The Complex needs to come up with a cheaper, ingenious way to take out the drones than using up expensive SAMs and AAMs. It would be interesting to see what is in development and testing…or we could just arrange for an unfortunate fire/blast/collapse at the Iranian factories producing them.
While I don't disagree with you, the effective AAW range of a 5"/54 Mk 45 is less than 7 nautical miles. You will need more ships for overlapping zones of fire or go to hugging the commercial vessel that you are protecting. Missiles put a lot more square nautical miles under protection.
I don't think that more ships OR more guns are in the cards.
"Perhaps the most shocking portion of the testimony concerned the DDG 1000’s AAW capability. For years, the Navy briefing slides indicated that DDG 1000 was able to carry the SM2. VADM McCullough now testified that that DDG 1000 was unable to carry this weapon and thus would not be able to carry out the area AAW mission. Instead, he testified that the DDG 1000’s AAW capability would be limited to short range, point defense. "
I will call your unfortunate fire/blast/collapse, and raise a full on bombing raid on the electrical infrastructure, every airbase, naval base, and the aforementioned manufacturing facilities.
The Complex will need a significant reason to trade in their goose laying diamond encrusted golden eggs for a dozen pheasants that only lay silver ones.
Pull the Navy ships (except those that can serve as drone launch and recovery pads), flood the airspace above the sea lanes with loitering drones and shoot anything that is not a commercial transport ship. Do the same with the airspace over trouble spots in Yemen. We are deploying super-expensive naval ships with thousands of sailors, Marines, etc. to act as drone magnets.
As usual, McGrath misses the point ... How many trillions have been spent to achieve the tech the US has versus how much has Iran and the Houthis spent to influence the region? "Professionals study logistics". - General Omar Bradley.
The US is losing the war because the technology to wage war isn't getting cheaper, and this is entirely because the US continues to buy only cutting edge systems. The military industrial complex is one of the biggest reasons the US Government is going broke.
Every penny spent on these endless wars enrich some people at the expense of the nation. The I95 from Florida to New England could be repaired for the money this Administration wants to send to Ukraine.
"But perhaps the biggest contrast with China right now is shipbuilding capacity. While China has dozens of big shipyards that can build both warships and big commercial vessels, there are only seven yards in the United States that can build major warships."
You reap what you sow. We will be paying for the defense company merger-mania and "peace dividend" of the 90's for at least a century.
Unfortunately the Republican mania for "privatization," followed by the bipartisan Base Realignment and Closure crippled our nation's ability to build weapons of self-defense.
Construction of weapons for a nation's defense is not an activity which should be left entirely to markets.
Biden asked for an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers, and over 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our southwest border. Republican Congress said, "no."
How can you secure the border when the folks who pay border guards won't hire the guards needed?
How can you have a 600 ship Navy when the folks who buy ships don't want 600 of them?
Bidens's first acts as president was to dismantle all the safeguards that Trump had erected to secure the border. Remain in Mexico? The Wall? Catch and release.
Three years and millions of illegal aliens later Biden comes up with a farce of a bill.
Worse, when Texas tried to protect the border, the Biden regime did all they could to prevent them from doing so.
If you like Biden and don't like Trump that's OK, but please don't insult our intelligence with Kirby-like BS. I don't think you are stupid. Please don't think we are.
This, "it has to be all our way," is the path to streets running red with blood. Trump's wall was an idiotic solution to a real problem. Trumpies are just 30% of the nation. Those of us who want open borders are an equal 30%. We are Americans too, and like it or not, we get a say.
They got the biggest hard ass Republican to draft the bill. James Lankford is a right winger. He's not a stupid right-winger like Tubberville, but he is as conservative as they come. He's a freaking Southern Baptist preacher.
The Bill had provisions that the Republicans will never be able to get again. More workers, more agents, more judges, measures to raise the bar for asylum claims, expanded detention capacity and automatic border shutdowns. You are right, Americans are not stupid. They can't help but see that Republicans can't govern. You had the House, the Senate, the President, and the Supreme Court. We still have a Department of Education. So, the proof is in the pudding, and Republicans can't cook.
The Complex needs to come up with a cheaper, ingenious way to take out the drones than using up expensive SAMs and AAMs. It would be interesting to see what is in development and testing…or we could just arrange for an unfortunate fire/blast/collapse at the Iranian factories producing them.
I have this wild idea. Hold on, don't leave yet. Here it is.
Guns. Lots of guns. Mounted on ships.
whoa! wow. Win!
We could call them "Fletcher-Class" and build them 70 years ago!!
While I don't disagree with you, the effective AAW range of a 5"/54 Mk 45 is less than 7 nautical miles. You will need more ships for overlapping zones of fire or go to hugging the commercial vessel that you are protecting. Missiles put a lot more square nautical miles under protection.
I don't think that more ships OR more guns are in the cards.
What was the range supposed to be of the 6" gun on the DDG-1000's?
The 155mm/62 Mk 51 did not have AAW capability, so zero.
