For a contrast see today's EB with a quote from the Secretary of the Army saying that it will be a success if one or more of the Army's big primes fails because they can't adapt. Contrast that mindset to Navy leadership and the large Navy primes where Navy leadership makes decisions to optimize their future employment by the large primes.
Given the Army’s chronic, multi-program history of botched procurements, I would not do business with them. Were I Congress, I’d inform the Army that they can stand down their procurement offices, those functions will be taken over by a team from the other services.
Admiral Kilby in Washington DC 2025: The current strategic environment demands a naval logistics enterprise capable of assuring readiness and sustainment at speed and scale for the Joint Force et cetera et cetera
Admiral of the Fleet William F Halsey in the South Pacific, October 1942: "Strike -- Repeat -- Strike"
Discuss which statement better conveyed commander's intent.
The word “bullshit” is no longer vulgar. “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.”
It's a shame. He did not always talk like that. Too long in DC leads to talking in circles of jargon. He was my XO during my first CMC tour 20+ years ago and was a straight shooter with no BS.
My son is also on GW. Hearing this bullshit from admirals makes me nauseous. I'm a nice Christian woman and yet I still pull words out like this because they are accurate and necessary.
Indeed... contract out "strategery" to private industry cuz... Y'know... Free Markets! Let some Beltway Bandit outfit write the papers on that National Interest thingie.
Per your translation of Adm Kilby... Senior staff "have no idea what to do" because doing real stuff -- bending metal and stringing wire; even reloading missile cells -- is no longer part of the officer/senior NCO training, selection & promotion process. Oh sure, there's JPME... glorified courses in PoliSci and MilHistory Lite ("Sicilian Expedition!"), where one also learns an entire alphabet soup of acronyms for US/NATO/Allied money-sink orgs.
The Navy's overall intellectual & professional development process is flawed... Navy is a technological organization... So, where is the institutional emphasis on deep technological understanding? Set aside the scandal of academic (un)preparation and available majors at accession programs like USNA or ROTC... Post-graduation, and as life goes on, consider how many Milllington Selection/Promotion Boards have passed over someone who took 2 or 3 yrs off to pursue a Masters or PhD in a hard physical science or engineering field; versus advanced someone with a degree from Harvard Kennedy Skool of Govt. C'mon... Any former Board Members or Recording Secretaries out there care to chime in?
Or consider how closing numerous Navy shipyards (aka the 1990s/2000s BRAC real estate scam) led to a distinct lack of uniformed Navy people who know much about... oh... basic things like designing and building ships & stuff. Excepting the handful of "public yards" that focus almost entirely on submarines, and even then are under-resourced, behind schedules, over budget.
Too many missions. Not enough Navy. Not enough people who know how to make the Navy work. And -- to borrow from F. Scott Fitzgerald -- "out where the dark fields of the Republic (roll) on under the night," not enough people who know how to rebuild the Navy in a short time.
I could not agree more with your post. Based on performance in rank, as demonstrated by all measurable quantities, most of Navy’s senior leadership needs to get yanked up tight. SecDef’s recent 20% and 10% reduction numbers look a bit low. Was I ever a flag officer, or anywhere near that level? No, but even a retired Lieutenant Commander can count ships, missile tubes, and the number of single point logistics failures that are guaranteed to be exploited by our next kinetic enemy.
Been on OPNAV staff three decades ago, suspect some O-4 or O-5 action officer looked through the last 2 or 3 years of similar testimony and cobbled together something.
Today, the action officer would then throw that something into an AI tool with a few key words highlighted, got something out, smooth it up and hand it to the O-6's, who probably repeated the AI exercise or handed it to some Beltway consultant to smooth out.
This is indicative that, like the civilians in DC, everyone believes things will just continue to flow as before.
Once the stuff hits the fan, someone will have to throw anything to sea to try to replenish the fleet with any sort of weapon, repair part, food or oil they can get their hands on or simply deploy with no real solution to replenishment.
Sadly, the bottom of the Pacific will not just be paved with $100 bills but with the bodies of our sons and daughters who are sailors, aviators and Marines.
Doesn't take AI. My L3 and L4 management speak like that naturally. Drives me crazy. At least the ones I have to actually talk to (L1 and L2) can convey a message without instinctively trying to baffle with bullshit.
Hells Bells, the Norks have new frigates with 74 VLS cells, a real gun -127 mm, and the capability to launch small ballistic missiles. And it didn't take them 5 years to revise an existing frigate plan to get a new one at the 10% completion stage.
