I share your concerns re "incumbents" especially at NAVSEA. They will fight tooth and nail against the NSC to "Frigate" (PF in my day) as they did 15 years ago.
Hi Commander, big fan of your work. I have written a piece on this exact topic on my page called ‘A Ship for All Seasons’ I think you may enjoy. After my initial reaction of the new FF(x) being one of frustration; I truly think it’s a wise move. If for any other purpose to unburden our Burke’s in presence missions, counter-narcotics ops, etc.. I’m in agreement that Flight II should see enhancements in VLS capacity and air defense systems. However, having worked at Ingalls for several years, I’m very confident that we can spit these out quickly and start lightening the load on our critical strike platforms. The issue will become (in my mind) if they start trying to retrofit this hull to be a next-gen ASW and MCM platform when we have much better options with some of our closest allies (namely Japan with Mogami). Curious to hear your thoughts.
My personal thought is that it would act as a degrading agent for all other capabilities and force the engineers/navarcs to over complicate and inflate the design. Reading between the lines of what’s coming out of HII and NAVSEA it seems like they may rely on USVs to augment the ASW mission for this platform.
But I’m sure they will explore this option and opt for modularity on future variants.
I'll be honest, given what we've done in the past I really like this. There are bolt on things that can make it usable and valuable to the fleet in Flight I; and that will get the line(s) going (I think we'll have to have it license built elsewhere to get the numbers we want.
Once they get that Flight II opens up the option for things like towed array and VLS, and I think that in FF4923 HII left room for just this sort of thing.
Besides, even with some of the reduced range numbers I've seen (8K vs 12K) the range is great for the pacific, a bit of a un-accounted for super power, and it's cost of operation is really nice.
I’m in complete agreement. One of the primary things I would love to see is increased automation on future flights. Such a non-sexy problem compared to weapons upgrades but just about as pragmatic as we can possibly get. There’s no reason flight II shouldn’t see enhanced lethality along with a 10-15% reduction in crew size.
A huge strength of the upgraded Mogami out of Japan is next-gen ASW/MGM along with a 32cell VLS and integrated air defense with only a 90 person crew.
It’s a boondoggle. The FFG does zero for the Navy nir to relieve Burkes.
We are far better off building more Burkes to help relieve the need for Burkes.
When things go hot with West Taiwan I prefer a navy deep with DDG and larger surface combatants supported by autonomous ships. We will not have the resources to keep under armed and resourced constraint Frigate support. They will do nothing but slow us down to keep them supplied and relevant.
The Red Sea has shown the issue with Frigates in medium intensity operations let alone High intensity ops against a peer.
I can appreciate your point, however, the issue is operational availability. We can build all of the Burke’s we want, but we have to get systems in place to take the hours/miles off of their primary propulsion systems and crew. The FF(x) is a cheap option to do that. Plus our industrial base is just about maxed out on Burke production unless we get a tier 1 west coast shipyard joining the party to heat up another DDG production line. FF(x) can occupy the Tier 2 industrial base capacity and be more non-disruptive to our nuclear and non-nuclear public dry docks.
We need Hulls, and a shot to the industrial base. FFG has some combat power in Flight I and is easy to build/operate. These things count. And a Flight II can make it better. Not every ship needs to be every thing.
I has very little combat power. What is enough for the Coast Guard does zero for actual Combat Power let alone being able to support a ship that will Winchester what little offensive power it has in 5 minutes is a strain and recipe for the hull on the bottom.
AS for Flight II that does nothing that we can get from more Burkes. The industrial base knows how to build and support Burkes. The Training pipeline knows how to support Burkes. The infrastructure knows how to support Burkes.
At the end of the day a $1.5-$2Billion FFG is a low-end waste and future anchor. Beyond the hull cost comparison against a real combat vessel there is the whole ecosystem that would need to be built up for the FFG. Everything from onshore engineering & training facilities to training pipelines to parts store.
As the INDUSTRAIL Base has shown they are incapable for building & supporting Little Crappy Ships. They excel at building Large Surface Combatants. Everyone from GE to Allison to Raytheon to BAE to Lockheed,
We have built 74 Burkes and another 21 in flight that is impressive and shows the Industrial Base can build hulls. Whereas the Constellation and even the Legend NSC have been nightmares. I am a huge OHP fan but the ship has sailed on the USN being a Frigate operator the time for replacing the OHP with a new FFG was the late 90s now it's about building what we know and what we know how to fight and supply.
CDR, a call for untiy from the mountains high, to the wave crashed coast, in memory of Martin Luther King Jr:
"We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish togetherbas fools."
"The person down the street who votes differently than you is not your enemy. They are your neighbor. They worry about the same things you worry about. They want their kids to be safe and their bills to be paid and their country to be a place worth living in. They have been manipulated just like you have been manipulated, fed a different flavor of the same poison, sorted into a different tribe by the same algorithm, pointed at you as the enemy by the same people who point you at them.
The working class Republican and the working class Democrat have more in common with each other than either of them has with the billionaire class that funds both parties.
You share the same struggles. You face the same rigged systems. You are being crushed by the same economic forces that have transferred more wealth upward in the last fifty years than at any point in human history. And instead of uniting against the people doing this to you, you are screaming at each other on the internet about pronouns and flags and whatever fresh outrage the algorithm served up this morning.
This is exactly what they want. A nation at war with itself cannot resist a takeover. A people consumed by mutual hatred will accept any authority that promises to protect them from the manufactured enemy. Every empire that fell was divided before it was conquered. Every free people who lost their freedom were set against each other first.
The red versus blue war is not real. It is a show put on by people who own both teams. It is professional wrestling and you think it is a real fight. The wrestlers go backstage after the match and laugh together while you are still screaming at the guy in the other section who was rooting for the wrong character.
This Is Our Country Not Theirs
This nation belongs to the people who live here and work here and raise families here and will be buried here. It does not belong to billionaires who hold citizenship in three countries and will flee to their bunkers the moment things get bad. It does not belong to tech oligarchs who view democracy as an obstacle to efficiency. It does not belong to foreign interests who have purchased so much influence that they might as well be writing our laws themselves.
We have to stop letting them divide us. We have to start seeing each other as fellow Americans again instead of enemy combatants in a culture war that was manufactured to keep us weak. We have to remember that the person screaming at us online is also a victim of the same manipulation, and maybe if we stopped screaming back and started talking, we might realize we have been fighting the wrong enemy this entire time.
Turn off the television. It is not informing you. It is programming you. Question everything, including the sources you trust, especially the sources you trust. Talk to people who disagree with you and do it without trying to win. Listen to why they believe what they believe. You might discover that the monster you have been told to hate is actually just another person trying to make sense of a confusing world with imperfect information, exactly like you.
Remember who you are.