The only AAW capability the DDG-1000 has is point defense. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA494009.pdf
"Perhaps the most shocking portion of the testimony concerned the DDG 1000’s AAW capability. For years, the Navy briefing slides indicated that DDG 1000 was able to carry the SM2. VADM McCullough now testified that that DDG 1000 was unable to carry this weapon and thus would not be able to carry out the area AAW mission. Instead, he testified that the DDG 1000’s AAW capability would be limited to short range, point defense. "
Use the gun to level launch sites
P r o x i m i t y f u s e
I will call your unfortunate fire/blast/collapse, and raise a full on bombing raid on the electrical infrastructure, every airbase, naval base, and the aforementioned manufacturing facilities.
you mean they haven't been doing this already? What *have* they been targeting?
Nope, the only ones taking major fire is the allusive Houthi and their launch sites...
Take the fight to the cash source aka Teheran Iran.
Destroy & mine the harbors, fuel & water distribution. It will end in weeks.
The Complex will need a significant reason to trade in their goose laying diamond encrusted golden eggs for a dozen pheasants that only lay silver ones.
Our victories in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq are testaments to the Military Industrial Complex. Ukraine will soon be another feather in its cap.
https://babylonbee.com/news/congress-warns-if-we-dont-keep-sending-billions-to-ukraine-the-war-might-end
Pull the Navy ships (except those that can serve as drone launch and recovery pads), flood the airspace above the sea lanes with loitering drones and shoot anything that is not a commercial transport ship. Do the same with the airspace over trouble spots in Yemen. We are deploying super-expensive naval ships with thousands of sailors, Marines, etc. to act as drone magnets.
from what base shall they loiter?
How about Camp Lemonnier?
$4 million missiles to destroy $4 thousand rockets BETTER work
lol
No joke.
I can’t. Even.
Pax Americana
As usual, McGrath misses the point ... How many trillions have been spent to achieve the tech the US has versus how much has Iran and the Houthis spent to influence the region? "Professionals study logistics". - General Omar Bradley.
The US is losing the war because the technology to wage war isn't getting cheaper, and this is entirely because the US continues to buy only cutting edge systems. The military industrial complex is one of the biggest reasons the US Government is going broke.
Every penny spent on these endless wars enrich some people at the expense of the nation. The I95 from Florida to New England could be repaired for the money this Administration wants to send to Ukraine.
Are Blog Talk Radio comments turned off today? I've reloaded three times.
It was glitchy.
Mexican tap water in rosarita beach has more credibility than the USA MIC…
We need more ship builders to get competitive quotes for block buys. When Reagan took office, he had 19 US shipyards. Today there are 7.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/10/us-navy-shipbuilding-sea-power-failure-decline-competition-china/
"But perhaps the biggest contrast with China right now is shipbuilding capacity. While China has dozens of big shipyards that can build both warships and big commercial vessels, there are only seven yards in the United States that can build major warships."
You reap what you sow. We will be paying for the defense company merger-mania and "peace dividend" of the 90's for at least a century.
Unfortunately the Republican mania for "privatization," followed by the bipartisan Base Realignment and Closure crippled our nation's ability to build weapons of self-defense.
Construction of weapons for a nation's defense is not an activity which should be left entirely to markets.
You sound like Joe Biden blaming the Republicans for the open Southern border.
Biden asked for an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers, and over 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our southwest border. Republican Congress said, "no."
How can you secure the border when the folks who pay border guards won't hire the guards needed?
How can you have a 600 ship Navy when the folks who buy ships don't want 600 of them?
I hope you are not serious.
Bidens's first acts as president was to dismantle all the safeguards that Trump had erected to secure the border. Remain in Mexico? The Wall? Catch and release.
Three years and millions of illegal aliens later Biden comes up with a farce of a bill.
Worse, when Texas tried to protect the border, the Biden regime did all they could to prevent them from doing so.
If you like Biden and don't like Trump that's OK, but please don't insult our intelligence with Kirby-like BS. I don't think you are stupid. Please don't think we are.
Biden spent billions to protect Ukraine's border tapping every source of money he legally could. The money Burisma invested in Hunter was well spent.
This, "it has to be all our way," is the path to streets running red with blood. Trump's wall was an idiotic solution to a real problem. Trumpies are just 30% of the nation. Those of us who want open borders are an equal 30%. We are Americans too, and like it or not, we get a say.
They got the biggest hard ass Republican to draft the bill. James Lankford is a right winger. He's not a stupid right-winger like Tubberville, but he is as conservative as they come. He's a freaking Southern Baptist preacher.
The Bill had provisions that the Republicans will never be able to get again. More workers, more agents, more judges, measures to raise the bar for asylum claims, expanded detention capacity and automatic border shutdowns. You are right, Americans are not stupid. They can't help but see that Republicans can't govern. You had the House, the Senate, the President, and the Supreme Court. We still have a Department of Education. So, the proof is in the pudding, and Republicans can't cook.
Save your DNC talking points for the sheeple. This is the wrong audience.
Seek professional help for your severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Agree a wall is useless. A five mile DMZ between US & Mexico is what's needed.
So much for the Shipping Act of 1984. It seems that things only get worse whenever Congress passes a law or some agency adds to the CFR.