Why can't the good admiral walk in, sit down, and start with "we've literally f'ed away 2 decades of growth with LCS, Zumwalt, Constellation, and Columbia. It will take a realistic transition to an immediate war-footing in development and construction and weapons production to get us back up to speed. I would advise the recall of the last 4 CNO's and then separate them as an O-6".
Because in times past, the "good admiral" had US Naval shipyards that could build Zumwalts or Constellations. He had staff, uniformed Navy people who knew about designing and building ships, because they spend their careers up to their elbows, designing and building ships and weapons.
When we had shipyards, the admiral could "walk in, sit down, and start." The yards would build what the designers drew. Now that we are defenestrated, the admiral is a ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of multinational corporations.
We don't have to be weak. We can reopen the yards.
Agree. As flag aide to NavSea in 84-87 (not sure the "silver nickel" was worth it) we had 62 public and private yards building for the Navy. Now? Count them 2 hands with some fingers left over. All those trained shipfitters left to go build anything with a steadier paycheck, especially when the guv-mint and private yard owners found out what waterfront property could reap financially.
This is exactly the way things were in 1993 when I retired from my activities as an EDO. Since then we’ve seen only a thirty year downslope in shipyard functionality.
This Navy LDO retired "early" with 27 years service in 2001. Earned as an officer, 7 Commendation medals and 2 MSMs just weren't enough to make 05. The Navy was full of accomplished and unfettered hard-chargers who could get the job done with the resources at hand. But the following two decades of mismanagement at higher levels have hamstrung everyone. Why is it that only the lower ranks recognize that their steps have been hobbled and shortened?
Ship design and engineering is a fragile resource. Designing ships over and over creates an experienced cadre who of people who knew where the stupid pitfalls lay, and therefore knew what to avoid. At the present time, the average ship design manager will be a junior navarch for one Navy design, and then be expected to be the arbiter of all things technical in his second, before being elevated to senior NAVSEA leadership. One of my tasks at NAVSEA in the mid 1980s was to produce a spectrum of concept designs that became the in-house stalking horse needed to write the PC-1 RFP. What I proved conclusively was that a 40kt John Wayne go-fast boat required fuel tanks that took up a full half of its loaded displacement. Mission equipment? Had to fit that in, in the margins. Eyes closed, the PC and LCS contracts were signed.
You can't supervise if you don't know how to do the job in the first place. We destroyed our technical expertise when we shuttered the yards.
In the 1980s we knew how to manage shipbuilding because we staffed our Navy with folks, uniformed and civilian, who knew how to build ships. Everybody says "fire NAVSEA," as if the folks struggling to cope with supervising something they do not understand are bad people. The answer is not to let heads roll, the answer is for the United States to return to building ships and weapons so the new supervisors know how to build ships and weapons.
We are going to repeat the LCS debacle over and over until we start building our own ships; only then will we have folks with the ability to say, "this piece of garbage won't work."
Dead on. Like everything else worthwhile, learning how to design and/or build ships well and efficiently takes experience. This blog has been a strong advocate for increased shipbuilding capacity. Were I driving this bus, I would do everything I could to re-build Mare Island, Philadelphia, and Charleston to make that happen. I would start with Hanwa Philly for any number of reasons, including Korean shipbuilding expertise. Pearl Harbor NSY is too far away from supply sources to make that location practical. Back in our stupider days when we were busy giving away everything military, the city of Vallejo was given Mare Island. At this point in time, we still have the chance of turning that disaster around via eminent domain. Make it happen Mr. President!
the ability to say, "this piece of garbage won't work."
That struck a chord with me.
I spent the last 30 or so years as a project manager/project engineer in both aerospace and medical companies. That was after 5 years as a junior engineer (HVAC) in a naval architecture firm and another 5 as a designer in aerospace.
People got really annoyed with me when I told them a schedule wasn't going to work. I always told them "Something's going to go wrong along the way." They always wanted to know what, my answer? "Don't know, but I've done this enough times to know something always does."
So the take away is you know it's going to hit the fan somewhere, so plan for it, look for it, and nip in the bud early on so you don't have a disaster down the line.
I'm afraid the trick will be finding replacements that are not as big fools as we have now. Our institutions have not served us well and don't turn out much that is not corrupted by the various intellectual viruses of the last few decades.
There are a “Few Good Men”- talented scouts know where to find them. We only need a few... There are a few of you, right here, reading CDR Salamander’s substack. Get back in the fight!
You are likely correct, though I suspect that the majority of those here are a bit long in the tooth.