You are an American. Your ancestors came to this land or were brought to this land or were already on this land, and regardless of how they got here, they built something together that was supposed to be different from the old world’s tyrannies and aristocracies. That project is not finished. Every generation has to fight to keep it alive against the forces that want to drag us back to a world where a handful of rulers own everything and everyone else serves at their pleasure.
Stop letting them divide you. Your enemies are not your neighbors. Your enemies are the people who profit from your division and are building machines to replace you the moment you are no longer useful.
Start acting like it before it is too late". —The Wise Wolf
I wish I could agree with you but the person down the block who is hurling obscenities or throwing firecrackers at policemen is not my friend or neighbor, but is opposed to everything I believe in.
“Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.” Psychologist Steven Pinker, although a usual suspect, noted, “People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true.” Tribal.
But, if the goal is to actually change minds, better to connect with the other side, collaborate with them where possible, and integrate them into the conversation with tribal kindness. The word “kind” originated from the word “kin.” When you are kind to someone it means you are treating them like family.
Counterpoint
"I have as much desire to be friends with a 2026 Democrat as I did with a 1986 Soviet communist. They are two sides of the same authoritarian, Marxist coin. Actually, I take that back. At least a Soviet communist could tell what a woman is. So I’ll take the Soviet over the Democrat." Not generally a winning strategy.
Supporting Donald Trump is not a protected “creed” under the Human Rights Laws. New York State and City Human Rights Laws do not prohibit discrimination based on political affiliation.
Failure to serve plaintiff and eventual ejection from the restaurant not amount to “outrageous” conduct.
Pete, harken back to our founders. Remember their well-founded fear of a “standing army?” What is ICE? I’m sure both Jefferson and Hamilton would be “hurling obscenities.” Patrick Henry would be hurling more than words.
“Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!”
??? Our founding fathers much as they did putting down the Whiskey Rebellion.
They understood what borders and nation was better than anyone. They also understood the golden rule of moderation unlike the French in the 1780s and todays Leftist.
Basically the best idea for the future of America would be to forcibly dismantle BOTH mega-parties, or at least block them from at least one election cycle. So the other parties - the ones who are smaller, not so rigid, not so corrupt and indifferent - could got a chance.
The fundamental problem of today's American two-party system is that neither party is interested of making peoples vote FOR them. They are only interested in making peoples vote AGAINST others. This is a toxic, self-destructive cycle.
True. Worst of all, they started to get some kind of pseudo-messianic idea, with each party viewing itself as "destined to save the nation", and viewing the other not as merely political opponent, but as hated enemies.
I have as much desire to be friends with a 2026 Democrat as I did with a 1986 Soviet communist. They are two sides of the same authoritarian, Marxist coin.
Actually, I take that back. At least a Soviet communist could tell what a woman is. So I’ll take the Soviet over the Democrat.
Ten Ways the 1% is Manipulating Us Right Now by @thewisewolf
1) The first manipulation is the illusion of choice. You think you have two parties representing different visions for America but both parties are funded by the same billionaires, vote for the same surveillance bills, approve the same defense budgets, and serve the same corporate interests. The choice you are given is which color tie the puppet wears, not who controls the strings.
2) The second manipulation is emotional hijacking. The news does not inform you, it activates you. Every story is framed to trigger fear or anger or disgust because those emotions bypass your rational thinking and make you easier to control. You are not watching journalism. You are being subjected to psychological operations designed to keep you in a constant state of agitation.
3) The third manipulation is tribal sorting. The algorithm learns what makes you angry and feeds you more of it until your entire worldview is shaped by outrage at the other side. You are sorted into a tribe not because you chose it but because keeping you tribal keeps you predictable and profitable.
4) The fourth manipulation is false scarcity. You are told resources are limited and the other tribe is taking what belongs to you. Immigrants are stealing your jobs. Welfare recipients are draining your taxes. The other party is destroying your healthcare. Meanwhile the billionaire class has more wealth than any humans in history and could solve most of these problems tomorrow if they wanted to.
5) The fifth manipulation is memory holing. Stories that threaten powerful interests get buried or forgotten within days. Exposed crimes result in no consequences. Historical context that would help you understand the present is never taught. You are kept in a perpetual present with no past to learn from and no future to plan for.
6) The sixth manipulation is controlled opposition. The voices you think are fighting for you are often funded by the same interests they pretend to oppose. The outrage merchant on your side of the aisle is playing a character designed to keep you engaged and angry and tuned in while nothing ever actually changes.
7) The seventh manipulation is the Overton window. The range of acceptable opinion is artificially narrowed so that anything outside it seems extreme. Ideas that were mainstream fifty years ago are now treated as radical. Ideas that serve elite interests are treated as moderate common sense. You are not choosing your beliefs from the full range of human thought. You are choosing from a menu they wrote.
8) The eighth manipulation is learned helplessness. You are shown so many problems with no solutions that you eventually give up and accept that nothing can change. This is intentional. A population that believes resistance is futile does not resist. They scroll and complain and feel superior for understanding how bad things are while doing absolutely nothing about it.
9) The ninth manipulation is identity capture. Your political affiliation becomes your identity, and any attack on your party feels like an attack on you personally. This makes you defend politicians and policies that harm you because admitting they are wrong would mean admitting you were wrong, and your ego will not allow that.
10) The tenth manipulation is the most insidious of all: you are manipulated into believing you are too smart to be manipulated. Every person reading this thinks the manipulations I described apply to other people, the stupid people, the brainwashed people on the other side. That certainty is itself a manipulation. The moment you believe you are immune is the moment you become most vulnerable
One problem - the significant part of Republicans are also pushing not for return to working democracy, but for authoritarian, Fascist-esque regime. A large number of mentally unstable persons trying to push their weird beliefs into politics "because (their) God said so!" aren't making the situation better either.
That's a load of trash. Which weird beliefs are you talking about? That maybe we shouldn't be killing 1/3 of the last few generations through abortion? That if you have a dick, you're a guy and should stay out of women's bathrooms and locker rooms? That charity cannot be done at gunpoint?
Anything on the drawing board that would serve to ship 30 million "visitors" in the USA back to their home waters? The rest of the discussion is moot in its absence.
CDR Sal, thanks for reminding us of the past. Why? Because the system and personnel that committed these...errors (crimes) largely remains in place. And despite efforts by the current administration to change things, the "old guard" is fighting very hard to defend the status quo. People of senior rank and grade are steeped in the past, remember when we were focused on the peace dividend because we had no "peer" to worry about in the world. Post 9/11 and 20 years of resisted nation building reinforced the bad practices. Senior DoD leadership, military "prime" contractors and congress had become involved in a "self-enrichment" exercise because they lost all sense of what it means to face a "peer"...and it's not clear "the system" has fully embraced the fact that they are, truly facing a "peer" and we lack the vision and industrial capability to respond. Keep up the good work.
