CENTCOM/FIFTHFLT has a long history of hoarding high-demand-low-density platforms & capabilities. My perspective on this issue is from first-hand knowledge, having served on the staff at USFFC and follow-on Tier 1 unit ('04-'11). The claim that LCDR Walsh's take on the matter is a result of the Trump NDS is a pearl-clutching attempt to maintain the ineffective status quo of the present. In my day, once these high-demand platforms chopped into theater, they became untouchable. It was a problem then and appears to remain a problem today.
Battle of Okinawa proved that carriers were obsolete against even non-peer competitors. 14000 Japanese planes, mostly tier 2 and 3 planes with large number of trainers included, flew sorties against Okinawa and the America fleet of 16 carriers and dozens of escort carriers. The Navy records show only it and air corps shot down only about 4000. This includes the 367 that hit an American ship and those who crashed into sea after consuming their tank of one way fuel.., Just like we could have reequipped our entire ground infantry force for the cost of one fighter jet during the Iraq years we can reequip a bomber fleet with the cost of one carrier battle group. The Navy will have to hide them just like the battleships after Pearl Harbor.
Something that I rarely see discussed anymore is the idea of a government that lives within its means under normal circumstances. A war or National Emergency would be justification to engage in deficit spending. Today, and for several administrations of both party, deficit spending has been an assumption and way of life. Sooner or later, the chickens will come home to roost and the debate won't be on how many ships to build or what fighter, bomber or armored vehicle systems to purchase, but rather how to keep what we have operating.
A fiscally sound government and economy are as important to readiness and combat capability as any weapons system. Neither of ours are sound or "combat ready". We're going to have to make some hard choices about what our tax dollars get spent on, and the current governing philosophy is more about bread and circuses instead of warriors and their weapons.
100%! The whole time, I kept thinking of non-discretionary, statutory spending. SS/Medicare/Medicaid are the 800 lb gorillas in the room, set to dwarf any other type of spending. Until/unless we reform this, national decline is a foregone conclusion.
Why do you think the Big Guy is draining all the oil reserves and spending us into oblivion. Rising to the China challenge is the last thing on his list or the list of his fool of a Defense Secretary. What was that guys last job? Oh yeah - spend over a Billion dollars to create a counter insurgent army to take on Assad in Syria. Ended up spending it all on 50 or so recruits who faded away within a week or two of getting paid. He was a laughing stock in the region. Did you also know we have no dry docks in theater either? No robust missle defense for Guam. Strategic breakout of China's nuclear forces is accelerating. Are we doing anything to counter that? No. So what does that tell you. It tells me that the defense establishment is unwilling or unable to address the threat and the inevitable result will be a humiliating defeat in the IndoPacific. Maybe that 's the real plan because if that is what you wanted then you would act exactly the way we are acting right now.
Just imagine what could have otherwise been done with the resources we seem to have wasted on the Ukraine. Incidentally, I find it interesting that any thought of investigating what has actually been done with our recent Ukraine spending spree seems to be a political sacred cow, and there will never be any accounting of that spending spree.
Having just spent a year as the NALE in the AOC working for both AFCENT and NAVCENT, I can say with 100% confidence that the value of “some” CVN presence in the CENTCOM AOR would have had tremendous strategic implications IRT our standing in the region. I say “some” because I’m not talking a full cruise/deployment locked into the region. Demand is not the issue, it’s supply. And I don’t believe the “hoarding” mentality, at least during my time in the seat (I know it was an issue in the past.
CENTCOM/FIFTHFLT has a long history of hoarding high-demand-low-density platforms & capabilities. My perspective on this issue is from first-hand knowledge, having served on the staff at USFFC and follow-on Tier 1 unit ('04-'11). The claim that LCDR Walsh's take on the matter is a result of the Trump NDS is a pearl-clutching attempt to maintain the ineffective status quo of the present. In my day, once these high-demand platforms chopped into theater, they became untouchable. It was a problem then and appears to remain a problem today.
Battle of Okinawa proved that carriers were obsolete against even non-peer competitors. 14000 Japanese planes, mostly tier 2 and 3 planes with large number of trainers included, flew sorties against Okinawa and the America fleet of 16 carriers and dozens of escort carriers. The Navy records show only it and air corps shot down only about 4000. This includes the 367 that hit an American ship and those who crashed into sea after consuming their tank of one way fuel.., Just like we could have reequipped our entire ground infantry force for the cost of one fighter jet during the Iraq years we can reequip a bomber fleet with the cost of one carrier battle group. The Navy will have to hide them just like the battleships after Pearl Harbor.
Something that I rarely see discussed anymore is the idea of a government that lives within its means under normal circumstances. A war or National Emergency would be justification to engage in deficit spending. Today, and for several administrations of both party, deficit spending has been an assumption and way of life. Sooner or later, the chickens will come home to roost and the debate won't be on how many ships to build or what fighter, bomber or armored vehicle systems to purchase, but rather how to keep what we have operating.
A fiscally sound government and economy are as important to readiness and combat capability as any weapons system. Neither of ours are sound or "combat ready". We're going to have to make some hard choices about what our tax dollars get spent on, and the current governing philosophy is more about bread and circuses instead of warriors and their weapons.
100%! The whole time, I kept thinking of non-discretionary, statutory spending. SS/Medicare/Medicaid are the 800 lb gorillas in the room, set to dwarf any other type of spending. Until/unless we reform this, national decline is a foregone conclusion.
Why do you think the Big Guy is draining all the oil reserves and spending us into oblivion. Rising to the China challenge is the last thing on his list or the list of his fool of a Defense Secretary. What was that guys last job? Oh yeah - spend over a Billion dollars to create a counter insurgent army to take on Assad in Syria. Ended up spending it all on 50 or so recruits who faded away within a week or two of getting paid. He was a laughing stock in the region. Did you also know we have no dry docks in theater either? No robust missle defense for Guam. Strategic breakout of China's nuclear forces is accelerating. Are we doing anything to counter that? No. So what does that tell you. It tells me that the defense establishment is unwilling or unable to address the threat and the inevitable result will be a humiliating defeat in the IndoPacific. Maybe that 's the real plan because if that is what you wanted then you would act exactly the way we are acting right now.
Just imagine what could have otherwise been done with the resources we seem to have wasted on the Ukraine. Incidentally, I find it interesting that any thought of investigating what has actually been done with our recent Ukraine spending spree seems to be a political sacred cow, and there will never be any accounting of that spending spree.
Having just spent a year as the NALE in the AOC working for both AFCENT and NAVCENT, I can say with 100% confidence that the value of “some” CVN presence in the CENTCOM AOR would have had tremendous strategic implications IRT our standing in the region. I say “some” because I’m not talking a full cruise/deployment locked into the region. Demand is not the issue, it’s supply. And I don’t believe the “hoarding” mentality, at least during my time in the seat (I know it was an issue in the past.