Carney and Mason crews both deserve Presidential Unit Citations. Captain and TAOs of Carney should get Navy crosses. Damn the torpedoes...deploy the fleet. It is a mother-lovin' naval war (from Harms Way)
"It will be interesting to see what our NATO allies will be surging to match." Hoping... Looking forward to the day we're surging Constellations for situations like this...
My first thought was: It's about time and I hope it's real not just words from CHINFO.
My second thought was: Why aren't the Russians and Chinese too concerned about their ships being molested.
My third thought is: What's next? It seems to be more than a coincidence that we are being sequentially challenged in the Med, Venezuela, the Red Sea, the Philippines, etc.
Lets hope the USG is ready to pay for all of this. Even a 5 inch round is expensive; $482 for a BL&P up to $1900 for more expensive rounds, to say nothing of the cost of an SM-2 (about $2m a round.) Of course, there will be a lot of downstream maintenance costs on all of these ships for deploying out of synch with plans that could be again deferred with predictable, poor outcomes.
We have a less than 300 ship navy in what is still a 600-ship Navy world.
Interesting data point on maintenance. Navy Reserve LCSRON2 got renamed to NR Commander Navy Surface Group South East to change the focus to supporting all ships in Mayport and keep the billets there.
Two thoughts. The first is the Navy should be proud of the fact that the DDG-51 class destroyers have been updated so they can operate in an environment that was not forseen in 1990.
The second thought is the Joint Force Commander should consider an attack operations course of action against the Houthis launch vehicles. From the number of weapons they are shooting into the Red Sea it seems to me that we will run out of multimillion dollar SAMs before they run out of their lower cost cruise and ballistic missiles.
But, ROE matter- are we just sending more ships to shoot $2M missiles at Houthi launched drones and missiles? Or is this to provide enough firepower to saturate the launch sites and end the Houthi attacks on our warships/ all merchant ships/ friendly nations?
We must again ask why our "friends" the Saudis who share a border with Houthiland/Yemen are not front and center in countering the threat? And the Egyptians?
In 1990-91 we led a coalition of 42 nations to fight Iraq, with The Kingdom as a major beneficiary, and us being sort of their mercenary force. That is not a role we should repeat. Let the locals take care of local problems. If there is a pirate threat, that may justify our involvement in a narrowly focused piracy suppression mission, preferably with other seafaring nations sharing the burden.
But, we also need to avoid stumbling into Iran's briar patch.
Reality sucks when you have a 300 ship navy and still want to do 600 ship mission. Especially when those 300 ships have suffered from inadequate maintenance and ordnance stocks are less than optimum. (But, diversity is our strength....)
I truly miss the Sprucan’s. Never worried about subsurface threats when we were steaming and conducting CORDASW from our Knox class with the Spruance acting as OTC.
Carney and Mason crews both deserve Presidential Unit Citations. Captain and TAOs of Carney should get Navy crosses. Damn the torpedoes...deploy the fleet. It is a mother-lovin' naval war (from Harms Way)
“I hope we are watching maintenance…”
Look who has the jokes!
That would be a sight to behold...
"It will be interesting to see what our NATO allies will be surging to match." Hoping... Looking forward to the day we're surging Constellations for situations like this...
My first thought was: It's about time and I hope it's real not just words from CHINFO.
My second thought was: Why aren't the Russians and Chinese too concerned about their ships being molested.
My third thought is: What's next? It seems to be more than a coincidence that we are being sequentially challenged in the Med, Venezuela, the Red Sea, the Philippines, etc.
Sal: Any thoughts on the Yemen/USN discussion at the end of this article?
https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/p/even-some-israelis-admit-the-iof?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1225061&post_id=139906141&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxODkwNzUxNSwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTM5OTA2MTQxLCJpYXQiOjE3MDI5NTgxNjQsImV4cCI6MTcwNTU1MDE2NCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTEyMjUwNjEiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.Cq4K8dr5QK3E1Nt4jUx3WhQsJ5RUs0mgfWsfLVuDFog&r=b994r&utm_medium=email
There's a reason for a 600 ship navy.
Lets hope the USG is ready to pay for all of this. Even a 5 inch round is expensive; $482 for a BL&P up to $1900 for more expensive rounds, to say nothing of the cost of an SM-2 (about $2m a round.) Of course, there will be a lot of downstream maintenance costs on all of these ships for deploying out of synch with plans that could be again deferred with predictable, poor outcomes.
We have a less than 300 ship navy in what is still a 600-ship Navy world.
He must have read my mind - and my article from 2018! But did it formally happen? https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2018/september/50-new-40-path-355-ship-navy
It's gonna be a hard rain gonna fall in Yemen no Bout a Doubt it.
Interesting data point on maintenance. Navy Reserve LCSRON2 got renamed to NR Commander Navy Surface Group South East to change the focus to supporting all ships in Mayport and keep the billets there.
Two thoughts. The first is the Navy should be proud of the fact that the DDG-51 class destroyers have been updated so they can operate in an environment that was not forseen in 1990.
The second thought is the Joint Force Commander should consider an attack operations course of action against the Houthis launch vehicles. From the number of weapons they are shooting into the Red Sea it seems to me that we will run out of multimillion dollar SAMs before they run out of their lower cost cruise and ballistic missiles.
Prudent moves.
But, ROE matter- are we just sending more ships to shoot $2M missiles at Houthi launched drones and missiles? Or is this to provide enough firepower to saturate the launch sites and end the Houthi attacks on our warships/ all merchant ships/ friendly nations?
We must again ask why our "friends" the Saudis who share a border with Houthiland/Yemen are not front and center in countering the threat? And the Egyptians?
In 1990-91 we led a coalition of 42 nations to fight Iraq, with The Kingdom as a major beneficiary, and us being sort of their mercenary force. That is not a role we should repeat. Let the locals take care of local problems. If there is a pirate threat, that may justify our involvement in a narrowly focused piracy suppression mission, preferably with other seafaring nations sharing the burden.
But, we also need to avoid stumbling into Iran's briar patch.
Reality sucks when you have a 300 ship navy and still want to do 600 ship mission. Especially when those 300 ships have suffered from inadequate maintenance and ordnance stocks are less than optimum. (But, diversity is our strength....)
Burkes until the Crack of Doom, indeed! Now some tenders and forward drydocks to keep them maintained. And the people to properly man them all.
I truly miss the Sprucan’s. Never worried about subsurface threats when we were steaming and conducting CORDASW from our Knox class with the Spruance acting as OTC.
Air and seapower are wonderful, but this is a job for special forces and Marines.
Exactly. Maintenance needs to remain a priority. Work with Greece to establish a "quasi-NRF" / reload facility at Souda Bay.
BTW: Is a "gathering" of Burkes in the same arena of a pride of lions or a cover of quail?