The Secretary of Way missed an opportunity when he summoned all the flag to a meeting. He should have handed half of them their retirement Legion of Merit medals and thanked them for their service and wish them fair winds.
1) your twenty year review 😬 gives absolutely zero confidence this will happen ⏰ 🙋🏻♀️🤦🏻😖
2)the US manufacturing base is way worse off now ~ can't make valves, circuit breakers 🎛️ or flat screens in these Estados Unidos, much less nuts, bolts n screws (post Covid) 🔩🇨🇳🏗️🏭
3) it is yet to be seen if 21st Century 🌐📡💫🛰️ surface warfare🪦 is even survivable ⚔️ 🌊⚓ in the age ⚡👁️ of air~survace~subsurface unmanned vehicles and hunter/killer mine fields. 💣🦑💥🪸🐚
Robert C Culwell: "3) it is yet to be seen if 21st Century surface warfare is even survivable in the age of air-surface-subsurface unmanned vehicles and hunter/killer mine fields."
The end of the surface navy has been predicted for a century. But it hasn't happened yet.
A seaspace can be denied to an adversary's forces using submarines, UAVs, UUVs, and unmanned surface craft. But gaining control of that seaspace requires the presence of a manned surface fleet.
Once we have denied a seaspace to some future adversary, will we then want to gain full control of a particular seaspace for some further purpose such as replenishment of an ally as might become necessary in a future war with China?
Or will it become necessary to follow a warfighting strategy where if we can't gain full control of a given seaspace, the adversary won't be allowed to gain control of it either?
Yeah, but the Red Sea, where we saw everything from AShBMs to aerial and sea-drones, suggest that drones aren't the panacea you think they are. Russia is getting it's bottom kicked not because drones are superior, but because they have spent very little time innovating.
You will notice that no Russian ships have anything like a RWS with EO/IR sights and a cannon. Their 'defense, if you can call it that, is a bunch of guys manning the rails with AKs.
Your typical US surface ship has two remote weapon stations, two phalanx guns that have Electro-optical targeting in addition to radar, and some have RAM which is anti-surface/anti-air capable.
The US and most western militaries learned their lesson with the almost-sinking of the USS Cole. The Russians are all show/no-go, and though their ships look pretty, they are functionally obsolete. No RWS, no EO targeting for their CIWS, nothing. That's why they're losing hulls.
I get your point, but the 🇨🇳 PLA is not the Ukrainian army 🇺🇦 (navy?) either. US surface vessels probably won't have enough ammo to deal with 🛰️🐲⚓ PLAN drone Swarms. Survival on the surface of the planet 👁️🛰️🌐🗝️ is the issue when they know where every USN vessel is, within a few meters, at ALL TIMES. ⏰🔔 A ship on the water can't hide any better than a Russian APC 🌻⚰️ in a field. EW and Counter-EW might enhance survival, but not for long. Get thee below the 🐬 surface sailor!
Problem 1: Drones small enough to be a 'swarm' can't travel very far out into the sea. They don't have the range or sea-keeping. The US Navy isn't bottled up into a small area with them, unlike the Russkies in the Black Sea.
2. Drones powerful enough to travel long distances out into the ocean and have their own targeting aren't going to be 'cheap and swarmable'. They're going to be pretty expensive.
3. Targeting isn't as simple as you're maybe thinking. The drones would have to be targeted and controlled via a satellite network to be useful. Even the Chinese can't just send a bunch of ordnance down range and hope they don't hit random merchant ships. Satellites will be one of the first things to get taken down in a Peer war.
4. A laser dazzler can do a number on the EO device that the drone might be using to do its 'AI target recognition' against a ship, so I don't necessarily have to 'hard-kill' the drone.
Bottom Line: Drones aren't the panacea that people have been led to believe they are. They're just another tool in the tool box.
I'm optimistic about the FF(X). That's eminently doable. I'm less optimistic about the BBG. I'd be more optimistic about BBG if they were to come out and say: "We're slapping this down on a proven hull."
(1) The logistical support infrastructure for the Iowa Class has been completely scrapped. Recreating the specialized manufacturing infrastructure needed to support those four ships would consume financial and material resources better spent on other types of warships.
(2) Without having proven long-range guided ammunition for the 16-inch guns, it makes no sense to return these ships to service. At today's pace of development, designing, testing, and fielding of that long-range guided ammunition would take another ten to twelve years.
If we think we might need a larger class of surface combatant warship -- i.e., a true BBG, not the trial balloon BBG the Trump administration has tossed out for discussion and comment -- then do an honest analysis of the requirements for a large 21st Century warship using a transparent analytical approach, and then go on from there.
I don't see those as excuses to do nothing, more like reasons not to go down a bad road. I love the BB's. I've toured Iowa and Missouri, lovingly made models of Arizona. Read 'Battleships' by Norman Friedman like a great novel.
But... damn are they old now. And we don't have the industrial base to do much with the machinery they have. It would be better spent building new stuff.
Ingalls had a concept for an LPD-17 derived 'BMD ship' with a set of SPY-6 or SPY-7 radar arrays, a single Mk-45 dixie-cup on the bow, and a horde of VLS modules down the sides of the ship. The well-deck got converted into an Osprey hangar with an elevator, like the old heavy-cruisers from WW2. That thing had something like 200-300 VLS tubes. If you dumped the rail-gun and improved propulsion instead, this would get you to a 'what we really need' solution.
And by the time all these design changes were implemented to the LPD-17 hull, would we not be experiencing a repetition of the Constellation Class fiasco in which we would have been much better off designing a clean sheet warship which is a better fit to the US Navy's 21st Century requirements than an LPD-17 retread?
The difference is the LPD-17 is a very big ship, while FREMM was a relatively small ship. LPD-17 is ALREADY designed to meet USN standards, while FREMM wasn't. The vast vehicle storage decks provide plenty of places to add more power generation or VLS modules. The well deck itself is a giant empty space with nothing in it.
Would it be great to develop a design from scratch? Yes. However, the last 7 Ticonderogas leave the fleet NEXT YEAR. That's 2600 VLS cells among them. We kinda need something quick and dirty. The Ticos themselves are the precedent. They took the Spru-can hull and just slapped a top-hat on it, then replaced the box-launchers on either end with VLS.
Haste makes waste. The more the haste, the more the waste.
Unless the US Navy has some firm idea at this point how a war at sea with the PLAN will be conducted, from beginning to end, simply throwing money at legacy warship designs in an attempt to bring them up to current requirements will be a losing proposition, no different really than what's been happening for the last twenty years.