Me? I'm well past dealing with the rigors of the sea. And shore side? Don't know that I could return to the colors and all that it entailed with several decades of separation and a couple years on the beach.
Should my number be called, there will have been a catastrophe for sure.
It is not so much "armchair QB" talk as it is the people in the stands booing fumbled passes, intercepts, missed field goals and bad calls by the refs. We love our team and hate that they have fallen so low, Red.
However, clearly the vast majority who post (which is likely a relatively small fraction of those that read the blog) have served in some service, mostly the USN.
However, among those that don't post are likely some active duty folks. Maybe not anyone in a position that can affect much change. Yet.
CDR Sal probably has a good understanding of the demographics. Maybe he will comment.
In 1940 the US Army had fewer men than Romania did. George Marshall cleaned house in the peacetime officer corps and found colonels like Ike and Bradley who he felt could lead a vastly larger force into war. We need people like him to turn around each of our service branches.
Does anyone but me see the irony that we have approximately 10x the number of captains as we have ships?
It's even deeper when you understand that most ship captains aren't captains but commanders.
I have to wonder if even a small portion of them are worth saving. Hell, I'm starting to suspect CDRs and LCDRs.
I suppose the good news is you only really need a dozen, maybe ten out of the O6 pool to give a flag to. The trick is having a board that has a clue how to find them. Pretty sure their evals aren't going to tell the truth and having personal knowledge of many is daunting.
I admit that I like to engage in a little schadenfreude when I get to focus on a worthy target. This place is, IMO, not a worthy target. What may seem like caterwauling to you is just a genuine concern for the safety of our nation, families and friends...kind of like what good people do. Further, Wiki sez (不管怎样): Researchers have found that there are three driving forces behind schadenfreude – aggression, rivalry, and justice. Self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of schadenfreude experienced by an individual; individuals with lower self-esteem tend to experience schadenfreude more frequently and intensely." Be well.
Also I don't get the CPC hate since you wish your own govt/miltary were as organised and competent as PLA. Shouldn't that be a model for you? (i.e decades long serious investment in ships and training, backed by lots of real yards and industrial capacity). China/PLA is what you wish US/USN has.
Calling randoms names on the internet doesn't change facts haha.
Maybe it makes you feel better, which doesn't make you much different than those you dislike politically in the US.
You’d think one CNO or another would eventually just go up there and do something like throw Sal’s post up on the power point deck behind him and say “this is the truth”.
Why doesn’t that happen? It only takes one guy doing that. What would happen to them if they did? Get fired? So what?
Probably not the correct incentives for doing that. Why rock the boat when everyone is comfy? Seems like everyone doens't see real risk of war, esp since most US "wars" in past 30yrs has been bombing guys in the desert with little risk of blowback.
I think the clip of Cromwell’s speech to the Long Parliament or was it the Rump Parliament - I can’t remember - was most appropriate.
I feel that way about the judges who said nothing when Biden allowed millions of people to walk into America but weep when gang members are deported.
Likewise for our elected representatives civil servants and flags who did nothing while or military decayed and our resources were squandered in endless wars and our factories and jobs went overseas.
The list goes on and on of how people in high positions failed miserably over decades in protecting this country and her citizens. The Navy being only one element in the decay of our nation.
The decay is in the notion that we can put a bag on the head of a supposed gang member and ship him off to a Central American gulag without notice or a hearing. If Trump can bag and transport Tren de Aragua, then President Newsome can bag and transport MAGA.
When I was in the Navy we were required to swear an Oath to protect the constitution. No "person" shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Not "citizen" or "Republican" or "Christian." No person shall be deprived of liberty. There's no wiggle room, no shades of grey. Either you support the constitution, or you don't.
If you are here illegally your very presence is a crime just like being in the bank after hours.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact much as leftists like yourself try to make it out to be. We have been invaded, and those criminals have been aided and abetted by people like you. The Fifth Column. They invaders must be deported. The fellow travelers and useful idiots must be dealt with, too.
To be fair, I would give the suspect a choice between leaving right now or being confined to an internment camp in the New Mexico desert until his or her case can be heard by an administrative law judge. No more releasing predators into the general population.
If we can shitcan the constitution for them, they can do it to you. And once the precedent is established, you can be damm sure that Democrats will be transporting Republicans. It’s all fun and games until you and your family are bagged and shipped off. “But, I’m a citizen” won’t work when there is no due process.
You know nothing. Due process is Notice and a Hearing. Folks are lying to you when they claim that we cannot give folks this minimum.
