The American people are can do the political class is not. It what they can do for themselves. Time to level the Pentagon push it’s leadership out of Washington & closer to the action.
Realistically, in the Pacific, absent the use of nukes, we are looking at damage limitation. This is across the political, military, economic, social, information and infrastructure spectrum. We can't win, probably aren't willing to even try to not lose at this point if an aggressive move is made by China in the next couple of years. A real question is what does China see as victory in the aftermath? If they are willing to be the strongest horse left standing in the region after a kinetic exchange, we may be completely misunderstanding what they view as success. We are status quo, what are they?
Both R & D are screwing the US over. We are not strong haven’t been since the last century.
And what are both the Ds & Rs doing replacing Americans with illegals so they can tell us to go shove it & down what they want to feather their own beds.
Turns my stomach to see our infrastructure sold off to connected waterfront developers during the BRAC years.
Let alone the Private infrastructure that is gone. One of my first major private projects was decommissioning and selling off major 100 psi hardened comm sites across the US & along the old DeW line.
Still remember the months after 911 when got the call to reconstitute several of the routes.
The Greatest generation knew the cost & made hard decisions to ensure never again and since the 90’s the Baby Boomer Generation sold us out for short term self enrichment.
Still shocked since Clinton how stinking rich our Presidents get cashing in. And don’t get started on Senators & Congress woman.
Wow! That was really bad. Might be the worst thing I've seen in a while. I could only watch the first minute or so. Are you the same guy who used to induce seasickness during rough weather?
I had a NAVAL officer tell me that shipping losses in the early days of a war were no problem that we'd just rebuild them like ww2. A SO LCDR but still... damn.
I remember cruise in '91, we were so loaded we had to cruise around Hawaii for a few days while the rest of the battle group went in for a port visit, supposedly because our draft was pushing limits. Then Mt. Pinatubo erupted and we high-tailed it for the PI to do evacuations (I was only sleeping 3-4 hours a night trying to finish quals and run my division, so my dates might be off a week or two, but the general sequence is correct:) )
To get NR-1 into the well deck of an LSD, my dad was shown pictures they took water over the top of the walls and ballasted down. They had anchor chain as extra ballast.
I think 50 feet may be an exaggeration, but well deck equipped ships can ballast down quite a bit.
Good for you, Sal. Eyes on the ground (spade work) is essential to understand and make real the basic problem. Only then can solutions be imagined, evaluated, and implemented. Right now we're in the no problem so no worry stage.
If Marad actually completed and released their annual shipbuilding survey we'd have better info with which to develop ideas. Its hard o whip one up in my spare time, but I am.
I want want we need the hulls but I fear the Constellation has turned into a boondoggle. Why, because the navy does not want it and the process is broken. I fear another LCS in the making. I want escorts but that is not sexy.
What should we do then is the question. More ABs ? Can we buy an off the shelf FFG built in a foreign yard (hahaha) and get it cheap and in the next 24-36 months (hahaha)?
Are there more important ship needs even if it throws the fleet out of balance?
And lastly, where do we get the sailors to man these ships even if we get them? Should we just build to the manning we have ? Can we exchange admiral billets for more sailors (hahaha)(more admirals will fix this problem for sure)?
That's great! How fast can we produce them. Between March of '41 and October of '43, there were 176 Fletchers ordered and 175 laid down. That averaged just over five and a half a month.
Hot assembly line. Made for upgrade. Proposals on the table for ten plus years. Basically is a frigate. Same core combat systems. Supports helos and towed array for ASW in addition to hull mount. Could have had 30 by now, and ten before Constellation gets wet. But this would all be too easy. And no doubt there are political considerations involved in diverting funds away from FFX.
Surface Navy opposition was and is strong. Originally seen as big time threat to LCS in addition to general black shoe reluctance to purchase a Coastie ship.
They should consider OPCs at his point too. Its already being built in 2 yards and could be built in several more more easily than NSC, even with some upgrades. It also shares some commonality with Taiwan's largest Coast Guard ships which are even larger than NSC.
Ah yes. LSC. As for opposition from with in. Paint them gray. They'll get over it when opportunities for command arise. The HII Patrol Frigate proposal was quite impressive. The one drawback was speed. It could not keep up with a carrier group during flight operations. But NFD. that is not what the frigate mainly was meant for. And besides, that could be fixed with change to propulsion OVER TIME THROUGH EVOLUTION.
