Ukraine's Riverine Navy
Ukraine's Riverine Navy
always a requirement
As we learned - again - the hard way in 2003’s invasion of Iraq, if you go to war in a part of the world where you have major river systems, you have to be ready to control that waterway or it gives the enemy an incredible advantage … and takes away a whole raft of options for your own military operations.
It is good to have another excuse to return to one of our favorite topics - riverine.
The brief video below is simply superb.
In spite of the lessons we learn after 2003 in the own-goal of decommissioning all our Vietnam-legacy riverine force in the late 1990s and then in a scramble built up a respectful riverine nucleus, our self-destructive personnel bureaucracy, disinterested leadership, and immature attitude towards the “unsexy but important” - our Navy is once again committing the professional malpractice of decommissioning most of the US Navy’s riverine fleet.
In spite of the Russo-Ukrainian War giving just one more datapoint of how important maintaining a small boat navy is - we are just letting this capability die, again.
We will be at war again, perhaps soon, where we will once more need to recreate a riverine force from scratch because we knowingly let it die at peace. Our enemy will be stronger, and an unnecessary multitude of Americans will die as a result.
My comments from 2005 still apply.
At least Ukraine will learn this lesson. I hope they don’t forget it.
UPDATE:
Something to ponder … have we reached the point (I would argue we have) that even the smallest warships need some kind of air search radar and close in AAW weaponry as there is only going to be more of these inshore and nearshore.
All part and parcel of the same...lack of funds. They want to get rid of the Riverine fleet to reduce costs and get the manpower back for the rest of the fleet at the expense of that specific capability. Just like the Air Force wanting to get rid of the A-10s and using ridiculous arguments about its survivability over a battlefield.
The answer is to increase the correct capabilities - and all of them that you can - for the money you have. The Navy should get more money for more hulls and more missile and more capabilities. As it looks now, though, they would be hurting for people to put on the platforms.
" our Navy is once again committing the professional malpractice of decommissioning most of the US Navy’s riverine fleet."
Wait, we have a riverine fleet now?
"We will be at war again, perhaps soon, where we will once more need to recreate a riverine force from scratch because we knowingly let it die at peace."
I am having trouble imaging what a US Navy riverine fleet would do in a war with China.