We know right-wing governments have bagged people and dropped them out of Navy helicopters into the Atlantic. It will happen here unless we adhere to our oaths.
I'm not feeling the resilience. The word "resilience" blew in the front door with the rest of the garbage words of the left. Once upon a time, "resilience" was a word with some value, denoting the admirable ability to bounce back from adversity.
Today, "resilience" is slathered on any individual or organization that continues to go about its unremarkable business without actually fighting back.
We don't want a Navy that is "resilient." We want a Navy that fights to win!
If I was going to start a war with the U.S. in the Pacific, I would start by simultaneously sabotaging all of our larger dry docks, and sink our floating dry docks, repair tenders, supply ships and oilers. This action would include dry docks in Korea and Japan. At the same time, I would shut down the U.S. electric grid and destroy our refineries (a la Iran’s centrifuge destruction). Is this too far fetched?
And it will be hard to carry out an invasion from radioactive rubble.
If one were to simultaneously collapse the electrical grid and transportation system with recovery times in the months to years range, it will be a mass casualty event. Tens to hundreds of millions dead. No reason not to say, "You lose too."
State Department has spent the last two decades letting, heck - begging, PRC involvement in the Southwest Pacific island nation states. The Pacific Ocean doesn't change dammit - those PhDs in International Relations at State should have a required undergraduate in Geography.
"No prewar plans existed for an active campaign in the Southwest Pacific. But nearly 80,000 troops deployed in the first three months of the war to guard Australia and the lines of communications between that country and North America. Only a fourth that number of troops went to Europe in the same period.
The importance of Australia and of the Southwest Pacific region in general became dramatically clear during the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Guadalcanal campaign, and the initiation of General Douglas MacArthur’s amphibious advance through New Guinea."
I don't know where you read that State was "begging PRC involvement in SW Pacific Island states." Some lunatic conspiracy website?
In fact, State, USAID, DoD and OGA have been contesting undue influence (PRC bribery) in those islands for years. See, Solomon Islands, Palau, etc. USAID is gone, of course, so that's one tool that's been thrown away.
It's difficult to win over peoples when you do nothing for them and your adversary comes in with massive private and state investment. See also the Philippines.
Actual leadership demands plain speaking and bold action with little regard to how it "feels." Both are missing. Enough with the buzzwords already. Nobody's fooling anyone here. Especially Congress. "Fetid overstaffed intellectual chaff cloud," indeed.
Need to start buying 2 tankers and container ships per year, plus a tender every other year, at a minimum. Sorry, DD(X) fans, we're going to just keep cranking out Burke IIIs.
It isn't just the navy. This is across the board. Obama's purges put Woke officers in command positions. Cleaning up is a task comparable to cleaning the Augean Stables.
For a contrast see today's EB with a quote from the Secretary of the Army saying that it will be a success if one or more of the Army's big primes fails because they can't adapt. Contrast that mindset to Navy leadership and the large Navy primes where Navy leadership makes decisions to optimize their future employment by the large primes.
Given the Army’s chronic, multi-program history of botched procurements, I would not do business with them. Were I Congress, I’d inform the Army that they can stand down their procurement offices, those functions will be taken over by a team from the other services.
Admiral Kilby in Washington DC 2025: The current strategic environment demands a naval logistics enterprise capable of assuring readiness and sustainment at speed and scale for the Joint Force et cetera et cetera
Admiral of the Fleet William F Halsey in the South Pacific, October 1942: "Strike -- Repeat -- Strike"
Discuss which statement better conveyed commander's intent.
Matt: Exactly!
The word “bullshit” is no longer vulgar. “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, or attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves.”
Harry Frankfurt
It's a shame. He did not always talk like that. Too long in DC leads to talking in circles of jargon. He was my XO during my first CMC tour 20+ years ago and was a straight shooter with no BS.
Funny how the rarified air of flag life turns hard chargers into peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches.
Kilby translated: “We have no idea what to do (as usual) so we are punting to the MIC (as usual).”
They will pave the Pacific with hundred dollar bills.
Sadly, my son is an AME Petty Officer 3rd Class and busting his ass on the George Washington in the Pacific under this abysmal leadership.
My son is also on GW. Hearing this bullshit from admirals makes me nauseous. I'm a nice Christian woman and yet I still pull words out like this because they are accurate and necessary.
Indeed... contract out "strategery" to private industry cuz... Y'know... Free Markets! Let some Beltway Bandit outfit write the papers on that National Interest thingie.