Me, I would go with one half of the DDG.1000 electric drive system. Everything is headed that way because of the known advantages. But I would downsize to a SINGLE SCREW mounted on a steerable pod for purposes of simplicity and cost savings. Maybe even fixed pitch. The OHP were single screw. With far less displacement that the Constellation, an OHP II could stand to be as well. The primary mission, you know, should be ASW and patrol.
Yeah, I used to play hat half plant of DDG-1000 idea. I think wha we have learned is that even that would be too pricey for what you are trying to use it to do.
I doubt NSCs are any slower or shorter legged than a Perry.
Foreign yards won't deliver faster. We still need our gear delivered to put on it and it wil still interface to our bureaucracy to slow it down. Plus other yards aren't as fast as we think they are.
If we pushed a build new strategy on CVNs and moved the workforce on the RCOHs to the new builds we would save about 2 DDG worth of billets for each Ford we deliver sooner.
Plus LCS is moving from 2 crews of 95-96 to single crews of about 112. There is hope. We just need to actually deliver the promise of education, personal development, and adventure to young men again. It can happen.
Considering that its what...1/2 a Burke for whatll surely end up as 2/3 the cost??? Yeah...Id kill it tomorrow. Its nothing like the parent design, and the idea behind quick development has already failed. Never mind that its not what we need. Deep six it now!!
Refocus on single purpose ships and lots of em. ASW frigates. No AAW except point defense. 3 helo capacity. Order about 60! Shrink the Burkes down for their AAW only mission. No helo facilities, no sonar. Just AAW. Save a lot of steel and $$$ that way.
And if any ship has a gun besides the CIWS, it better be at least 5in!!!
I want to see a recruiting effort that looks for Warriors. F everyone and everything else and make the USN exclusive as the place for Warriors to go to thrive & join with their fellow brethren.
Think of A Few Good Men but on PEDs. This will drive those who we need regardless of Race, Class or Orientation. People want a higher calling want to be part of a warrior ethos if can do overcoming & ruthless winning.
Every generation produces warriors we have just stopped wanting them. Stopped creating the environments that they strive and thrive in. Even when you look at this generation the online gaming shows this. They form teams, clans & ruthless strive to adapt overcome and find ways to win. Under it all we still produce the people we need it’s just that we stopped wanting them in the Services or think we need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. People want to be challenged.
Instead the DOD thinks recruiting single moms and fat ass layabouts and paycheck patriots as the way.
You say that, but if you talk to most kids I think they are most concerned about squirrely old people stereotyping them. Something most of them find very uncool these days.
Says the Chinese simp who doesn’t understand and American military mind who finds communists and particularly Chinese communists utterly fucking contemptible. You miss the nuance. Why? Ask your handler.
Ok if you want be emotional: It’s good you’re upset, that’s what happened after 911 and you wasted 20y in the desert instead of focusing on the real threat from China.
From your leaders in Congress , sounds like you’re making more emotional decisions (like Israel after Oct7) which leads to poor outcomes.
By MODERN NAVY STANDARDS, the ships we won WW2 with were crap. But we had enough of them we won. If we have 100 ships in theater, and the Chinese have 400, even with a 3.5 to 1 kill ratio, we lose.
By 1940s standards, they were for the most part pretty good and were continuously upgraded.
During WWII the US built 50 Casablanca class escort carriers, 19 Commencement Bay escort carriers, 4 Sangamon escort carriers and 45 Bogue-class escort carriers.
24 Essex class carriers (in two versions), 9 Independence-class carriers, 2 Lexington-class carriers, 2 Saipan-class carriers, and 3 Yorktown class carriers
So 109 escort carriers and 40 big deck carriers.
4 Iowa class battleships
Etc.....
Does anyone think we can do that today? Do we have the facilities to build those ships? How about cast and machine the engines for them? Machine the propellers? Forge the shafts? How about the guns we would put on them - the CIWS? The VLS? The missiles for the VLS? Hell, the M2 .50 cals? M4's?
That's not even addressing the Army vehicles, wheeled, tracked...the Army weapons. The various helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, drones?
Do we have the capacity to refine the SPR to make fuel for these? Do we have enough fuel in the SPR?