The DDG-1000's basic stealth hullform is a very inefficient use of hull volume and displacement relative to the numbers and configurations of the weapons systems and the ordnance loadouts a 21st Century DDG(X) or CG(X) platform should be capable of carrying.
Repeating what I said to Richard Parker, by the time the necessary design changes were implemented to the DDG-1000 hull, would we not be experiencing a repetition of the Constellation Class fiasco in which we would have been much better off designing a clean sheet warship which is a better fit to the US Navy's 21st Century requirements than an DDG-1000 retread?
You say that yet If you add the payload weights between Zumwalt and Burke your fraction favors Zumwalt which has much more going for it aside from that. Low manning. Space for 2 different types of fixed face radars. larger boats, 2 helo spots so both helos can safely fly simo. Greater overall throw weight of ordnance, lower manning. Actual protection strategy with some actual armor. It goes on and on and we already have it.
Haste makes waste. The more the haste, the more the waste. And the word 'Burke' doesn't appear in my comment. If we are going to build a warship larger than a Burke, build it on a hull which does not carry the inherent inflexibility of the DDG-1000 stealth hullform design, with the ultimate consequence that we end up with a vessel which can only go so far in meeting evolving combat requirements.
Back in the day, we could go to the NSTM (or BSTM if you were really old) and have authoritative info on how to do almost anything, based upon decades of experience and expert knowledge. Wonder when that stopped.
Vapor ware- all of it. And NO ONE HELD ACCOUNTABLE! Just like the Somali $9 billion fraud not a single "leader" responsible for the 20 year debacle/spending debauchery will ever hear the steel clanging shut behind them. All the Chinese engineering students at US universities could not have done a better job at mis-directing the USN and wasting scarce taxpayer resources.
But beyond procurement construction woes, the Red Sea B-on-B shootdowns highlighted the same manning and training deficiencies that led to WESTPAC collisions disasters 8 years ago. When is Surface Community leadership gonna fix problems that kill sailors and destroy valuable platforms?
Well, at least USN seemingly started to learn from PLAN "how to design and test ships", and are willing to set on evolutionary path with FF(X); took a minimal workable design, put it into production as fast as possible, and then gradually improve next batches. So in case some improvement failed, they would still have baseline to retreat to.
There you go again CDR using that word “Sexy” … can we think of another word please to convey that pleasing shape?
I’m not sure how much powerful your Cave-Man “Club” is to undo the mistakes of the past and agree on what ships are needed and by when.
My shipmates support you and Mark and your guests! That was obvious during last nights “Midrats”. Please give a “Like” if you enjoyed our Midrats. Thank you!
I wasn’t alive when Rosie the Riveter was drilling bolts. I was an excellent Project Manager for MCAUTO. I knew our system. I read the RFP. I read the “Contract”. I created the Timeline with the Critical Paths. I got the hardware through Customs, into the Hospital and onto the floors. As a team, we brought the system “Live”, did the “Catchup” and thanks to our Sales staff and Harry Hertrick, Lutheran Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, was invited onto the “Moonlight Cruise” around Manhattan!
We need little or big “Soldiers” managing these Ship Building Timelines.
For a weapons system failure, shame on our Project Design Team! For quoting an impossible number into the water, shame on that person who authorized an unrealistic number.
Our missions change depending on circumstances. Here’s where the Magic Ball Reader predicts what’s going to happen where and by whom.
Naval Intelligence Officer makes the Order of Battle Book (OOB) for that “Possibly Hostile Ship, Boat, or Drone.
Coordination between Naval Intelligence and Shipbuilding Managers… Will the this have what is needed to take down the hostile force?
Does anyone reading my little comment like what they read? Please confirm with a “Like”. Thank you! Nurse Jane ( LCDR Swann) God Bless my USAF Pilot son and America!
I can only hope the Trump class comes to fruition. If for no other reason, the Type-1 TDS sufferers here will have chapped asses for a long long time. And according to one chronic sufferer - who asserts Trump “takes orders” from Putin - in respect and homage, the second hull should be the Putin. 😂😂
People who trade security for liberty, cheer federal agencies ignoring due process and the courts, and traded in their Gadsden flags for one that says “just comply.”
I’m a stickler on the constitution. Hated it when the left walked all over it. Can’t stand the Sulla like response from the right.
Oh, and while I think the FFG is a good path the BBG is a waste that will likely suffer the death spiral.
Security over liberty: you must be talking about today’s nanny-state big-government loving leftists. You know, no more individualism; instead, the warm embrace of collectivism.
Because it's stupid, and is so full of whiz bangery and Gee-Whiz weapons systems it will almost assuredly hit the death spiral after wasting wads of cash.
FWIW I like the Frigate. Flight I isn't much but it's hulls in the water with long range. A Flight II with real ASW (Towed array, bow sonar, some quieting) and maybe a small VLS with ASROC and ESSM is a real asset, and still isn't whiz bang and should break the bank.
I have no faith pentagon contracting, requirements or for industry to deliver a schedule and bid that can make. The Trunp BB will be first to die
I share your concerns re "incumbents" especially at NAVSEA. They will fight tooth and nail against the NSC to "Frigate" (PF in my day) as they did 15 years ago.
But why?!?
Hi Commander, big fan of your work. I have written a piece on this exact topic on my page called ‘A Ship for All Seasons’ I think you may enjoy. After my initial reaction of the new FF(x) being one of frustration; I truly think it’s a wise move. If for any other purpose to unburden our Burke’s in presence missions, counter-narcotics ops, etc.. I’m in agreement that Flight II should see enhancements in VLS capacity and air defense systems. However, having worked at Ingalls for several years, I’m very confident that we can spit these out quickly and start lightening the load on our critical strike platforms. The issue will become (in my mind) if they start trying to retrofit this hull to be a next-gen ASW and MCM platform when we have much better options with some of our closest allies (namely Japan with Mogami). Curious to hear your thoughts.
Would it tear things up or break the bank too much to add equipment rafting, etc. for a Flight II for ASW ops?
My personal thought is that it would act as a degrading agent for all other capabilities and force the engineers/navarcs to over complicate and inflate the design. Reading between the lines of what’s coming out of HII and NAVSEA it seems like they may rely on USVs to augment the ASW mission for this platform.
But I’m sure they will explore this option and opt for modularity on future variants.
I'll be honest, given what we've done in the past I really like this. There are bolt on things that can make it usable and valuable to the fleet in Flight I; and that will get the line(s) going (I think we'll have to have it license built elsewhere to get the numbers we want.
Once they get that Flight II opens up the option for things like towed array and VLS, and I think that in FF4923 HII left room for just this sort of thing.
Besides, even with some of the reduced range numbers I've seen (8K vs 12K) the range is great for the pacific, a bit of a un-accounted for super power, and it's cost of operation is really nice.