Per your translation of Adm Kilby... Senior staff "have no idea what to do" because doing real stuff -- bending metal and stringing wire; even reloading missile cells -- is no longer part of the officer/senior NCO training, selection & promotion process. Oh sure, there's JPME... glorified courses in PoliSci and MilHistory Lite ("Sicilian Expedition!"), where one also learns an entire alphabet soup of acronyms for US/NATO/Allied money-sink orgs.
The Navy's overall intellectual & professional development process is flawed... Navy is a technological organization... So, where is the institutional emphasis on deep technological understanding? Set aside the scandal of academic (un)preparation and available majors at accession programs like USNA or ROTC... Post-graduation, and as life goes on, consider how many Milllington Selection/Promotion Boards have passed over someone who took 2 or 3 yrs off to pursue a Masters or PhD in a hard physical science or engineering field; versus advanced someone with a degree from Harvard Kennedy Skool of Govt. C'mon... Any former Board Members or Recording Secretaries out there care to chime in?
Or consider how closing numerous Navy shipyards (aka the 1990s/2000s BRAC real estate scam) led to a distinct lack of uniformed Navy people who know much about... oh... basic things like designing and building ships & stuff. Excepting the handful of "public yards" that focus almost entirely on submarines, and even then are under-resourced, behind schedules, over budget.
Too many missions. Not enough Navy. Not enough people who know how to make the Navy work. And -- to borrow from F. Scott Fitzgerald -- "out where the dark fields of the Republic (roll) on under the night," not enough people who know how to rebuild the Navy in a short time.
Well said. Knowledge, technical skills and industrial base are quick and easy to lose, slow and hard to get back.
I could not agree more with your post. Based on performance in rank, as demonstrated by all measurable quantities, most of Navy’s senior leadership needs to get yanked up tight. SecDef’s recent 20% and 10% reduction numbers look a bit low. Was I ever a flag officer, or anywhere near that level? No, but even a retired Lieutenant Commander can count ships, missile tubes, and the number of single point logistics failures that are guaranteed to be exploited by our next kinetic enemy.
Telling the truth is NOT a core value above 05
Been on OPNAV staff three decades ago, suspect some O-4 or O-5 action officer looked through the last 2 or 3 years of similar testimony and cobbled together something.
Today, the action officer would then throw that something into an AI tool with a few key words highlighted, got something out, smooth it up and hand it to the O-6's, who probably repeated the AI exercise or handed it to some Beltway consultant to smooth out.
This is indicative that, like the civilians in DC, everyone believes things will just continue to flow as before.
Once the stuff hits the fan, someone will have to throw anything to sea to try to replenish the fleet with any sort of weapon, repair part, food or oil they can get their hands on or simply deploy with no real solution to replenishment.
Sadly, the bottom of the Pacific will not just be paved with $100 bills but with the bodies of our sons and daughters who are sailors, aviators and Marines.
Doesn't take AI. My L3 and L4 management speak like that naturally. Drives me crazy. At least the ones I have to actually talk to (L1 and L2) can convey a message without instinctively trying to baffle with bullshit.
US Army, US Air Force, lesser extent USMC, and I suspect US Space Force unless they got staffed with USAF mavericks. SSDD, lather, rinse, repeat.
It's a "whole of government" problem, and can only be fixed from the outside. Unfortunately, the "outsider" will most likely be a hostile.
PRC or Trump. If the Trumpistas can manage multiple consecutive stints in the White House. Without being captured by the Deep State Balrog.
My money, sadly for the Joes and Janes, is on the PRC.
Oh! And the AI pic, with Chairman Winnie Pooh-Ping on the pyjamas, is brilliant.
Hells Bells, the Norks have new frigates with 74 VLS cells, a real gun -127 mm, and the capability to launch small ballistic missiles. And it didn't take them 5 years to revise an existing frigate plan to get a new one at the 10% completion stage.
Why can't the good admiral walk in, sit down, and start with "we've literally f'ed away 2 decades of growth with LCS, Zumwalt, Constellation, and Columbia. It will take a realistic transition to an immediate war-footing in development and construction and weapons production to get us back up to speed. I would advise the recall of the last 4 CNO's and then separate them as an O-6".
Because in times past, the "good admiral" had US Naval shipyards that could build Zumwalts or Constellations. He had staff, uniformed Navy people who knew about designing and building ships, because they spend their careers up to their elbows, designing and building ships and weapons.
When we had shipyards, the admiral could "walk in, sit down, and start." The yards would build what the designers drew. Now that we are defenestrated, the admiral is a ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of multinational corporations.
