwhelmed

By Nick Childs BBC Pentagon correspondent

The US Navy has announced that its next aircraft carrier is to be named the USS George H W Bush after the former president.

At a ceremony at the Pentagon, Mr Bush - father of President George W Bush - said he was overwhelmed and very grateful.

The USS Harry S Truman has just left for the Gulf

At 97,000 metric ton, the navy's current class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are the largest and most powerful warships ever built.

So it is not surprising that they tend to be named after former presidents - the USS Harry S Truman has just left for the Mediterranean and the Gulf to relieve the USS George Washington.

But it is rare, although not unheard of, for the navy to name ships after living people.

There is after all a new carrier, the Ronald Reagan, that has just been completed. There is also a nuclear-powered submarine called the Jimmy Carter and a naval cargo ship called the Bob Hope.

Son honoured

The US Navy Secretary, Gordon England, insisted that the choice of name for the next carrier was his.

White House press secretary Air Fleischer said he didn't know what role if any the current President Bush played in the decision but that the president was honoured that his father had been honoured.

Politically it probably won't do the navy any harm to name one of its most powerful warships after the current president's father.

Mr Bush Senior was himself a naval flyer in World War II and as president presided over the 1991 Gulf war with Iraq.

But even if there is military action again over Iraq, it is unlikely the current president will be sending in a ship with his father's name on it - the new carrier won't be completed until 2009.