I’m in complete agreement. One of the primary things I would love to see is increased automation on future flights. Such a non-sexy problem compared to weapons upgrades but just about as pragmatic as we can possibly get. There’s no reason flight II shouldn’t see enhanced lethality along with a 10-15% reduction in crew size.
A huge strength of the upgraded Mogami out of Japan is next-gen ASW/MGM along with a 32cell VLS and integrated air defense with only a 90 person crew.
So basically let's buy a hull with zero needed capabilities. Sounds like more Littel Crappy Ship thinking.
Wanted to share a link to my latest on US shipbuilding posture servicing the Arctic. https://open.substack.com/pub/tannerblacklidge/p/the-missing-middle-in-arctic-power?r=72vx0e&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
It’s a boondoggle. The FFG does zero for the Navy nir to relieve Burkes.
We are far better off building more Burkes to help relieve the need for Burkes.
When things go hot with West Taiwan I prefer a navy deep with DDG and larger surface combatants supported by autonomous ships. We will not have the resources to keep under armed and resourced constraint Frigate support. They will do nothing but slow us down to keep them supplied and relevant.
The Red Sea has shown the issue with Frigates in medium intensity operations let alone High intensity ops against a peer.
I can appreciate your point, however, the issue is operational availability. We can build all of the Burke’s we want, but we have to get systems in place to take the hours/miles off of their primary propulsion systems and crew. The FF(x) is a cheap option to do that. Plus our industrial base is just about maxed out on Burke production unless we get a tier 1 west coast shipyard joining the party to heat up another DDG production line. FF(x) can occupy the Tier 2 industrial base capacity and be more non-disruptive to our nuclear and non-nuclear public dry docks.
We need Hulls, and a shot to the industrial base. FFG has some combat power in Flight I and is easy to build/operate. These things count. And a Flight II can make it better. Not every ship needs to be every thing.
I has very little combat power. What is enough for the Coast Guard does zero for actual Combat Power let alone being able to support a ship that will Winchester what little offensive power it has in 5 minutes is a strain and recipe for the hull on the bottom.
AS for Flight II that does nothing that we can get from more Burkes. The industrial base knows how to build and support Burkes. The Training pipeline knows how to support Burkes. The infrastructure knows how to support Burkes.
At the end of the day a $1.5-$2Billion FFG is a low-end waste and future anchor. Beyond the hull cost comparison against a real combat vessel there is the whole ecosystem that would need to be built up for the FFG. Everything from onshore engineering & training facilities to training pipelines to parts store.
As the INDUSTRAIL Base has shown they are incapable for building & supporting Little Crappy Ships. They excel at building Large Surface Combatants. Everyone from GE to Allison to Raytheon to BAE to Lockheed,
We have built 74 Burkes and another 21 in flight that is impressive and shows the Industrial Base can build hulls. Whereas the Constellation and even the Legend NSC have been nightmares. I am a huge OHP fan but the ship has sailed on the USN being a Frigate operator the time for replacing the OHP with a new FFG was the late 90s now it's about building what we know and what we know how to fight and supply.
CDR, a call for untiy from the mountains high, to the wave crashed coast, in memory of Martin Luther King Jr:
"We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish togetherbas fools."
"The person down the street who votes differently than you is not your enemy. They are your neighbor. They worry about the same things you worry about. They want their kids to be safe and their bills to be paid and their country to be a place worth living in. They have been manipulated just like you have been manipulated, fed a different flavor of the same poison, sorted into a different tribe by the same algorithm, pointed at you as the enemy by the same people who point you at them.
The working class Republican and the working class Democrat have more in common with each other than either of them has with the billionaire class that funds both parties.
You share the same struggles. You face the same rigged systems. You are being crushed by the same economic forces that have transferred more wealth upward in the last fifty years than at any point in human history. And instead of uniting against the people doing this to you, you are screaming at each other on the internet about pronouns and flags and whatever fresh outrage the algorithm served up this morning.
This is exactly what they want. A nation at war with itself cannot resist a takeover. A people consumed by mutual hatred will accept any authority that promises to protect them from the manufactured enemy. Every empire that fell was divided before it was conquered. Every free people who lost their freedom were set against each other first.
The red versus blue war is not real. It is a show put on by people who own both teams. It is professional wrestling and you think it is a real fight. The wrestlers go backstage after the match and laugh together while you are still screaming at the guy in the other section who was rooting for the wrong character.
This Is Our Country Not Theirs
This nation belongs to the people who live here and work here and raise families here and will be buried here. It does not belong to billionaires who hold citizenship in three countries and will flee to their bunkers the moment things get bad. It does not belong to tech oligarchs who view democracy as an obstacle to efficiency. It does not belong to foreign interests who have purchased so much influence that they might as well be writing our laws themselves.
We have to stop letting them divide us. We have to start seeing each other as fellow Americans again instead of enemy combatants in a culture war that was manufactured to keep us weak. We have to remember that the person screaming at us online is also a victim of the same manipulation, and maybe if we stopped screaming back and started talking, we might realize we have been fighting the wrong enemy this entire time.
Turn off the television. It is not informing you. It is programming you. Question everything, including the sources you trust, especially the sources you trust. Talk to people who disagree with you and do it without trying to win. Listen to why they believe what they believe. You might discover that the monster you have been told to hate is actually just another person trying to make sense of a confusing world with imperfect information, exactly like you.
Remember who you are.
You are an American. Your ancestors came to this land or were brought to this land or were already on this land, and regardless of how they got here, they built something together that was supposed to be different from the old world’s tyrannies and aristocracies. That project is not finished. Every generation has to fight to keep it alive against the forces that want to drag us back to a world where a handful of rulers own everything and everyone else serves at their pleasure.
Stop letting them divide you. Your enemies are not your neighbors. Your enemies are the people who profit from your division and are building machines to replace you the moment you are no longer useful.
Start acting like it before it is too late". —The Wise Wolf
I wish I could agree with you but the person down the block who is hurling obscenities or throwing firecrackers at policemen is not my friend or neighbor, but is opposed to everything I believe in.
“Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.” Psychologist Steven Pinker, although a usual suspect, noted, “People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true.” Tribal.
But, if the goal is to actually change minds, better to connect with the other side, collaborate with them where possible, and integrate them into the conversation with tribal kindness. The word “kind” originated from the word “kin.” When you are kind to someone it means you are treating them like family.
Counterpoint
"I have as much desire to be friends with a 2026 Democrat as I did with a 1986 Soviet communist. They are two sides of the same authoritarian, Marxist coin. Actually, I take that back. At least a Soviet communist could tell what a woman is. So I’ll take the Soviet over the Democrat." Not generally a winning strategy.