We don't have to be weak. We can reopen the yards.
Agree. As flag aide to NavSea in 84-87 (not sure the "silver nickel" was worth it) we had 62 public and private yards building for the Navy. Now? Count them 2 hands with some fingers left over. All those trained shipfitters left to go build anything with a steadier paycheck, especially when the guv-mint and private yard owners found out what waterfront property could reap financially.
This is exactly the way things were in 1993 when I retired from my activities as an EDO. Since then we’ve seen only a thirty year downslope in shipyard functionality.
This Navy LDO retired "early" with 27 years service in 2001. Earned as an officer, 7 Commendation medals and 2 MSMs just weren't enough to make 05. The Navy was full of accomplished and unfettered hard-chargers who could get the job done with the resources at hand. But the following two decades of mismanagement at higher levels have hamstrung everyone. Why is it that only the lower ranks recognize that their steps have been hobbled and shortened?
Ship design and engineering is a fragile resource. Designing ships over and over creates an experienced cadre who of people who knew where the stupid pitfalls lay, and therefore knew what to avoid. At the present time, the average ship design manager will be a junior navarch for one Navy design, and then be expected to be the arbiter of all things technical in his second, before being elevated to senior NAVSEA leadership. One of my tasks at NAVSEA in the mid 1980s was to produce a spectrum of concept designs that became the in-house stalking horse needed to write the PC-1 RFP. What I proved conclusively was that a 40kt John Wayne go-fast boat required fuel tanks that took up a full half of its loaded displacement. Mission equipment? Had to fit that in, in the margins. Eyes closed, the PC and LCS contracts were signed.
You can't supervise if you don't know how to do the job in the first place. We destroyed our technical expertise when we shuttered the yards.
In the 1980s we knew how to manage shipbuilding because we staffed our Navy with folks, uniformed and civilian, who knew how to build ships. Everybody says "fire NAVSEA," as if the folks struggling to cope with supervising something they do not understand are bad people. The answer is not to let heads roll, the answer is for the United States to return to building ships and weapons so the new supervisors know how to build ships and weapons.
We are going to repeat the LCS debacle over and over until we start building our own ships; only then will we have folks with the ability to say, "this piece of garbage won't work."
Dead on. Like everything else worthwhile, learning how to design and/or build ships well and efficiently takes experience. This blog has been a strong advocate for increased shipbuilding capacity. Were I driving this bus, I would do everything I could to re-build Mare Island, Philadelphia, and Charleston to make that happen. I would start with Hanwa Philly for any number of reasons, including Korean shipbuilding expertise. Pearl Harbor NSY is too far away from supply sources to make that location practical. Back in our stupider days when we were busy giving away everything military, the city of Vallejo was given Mare Island. At this point in time, we still have the chance of turning that disaster around via eminent domain. Make it happen Mr. President!
the ability to say, "this piece of garbage won't work."
That struck a chord with me.
I spent the last 30 or so years as a project manager/project engineer in both aerospace and medical companies. That was after 5 years as a junior engineer (HVAC) in a naval architecture firm and another 5 as a designer in aerospace.
People got really annoyed with me when I told them a schedule wasn't going to work. I always told them "Something's going to go wrong along the way." They always wanted to know what, my answer? "Don't know, but I've done this enough times to know something always does."
So the take away is you know it's going to hit the fan somewhere, so plan for it, look for it, and nip in the bud early on so you don't have a disaster down the line.
Yup. We’re seeing the same thing with aviation. Not enough designs to keep a competent staff together.
Agree with all except separation as an 06– send them to sea on extended DivO tours to stand port and starboard watches for the next 10 years
It took (in late 1990's) great discipline to sit in a pentagon or big contractor meeting and not sing out "bingo" after less than 20 minutes.
Same-o-same-o
Plain talking. We must fire the fools on the hill.
I'm afraid the trick will be finding replacements that are not as big fools as we have now. Our institutions have not served us well and don't turn out much that is not corrupted by the various intellectual viruses of the last few decades.
There are a “Few Good Men”- talented scouts know where to find them. We only need a few... There are a few of you, right here, reading CDR Salamander’s substack. Get back in the fight!
You are likely correct, though I suspect that the majority of those here are a bit long in the tooth.
Me? I'm well past dealing with the rigors of the sea. And shore side? Don't know that I could return to the colors and all that it entailed with several decades of separation and a couple years on the beach.
Should my number be called, there will have been a catastrophe for sure.
I believe this is called armchair QB in your country?