And you know this how?? Yeah, Ive seen the Wish memes too, but theres no reason to think they arent building top quality warships And why wouldnt they? They've stolen our tech, and we're funding their buildup through all our Dollar Store and WalMart shopping! Btw, their new large combatants are fresh new designs while we still are building Burkes designed in the 1980s. They've designed and built their first full size carrier, with all the new gadgetry our Ford has, in the last decade! So calling this fear mongering and assuming their ships are trash is, well, pretty ignorant...
"It happened on our watch, so we have to own it." We do own it, and conversely, it owns us. Going forward, we just have to do the best we can with what we have.
Does anybody else share my opinion that the build-out of the CCG may be more problematic? That WW3 may be more likely to start over a deadly CCG/PN incident than an amphib invasion of a renegade province (Taiwan)
Perchance you have read today's news regarding a SCS collision. The CCG is now authorized to use deadly force against intruders in its territorial waters. For the life of me, I don't understand why we don't give the ROP a navy. Let them stand up to the Chinese in the SCS
You hit on a good point, our military and state department have lost focus on the value of making sure we can export good naval gear for our diplomacy. We do much better in the air and on the ground. We pretty much have run out of good hand me downs except for patrol boats. The Saudi LCS ships are them scratching our back for their own diplomacy. They could have gotten similar ships elsewhere for less money.
Why isn't our Naval leadership banging on the table loudly? Why is the SECNAV still pushing climate change as one of his top priorities? Why is our naval leadership more concerned about pronouns, DEI and which bathroom to use? Fundamental breakdown in leadership and total loss of focus on our core Title 10 responsibilities.
Sal, et al,…from the vantage point of a retired Army Aviator abeam Yorktown Weapons Station….
What worries me more, is HII (and NAVSTA Norfolk) are potentially blocked up by the HRBT from Hampton to Norfolk. My angst is how quickly our fleet in being and especially NNSY and HII could be interred. Not two weeks ago, a Chinese student decided to exercise his drone over HII. Damn, this is worse than the lead up to 7 Dec 41.
You are so right! This is worse! I have an acquaintance who was just a toddler, army brat in Hawaii on 07 DEC. She lived through the attack and the fires. Sixty years later, at her desk in the Pentagon, she survived the attack and the fire on 11 SEP. I always tell her I want to stay close, she has whatever it takes to survive.
Drop the bridge there, San diego. Block the harbors at Pearl, Apra, and Yoko, damage or disable the panama canal locks and that gives them enough time to really get to work.
At least w/ San Diego the LCS should be able to make it out via something other than the main channel, maybe. The CVNs and subs might make it out. Lets hope a DDG is out training with another at the loading pier. If one is up at Seal Beach too we might have something.......
Lcs might be shallow enough draft to make it out without needing the main channel. But I have my doubts. The shipyard is under the bridge in the east, so that might allow movement of larger ships.
But at least the banana supply won’t be interrupted.
We used to be a can do people. We've succumbed to can't do.
The American people are can do the political class is not. It what they can do for themselves. Time to level the Pentagon push it’s leadership out of Washington & closer to the action.
And their Mandarins. Word chosen for effect.
Don't push the leadership out, fire them, all. The Pentagon is a cancer and should be excised.
Fire 90% of the Pentagon, and move the rest to Guam. Maybe that will wake them up.
But wouldn’t Guam be in danger of tipping over?
You beat me to it.
Sure, but you’re here to provide insightful commentary on world events and their effects on naval policy. I’m here just to provide smart ass comments.
To answer your question, we’re screwed!!
Six ways to Sunday and twice in n Monday screwed.
Realistically, in the Pacific, absent the use of nukes, we are looking at damage limitation. This is across the political, military, economic, social, information and infrastructure spectrum. We can't win, probably aren't willing to even try to not lose at this point if an aggressive move is made by China in the next couple of years. A real question is what does China see as victory in the aftermath? If they are willing to be the strongest horse left standing in the region after a kinetic exchange, we may be completely misunderstanding what they view as success. We are status quo, what are they?
What damage are we willing to endure for Guam? Saipan? Hawaii? San Francisco?
I honeymooned in Hawaii so a lot.
San Diego
Panama Canal
Bremerton
Whidbey
Lemoore
Ft Hood
The list goes on…
MANDARIN:ENGLISH=
DEEDS:WORDS
Democrats are seriously embarrassed that we are as strong today as we are, and Republicans seem to want to fight the wrong war.