Supporting Donald Trump is not a protected “creed” under the Human Rights Laws. New York State and City Human Rights Laws do not prohibit discrimination based on political affiliation.
Failure to serve plaintiff and eventual ejection from the restaurant not amount to “outrageous” conduct.
Thus we stopped hiring registered Democrats.
Karl Marx with cash is just another restaurant customer.
Only a Stalinist would eject a customer for not being a Party Member.
Hiring is what they stopped doing. Serving: you are correct, even commie with cash is a customer.
Pete, harken back to our founders. Remember their well-founded fear of a “standing army?” What is ICE? I’m sure both Jefferson and Hamilton would be “hurling obscenities.” Patrick Henry would be hurling more than words.
“Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!”
??? Our founding fathers much as they did putting down the Whiskey Rebellion.
They understood what borders and nation was better than anyone. They also understood the golden rule of moderation unlike the French in the 1780s and todays Leftist.
Basically the best idea for the future of America would be to forcibly dismantle BOTH mega-parties, or at least block them from at least one election cycle. So the other parties - the ones who are smaller, not so rigid, not so corrupt and indifferent - could got a chance.
The fundamental problem of today's American two-party system is that neither party is interested of making peoples vote FOR them. They are only interested in making peoples vote AGAINST others. This is a toxic, self-destructive cycle.
Very true, well said. Here are some alternate voting methods which could fix this is we could get them implemented:
Our Voting System - First Past the Post - Always Leads to Two Party Rule, Here's How to Fix This: https://old.bitchute.com/video/f8Oe0HK6FJ45 [10mins]
And both parties have at base the same goals...get rich and patronage at citizens expense. It's called the uniparty for good reason.
True. Worst of all, they started to get some kind of pseudo-messianic idea, with each party viewing itself as "destined to save the nation", and viewing the other not as merely political opponent, but as hated enemies.
While I agree, the massive reforms needed at the federal level will not come via the ballot box.
I have as much desire to be friends with a 2026 Democrat as I did with a 1986 Soviet communist. They are two sides of the same authoritarian, Marxist coin.
Actually, I take that back. At least a Soviet communist could tell what a woman is. So I’ll take the Soviet over the Democrat.
Then, surely you didn’t vote for Barry Obama.
Here is how they got so radicalized:
Ten Ways the 1% is Manipulating Us Right Now by @thewisewolf
1) The first manipulation is the illusion of choice. You think you have two parties representing different visions for America but both parties are funded by the same billionaires, vote for the same surveillance bills, approve the same defense budgets, and serve the same corporate interests. The choice you are given is which color tie the puppet wears, not who controls the strings.
2) The second manipulation is emotional hijacking. The news does not inform you, it activates you. Every story is framed to trigger fear or anger or disgust because those emotions bypass your rational thinking and make you easier to control. You are not watching journalism. You are being subjected to psychological operations designed to keep you in a constant state of agitation.
3) The third manipulation is tribal sorting. The algorithm learns what makes you angry and feeds you more of it until your entire worldview is shaped by outrage at the other side. You are sorted into a tribe not because you chose it but because keeping you tribal keeps you predictable and profitable.
4) The fourth manipulation is false scarcity. You are told resources are limited and the other tribe is taking what belongs to you. Immigrants are stealing your jobs. Welfare recipients are draining your taxes. The other party is destroying your healthcare. Meanwhile the billionaire class has more wealth than any humans in history and could solve most of these problems tomorrow if they wanted to.
5) The fifth manipulation is memory holing. Stories that threaten powerful interests get buried or forgotten within days. Exposed crimes result in no consequences. Historical context that would help you understand the present is never taught. You are kept in a perpetual present with no past to learn from and no future to plan for.
6) The sixth manipulation is controlled opposition. The voices you think are fighting for you are often funded by the same interests they pretend to oppose. The outrage merchant on your side of the aisle is playing a character designed to keep you engaged and angry and tuned in while nothing ever actually changes.
7) The seventh manipulation is the Overton window. The range of acceptable opinion is artificially narrowed so that anything outside it seems extreme. Ideas that were mainstream fifty years ago are now treated as radical. Ideas that serve elite interests are treated as moderate common sense. You are not choosing your beliefs from the full range of human thought. You are choosing from a menu they wrote.
8) The eighth manipulation is learned helplessness. You are shown so many problems with no solutions that you eventually give up and accept that nothing can change. This is intentional. A population that believes resistance is futile does not resist. They scroll and complain and feel superior for understanding how bad things are while doing absolutely nothing about it.
9) The ninth manipulation is identity capture. Your political affiliation becomes your identity, and any attack on your party feels like an attack on you personally. This makes you defend politicians and policies that harm you because admitting they are wrong would mean admitting you were wrong, and your ego will not allow that.
10) The tenth manipulation is the most insidious of all: you are manipulated into believing you are too smart to be manipulated. Every person reading this thinks the manipulations I described apply to other people, the stupid people, the brainwashed people on the other side. That certainty is itself a manipulation. The moment you believe you are immune is the moment you become most vulnerable
One problem - the significant part of Republicans are also pushing not for return to working democracy, but for authoritarian, Fascist-esque regime. A large number of mentally unstable persons trying to push their weird beliefs into politics "because (their) God said so!" aren't making the situation better either.
That's a load of trash. Which weird beliefs are you talking about? That maybe we shouldn't be killing 1/3 of the last few generations through abortion? That if you have a dick, you're a guy and should stay out of women's bathrooms and locker rooms? That charity cannot be done at gunpoint?
Protestantism. This idea of an inerrant Bible is not compatible with civilization. No
Anything on the drawing board that would serve to ship 30 million "visitors" in the USA back to their home waters? The rest of the discussion is moot in its absence.
That's what C-130s are for.
CDR Sal, thanks for reminding us of the past. Why? Because the system and personnel that committed these...errors (crimes) largely remains in place. And despite efforts by the current administration to change things, the "old guard" is fighting very hard to defend the status quo. People of senior rank and grade are steeped in the past, remember when we were focused on the peace dividend because we had no "peer" to worry about in the world. Post 9/11 and 20 years of resisted nation building reinforced the bad practices. Senior DoD leadership, military "prime" contractors and congress had become involved in a "self-enrichment" exercise because they lost all sense of what it means to face a "peer"...and it's not clear "the system" has fully embraced the fact that they are, truly facing a "peer" and we lack the vision and industrial capability to respond. Keep up the good work.
The Secretary of Way missed an opportunity when he summoned all the flag to a meeting. He should have handed half of them their retirement Legion of Merit medals and thanked them for their service and wish them fair winds.
I read that as "Secretary of Whey" and thought of HHS
I will check my spelling before hitting that Reply key.
OrwellWasRight: The Secretary of Whey works a USDA.