I get the feels that people who post here don’t work serve in the Navy and those that do don’t read this. Very different demographics and ideas.
It is not so much "armchair QB" talk as it is the people in the stands booing fumbled passes, intercepts, missed field goals and bad calls by the refs. We love our team and hate that they have fallen so low, Red.
fair point. I think the causes are not within the Navy but in the wider society you have created in the USA.
You are probably basically correct.
However, clearly the vast majority who post (which is likely a relatively small fraction of those that read the blog) have served in some service, mostly the USN.
However, among those that don't post are likely some active duty folks. Maybe not anyone in a position that can affect much change. Yet.
CDR Sal probably has a good understanding of the demographics. Maybe he will comment.
Repeat this over and over again: there are 3,000 US Navy O-6s. You can absolutely find and promote a handful of good admirals from that talent pool.
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/IF10685.pdf
In 1940 the US Army had fewer men than Romania did. George Marshall cleaned house in the peacetime officer corps and found colonels like Ike and Bradley who he felt could lead a vastly larger force into war. We need people like him to turn around each of our service branches.
The problem is finding men like Marshall and Earnest King. King promoted Nimitz over the heads of several others.
And that’s it right there. As it is now there’s a specific formula for advancement.
That being you can’t be better than people who got there first.
One must start as a p and work up to ep.
Maybe cos there’s no war so there’s no measures like this yet
Does anyone but me see the irony that we have approximately 10x the number of captains as we have ships?
It's even deeper when you understand that most ship captains aren't captains but commanders.
I have to wonder if even a small portion of them are worth saving. Hell, I'm starting to suspect CDRs and LCDRs.
I suppose the good news is you only really need a dozen, maybe ten out of the O6 pool to give a flag to. The trick is having a board that has a clue how to find them. Pretty sure their evals aren't going to tell the truth and having personal knowledge of many is daunting.
Maybe it’s for all the ships boats the US will magically produce when war starts? Isn’t that what happen WW2?
I believe the readers of the blog and substack could pick a fine slate of leaders
You guys basically write and comment on the same thing but nothing chnages…do you have any influence or you just like screaming into the void?
Personally I enjoy the posts as it tracks decline of US Navy vs PLA Navy but I don’t sense the rest of the guys on here enjoy it like me 🤭🤭
I admit that I like to engage in a little schadenfreude when I get to focus on a worthy target. This place is, IMO, not a worthy target. What may seem like caterwauling to you is just a genuine concern for the safety of our nation, families and friends...kind of like what good people do. Further, Wiki sez (不管怎样): Researchers have found that there are three driving forces behind schadenfreude – aggression, rivalry, and justice. Self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of schadenfreude experienced by an individual; individuals with lower self-esteem tend to experience schadenfreude more frequently and intensely." Be well.
I see our PLA PAO has shown up for muster.
Because the rest of the people aren’t Chinese CCP boot lickers. Or party members…
yeah but doesn't seem to achieve much?
Also I don't get the CPC hate since you wish your own govt/miltary were as organised and competent as PLA. Shouldn't that be a model for you? (i.e decades long serious investment in ships and training, backed by lots of real yards and industrial capacity). China/PLA is what you wish US/USN has.
Calling randoms names on the internet doesn't change facts haha.
Maybe it makes you feel better, which doesn't make you much different than those you dislike politically in the US.
You’d think one CNO or another would eventually just go up there and do something like throw Sal’s post up on the power point deck behind him and say “this is the truth”.
Why doesn’t that happen? It only takes one guy doing that. What would happen to them if they did? Get fired? So what?
Probably not the correct incentives for doing that. Why rock the boat when everyone is comfy? Seems like everyone doens't see real risk of war, esp since most US "wars" in past 30yrs has been bombing guys in the desert with little risk of blowback.
I think the clip of Cromwell’s speech to the Long Parliament or was it the Rump Parliament - I can’t remember - was most appropriate.
I feel that way about the judges who said nothing when Biden allowed millions of people to walk into America but weep when gang members are deported.
Likewise for our elected representatives civil servants and flags who did nothing while or military decayed and our resources were squandered in endless wars and our factories and jobs went overseas.
The list goes on and on of how people in high positions failed miserably over decades in protecting this country and her citizens. The Navy being only one element in the decay of our nation.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
The decay is in the notion that we can put a bag on the head of a supposed gang member and ship him off to a Central American gulag without notice or a hearing. If Trump can bag and transport Tren de Aragua, then President Newsome can bag and transport MAGA.