I do not see any effort to fire people. Hegseths promise from back in March of 2025 to fire 20%+ of FOGOs seems to have disappeared.
Semper Fortis
1) your twenty year review 😬 gives absolutely zero confidence this will happen ⏰ 🙋🏻♀️🤦🏻😖
2)the US manufacturing base is way worse off now ~ can't make valves, circuit breakers 🎛️ or flat screens in these Estados Unidos, much less nuts, bolts n screws (post Covid) 🔩🇨🇳🏗️🏭
3) it is yet to be seen if 21st Century 🌐📡💫🛰️ surface warfare🪦 is even survivable ⚔️ 🌊⚓ in the age ⚡👁️ of air~survace~subsurface unmanned vehicles and hunter/killer mine fields. 💣🦑💥🪸🐚
4) our sailors are being dealt a bad hand! ♠️🃏
We make casting cores for a valve company in New York where I work.
Robert C Culwell: "3) it is yet to be seen if 21st Century surface warfare is even survivable in the age of air-surface-subsurface unmanned vehicles and hunter/killer mine fields."
The end of the surface navy has been predicted for a century. But it hasn't happened yet.
A seaspace can be denied to an adversary's forces using submarines, UAVs, UUVs, and unmanned surface craft. But gaining control of that seaspace requires the presence of a manned surface fleet.
Once we have denied a seaspace to some future adversary, will we then want to gain full control of a particular seaspace for some further purpose such as replenishment of an ally as might become necessary in a future war with China?
Or will it become necessary to follow a warfighting strategy where if we can't gain full control of a given seaspace, the adversary won't be allowed to gain control of it either?
I fear that the surface will be too deadly. Submersibles may be the only answer. The DonBas and Black Sea have given a glimpse....
Yeah, but the Red Sea, where we saw everything from AShBMs to aerial and sea-drones, suggest that drones aren't the panacea you think they are. Russia is getting it's bottom kicked not because drones are superior, but because they have spent very little time innovating.
You will notice that no Russian ships have anything like a RWS with EO/IR sights and a cannon. Their 'defense, if you can call it that, is a bunch of guys manning the rails with AKs.
Your typical US surface ship has two remote weapon stations, two phalanx guns that have Electro-optical targeting in addition to radar, and some have RAM which is anti-surface/anti-air capable.
The US and most western militaries learned their lesson with the almost-sinking of the USS Cole. The Russians are all show/no-go, and though their ships look pretty, they are functionally obsolete. No RWS, no EO targeting for their CIWS, nothing. That's why they're losing hulls.
I get your point, but the 🇨🇳 PLA is not the Ukrainian army 🇺🇦 (navy?) either. US surface vessels probably won't have enough ammo to deal with 🛰️🐲⚓ PLAN drone Swarms. Survival on the surface of the planet 👁️🛰️🌐🗝️ is the issue when they know where every USN vessel is, within a few meters, at ALL TIMES. ⏰🔔 A ship on the water can't hide any better than a Russian APC 🌻⚰️ in a field. EW and Counter-EW might enhance survival, but not for long. Get thee below the 🐬 surface sailor!
Problem 1: Drones small enough to be a 'swarm' can't travel very far out into the sea. They don't have the range or sea-keeping. The US Navy isn't bottled up into a small area with them, unlike the Russkies in the Black Sea.
2. Drones powerful enough to travel long distances out into the ocean and have their own targeting aren't going to be 'cheap and swarmable'. They're going to be pretty expensive.
3. Targeting isn't as simple as you're maybe thinking. The drones would have to be targeted and controlled via a satellite network to be useful. Even the Chinese can't just send a bunch of ordnance down range and hope they don't hit random merchant ships. Satellites will be one of the first things to get taken down in a Peer war.
4. A laser dazzler can do a number on the EO device that the drone might be using to do its 'AI target recognition' against a ship, so I don't necessarily have to 'hard-kill' the drone.
Bottom Line: Drones aren't the panacea that people have been led to believe they are. They're just another tool in the tool box.
Where was Ai and Drone warfare in 2022?
Where will it be in 2030? ☠️
Again, get thee below the 🐬 surface sailor....
Why am I not optimistic?
I'm optimistic about the FF(X). That's eminently doable. I'm less optimistic about the BBG. I'd be more optimistic about BBG if they were to come out and say: "We're slapping this down on a proven hull."
The could take all the battleships out of the museums. They have proven hulls. Just gut them and upgrade them.
There are two major issues with that suggestion:
(1) The logistical support infrastructure for the Iowa Class has been completely scrapped. Recreating the specialized manufacturing infrastructure needed to support those four ships would consume financial and material resources better spent on other types of warships.
(2) Without having proven long-range guided ammunition for the 16-inch guns, it makes no sense to return these ships to service. At today's pace of development, designing, testing, and fielding of that long-range guided ammunition would take another ten to twelve years.
If we think we might need a larger class of surface combatant warship -- i.e., a true BBG, not the trial balloon BBG the Trump administration has tossed out for discussion and comment -- then do an honest analysis of the requirements for a large 21st Century warship using a transparent analytical approach, and then go on from there.
It’s always easy to come up with excuses for doing nothing.
I don't see those as excuses to do nothing, more like reasons not to go down a bad road. I love the BB's. I've toured Iowa and Missouri, lovingly made models of Arizona. Read 'Battleships' by Norman Friedman like a great novel.
But... damn are they old now. And we don't have the industrial base to do much with the machinery they have. It would be better spent building new stuff.
What proven hull would that be? Surely not a DDG-1000 or an LPD-17 derivative ....
Ingalls had a concept for an LPD-17 derived 'BMD ship' with a set of SPY-6 or SPY-7 radar arrays, a single Mk-45 dixie-cup on the bow, and a horde of VLS modules down the sides of the ship. The well-deck got converted into an Osprey hangar with an elevator, like the old heavy-cruisers from WW2. That thing had something like 200-300 VLS tubes. If you dumped the rail-gun and improved propulsion instead, this would get you to a 'what we really need' solution.
And by the time all these design changes were implemented to the LPD-17 hull, would we not be experiencing a repetition of the Constellation Class fiasco in which we would have been much better off designing a clean sheet warship which is a better fit to the US Navy's 21st Century requirements than an LPD-17 retread?
The difference is the LPD-17 is a very big ship, while FREMM was a relatively small ship. LPD-17 is ALREADY designed to meet USN standards, while FREMM wasn't. The vast vehicle storage decks provide plenty of places to add more power generation or VLS modules. The well deck itself is a giant empty space with nothing in it.
Would it be great to develop a design from scratch? Yes. However, the last 7 Ticonderogas leave the fleet NEXT YEAR. That's 2600 VLS cells among them. We kinda need something quick and dirty. The Ticos themselves are the precedent. They took the Spru-can hull and just slapped a top-hat on it, then replaced the box-launchers on either end with VLS.
Haste makes waste. The more the haste, the more the waste.
Unless the US Navy has some firm idea at this point how a war at sea with the PLAN will be conducted, from beginning to end, simply throwing money at legacy warship designs in an attempt to bring them up to current requirements will be a losing proposition, no different really than what's been happening for the last twenty years.
I am all for a DDG-1000 flight II which might include a hull plug both fore and aft.
If it could be made to work, I wouldn't mind either. I just want something we can get quickly.
The DDG-1000's basic stealth hullform is a very inefficient use of hull volume and displacement relative to the numbers and configurations of the weapons systems and the ordnance loadouts a 21st Century DDG(X) or CG(X) platform should be capable of carrying.
Repeating what I said to Richard Parker, by the time the necessary design changes were implemented to the DDG-1000 hull, would we not be experiencing a repetition of the Constellation Class fiasco in which we would have been much better off designing a clean sheet warship which is a better fit to the US Navy's 21st Century requirements than an DDG-1000 retread?
You say that yet If you add the payload weights between Zumwalt and Burke your fraction favors Zumwalt which has much more going for it aside from that. Low manning. Space for 2 different types of fixed face radars. larger boats, 2 helo spots so both helos can safely fly simo. Greater overall throw weight of ordnance, lower manning. Actual protection strategy with some actual armor. It goes on and on and we already have it.
Haste makes waste. The more the haste, the more the waste. And the word 'Burke' doesn't appear in my comment. If we are going to build a warship larger than a Burke, build it on a hull which does not carry the inherent inflexibility of the DDG-1000 stealth hullform design, with the ultimate consequence that we end up with a vessel which can only go so far in meeting evolving combat requirements.
Back in the day, we could go to the NSTM (or BSTM if you were really old) and have authoritative info on how to do almost anything, based upon decades of experience and expert knowledge. Wonder when that stopped.
Vapor ware- all of it. And NO ONE HELD ACCOUNTABLE! Just like the Somali $9 billion fraud not a single "leader" responsible for the 20 year debacle/spending debauchery will ever hear the steel clanging shut behind them. All the Chinese engineering students at US universities could not have done a better job at mis-directing the USN and wasting scarce taxpayer resources.
$9 Billion is on the low side and it just one state. If we are honest there are at-least 18 states that equal or exceed that level of pure fraud.
But beyond procurement construction woes, the Red Sea B-on-B shootdowns highlighted the same manning and training deficiencies that led to WESTPAC collisions disasters 8 years ago. When is Surface Community leadership gonna fix problems that kill sailors and destroy valuable platforms?
I see a bright future in robotic welding.
Well, at least USN seemingly started to learn from PLAN "how to design and test ships", and are willing to set on evolutionary path with FF(X); took a minimal workable design, put it into production as fast as possible, and then gradually improve next batches. So in case some improvement failed, they would still have baseline to retreat to.
There you go again CDR using that word “Sexy” … can we think of another word please to convey that pleasing shape?
I’m not sure how much powerful your Cave-Man “Club” is to undo the mistakes of the past and agree on what ships are needed and by when.
My shipmates support you and Mark and your guests! That was obvious during last nights “Midrats”. Please give a “Like” if you enjoyed our Midrats. Thank you!
I wasn’t alive when Rosie the Riveter was drilling bolts. I was an excellent Project Manager for MCAUTO. I knew our system. I read the RFP. I read the “Contract”. I created the Timeline with the Critical Paths. I got the hardware through Customs, into the Hospital and onto the floors. As a team, we brought the system “Live”, did the “Catchup” and thanks to our Sales staff and Harry Hertrick, Lutheran Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, was invited onto the “Moonlight Cruise” around Manhattan!
We need little or big “Soldiers” managing these Ship Building Timelines.
For a weapons system failure, shame on our Project Design Team! For quoting an impossible number into the water, shame on that person who authorized an unrealistic number.
Our missions change depending on circumstances. Here’s where the Magic Ball Reader predicts what’s going to happen where and by whom.
Naval Intelligence Officer makes the Order of Battle Book (OOB) for that “Possibly Hostile Ship, Boat, or Drone.
Coordination between Naval Intelligence and Shipbuilding Managers… Will the this have what is needed to take down the hostile force?
Does anyone reading my little comment like what they read? Please confirm with a “Like”. Thank you! Nurse Jane ( LCDR Swann) God Bless my USAF Pilot son and America!
Well, "sexiness" is pretty much subjective parameter...
As is "authoritarian". The definition is in the mind of the beholder.
Please keep those “reminders” coming. I really do hope the new administration gets it right for all of our sakes.
I can only hope the Trump class comes to fruition. If for no other reason, the Type-1 TDS sufferers here will have chapped asses for a long long time. And according to one chronic sufferer - who asserts Trump “takes orders” from Putin - in respect and homage, the second hull should be the Putin. 😂😂
Yes. Let’s build a ship to anger those who don’t like the boot lickers. That’s rational naval policy.
The best revenge is a well found navy.
Does it anger you, Jim? And who are the, ahem, “boot lickers”?
People who trade security for liberty, cheer federal agencies ignoring due process and the courts, and traded in their Gadsden flags for one that says “just comply.”
I’m a stickler on the constitution. Hated it when the left walked all over it. Can’t stand the Sulla like response from the right.
Oh, and while I think the FFG is a good path the BBG is a waste that will likely suffer the death spiral.
Security over liberty: you must be talking about today’s nanny-state big-government loving leftists. You know, no more individualism; instead, the warm embrace of collectivism.
Nope. I'm just a classical liberal adopted to the modern age. SSI has it's issues, but for the most part its benign in my life.
An armed, ill trained rabble being recruited into ICE and ignoring Federal judges, due process, and detaining it's own citizens is a real problem.
A President who is tearing apart our allies in the most hamfisted way possible is a real problem.
A President who has basically alienated Canada and is working on Europe and possibly tearing NATO apart (exactly what Putin would love) is a problem.
It's like the cast of my sons 5th grade lunch table got control.
But you dodged the question, Jim: does it anger you, the proposed Trump class?
Simple yes or no question. No essay required.
Yes.
Because it's stupid, and is so full of whiz bangery and Gee-Whiz weapons systems it will almost assuredly hit the death spiral after wasting wads of cash.
FWIW I like the Frigate. Flight I isn't much but it's hulls in the water with long range. A Flight II with real ASW (Towed array, bow sonar, some quieting) and maybe a small VLS with ASROC and ESSM is a real asset, and still isn't whiz bang and should break the bank.
"cheer federal agencies ignoring due process and the courts,"
Citation needed.
What a big beautiful monumental NY bird making port calls around the world for 50+ years.