When I was in the Navy we were required to swear an Oath to protect the constitution. No "person" shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Not "citizen" or "Republican" or "Christian." No person shall be deprived of liberty. There's no wiggle room, no shades of grey. Either you support the constitution, or you don't.
Actually, we can.
If you are here illegally your very presence is a crime just like being in the bank after hours.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact much as leftists like yourself try to make it out to be. We have been invaded, and those criminals have been aided and abetted by people like you. The Fifth Column. They invaders must be deported. The fellow travelers and useful idiots must be dealt with, too.
To be fair, I would give the suspect a choice between leaving right now or being confined to an internment camp in the New Mexico desert until his or her case can be heard by an administrative law judge. No more releasing predators into the general population.
Trump needs to channel his inner Oliver Cromwell.
If we can shitcan the constitution for them, they can do it to you. And once the precedent is established, you can be damm sure that Democrats will be transporting Republicans. It’s all fun and games until you and your family are bagged and shipped off. “But, I’m a citizen” won’t work when there is no due process.
Due Process is just an excuse not to deport any of the invaders.
You are full of it just like all leftists.
You must think we don’t know all your tricks and lies.
You know nothing. Due process is Notice and a Hearing. Folks are lying to you when they claim that we cannot give folks this minimum.
We know right-wing governments have bagged people and dropped them out of Navy helicopters into the Atlantic. It will happen here unless we adhere to our oaths.
I'm OK with President Trump acting as a barroom bouncer to administer some much-needed tough love. I always carry a stack of quarters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAj4DswWGwA
Happy Monday!
I'm not feeling the resilience. The word "resilience" blew in the front door with the rest of the garbage words of the left. Once upon a time, "resilience" was a word with some value, denoting the admirable ability to bounce back from adversity.
Today, "resilience" is slathered on any individual or organization that continues to go about its unremarkable business without actually fighting back.
We don't want a Navy that is "resilient." We want a Navy that fights to win!
Amen!!
If I was going to start a war with the U.S. in the Pacific, I would start by simultaneously sabotaging all of our larger dry docks, and sink our floating dry docks, repair tenders, supply ships and oilers. This action would include dry docks in Korea and Japan. At the same time, I would shut down the U.S. electric grid and destroy our refineries (a la Iran’s centrifuge destruction). Is this too far fetched?
It is not; but an Old Cold Warrior might say that such a broad and devastating attack on the homeland can only have one response.
The only thing is we lose the grid and refineries, OPLAN DUTCH ENEMA gets activated. Every major dam gets multiple "impacts".
And it will be hard to carry out an invasion from radioactive rubble.
If one were to simultaneously collapse the electrical grid and transportation system with recovery times in the months to years range, it will be a mass casualty event. Tens to hundreds of millions dead. No reason not to say, "You lose too."
State Department has spent the last two decades letting, heck - begging, PRC involvement in the Southwest Pacific island nation states. The Pacific Ocean doesn't change dammit - those PhDs in International Relations at State should have a required undergraduate in Geography.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1994/october/presence-pacific
"No prewar plans existed for an active campaign in the Southwest Pacific. But nearly 80,000 troops deployed in the first three months of the war to guard Australia and the lines of communications between that country and North America. Only a fourth that number of troops went to Europe in the same period.
The importance of Australia and of the Southwest Pacific region in general became dramatically clear during the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Guadalcanal campaign, and the initiation of General Douglas MacArthur’s amphibious advance through New Guinea."
I don't know where you read that State was "begging PRC involvement in SW Pacific Island states." Some lunatic conspiracy website?
In fact, State, USAID, DoD and OGA have been contesting undue influence (PRC bribery) in those islands for years. See, Solomon Islands, Palau, etc. USAID is gone, of course, so that's one tool that's been thrown away.
It's difficult to win over peoples when you do nothing for them and your adversary comes in with massive private and state investment. See also the Philippines.
Actual leadership demands plain speaking and bold action with little regard to how it "feels." Both are missing. Enough with the buzzwords already. Nobody's fooling anyone here. Especially Congress. "Fetid overstaffed intellectual chaff cloud," indeed.
Need to start buying 2 tankers and container ships per year, plus a tender every other year, at a minimum. Sorry, DD(X) fans, we're going to just keep cranking out Burke IIIs.
Double that rate would still be inadequate.
And frigates equipped for AA and anti-submarine weapons to escort them.
It isn't just the navy. This is across the board. Obama's purges put Woke officers in command positions. Cleaning up is a task comparable to cleaning the Augean Stables.
"Let the riiiiver ruuuuuuuuun …" 🎶