Both R & D are screwing the US over. We are not strong haven’t been since the last century.
And what are both the Ds & Rs doing replacing Americans with illegals so they can tell us to go shove it & down what they want to feather their own beds.
Turns my stomach to see our infrastructure sold off to connected waterfront developers during the BRAC years.
Let alone the Private infrastructure that is gone. One of my first major private projects was decommissioning and selling off major 100 psi hardened comm sites across the US & along the old DeW line.
Still remember the months after 911 when got the call to reconstitute several of the routes.
The Greatest generation knew the cost & made hard decisions to ensure never again and since the 90’s the Baby Boomer Generation sold us out for short term self enrichment.
Still shocked since Clinton how stinking rich our Presidents get cashing in. And don’t get started on Senators & Congress woman.
This [Really Smart!] guy (not aplogizing if I have that wrong.) in Army Drag explains why shipbuilding isn't the priority....
https://youtu.be/HLahadFN_Hs?si=XM_aY-mGCQX0aJYT
Wow! That was really bad. Might be the worst thing I've seen in a while. I could only watch the first minute or so. Are you the same guy who used to induce seasickness during rough weather?
Lol! Maybe someday I will tell the Saga of The Barfbag That Would Not Die!
Sid, please go ahead and tell the Saga. I think it is important to entertain ourselves while we are heading into whatever is about to happen.
I had a NAVAL officer tell me that shipping losses in the early days of a war were no problem that we'd just rebuild them like ww2. A SO LCDR but still... damn.
I had someone giving a tour of an LPD say the ship's draft was 50 feet once. Its pretty bad.
What a tard. The draft on a CVN fully loaded with air wing is only 39 feet.
Yeah, and they need 50 feet like the turning Basin in SD in which the tour was being given.
I remember cruise in '91, we were so loaded we had to cruise around Hawaii for a few days while the rest of the battle group went in for a port visit, supposedly because our draft was pushing limits. Then Mt. Pinatubo erupted and we high-tailed it for the PI to do evacuations (I was only sleeping 3-4 hours a night trying to finish quals and run my division, so my dates might be off a week or two, but the general sequence is correct:) )
To get NR-1 into the well deck of an LSD, my dad was shown pictures they took water over the top of the walls and ballasted down. They had anchor chain as extra ballast.
I think 50 feet may be an exaggeration, but well deck equipped ships can ballast down quite a bit.
pretty cool. Probably exceeded some standard operating procedures there:)
Yea that ain’t gonna happen.
Thats worth a cringe... Scary that he might think we can turn out DDGs like Fletchers when he's commanding one...
IIRC we could look out the window at a brand new Chicom warship. Maintaining a polite demeanor was hard.
What did I just watch....?
If you made it through that, consider reading this: https://tomklingenstein.com/a-new-regime-is-taking-over-our-military/
Sadly, we replaced DADT with ATD (Ask - Tell - Demonstrate)
You said "drag." heh heh
Made it through two minutes (mostly because I was checking my channel notifications at same time)...
What the actual ****????
Good for you, Sal. Eyes on the ground (spade work) is essential to understand and make real the basic problem. Only then can solutions be imagined, evaluated, and implemented. Right now we're in the no problem so no worry stage.
If Marad actually completed and released their annual shipbuilding survey we'd have better info with which to develop ideas. Its hard o whip one up in my spare time, but I am.
Thick bloated bureaucracy.
My wife talks about what Mayor Pete tweets and this ain't it.
The Navy needs strong leadership to cut through the BS stopping things from getting done.
They need someone with vision who has a real ideal of what the Navy should be.
Congress is semi dysfunctional as it almost always has been.
I put the blame squarely on Navy leadership.
https://youtu.be/RZgBhyU4IvQ?si=jA_T20B7Robq_1K7
The last few SECNAVs and CNOs were nonentities.
The CNO from Gringots?
Should we cancel the FFG?
I want want we need the hulls but I fear the Constellation has turned into a boondoggle. Why, because the navy does not want it and the process is broken. I fear another LCS in the making. I want escorts but that is not sexy.
What should we do then is the question. More ABs ? Can we buy an off the shelf FFG built in a foreign yard (hahaha) and get it cheap and in the next 24-36 months (hahaha)?
Are there more important ship needs even if it throws the fleet out of balance?
And lastly, where do we get the sailors to man these ships even if we get them? Should we just build to the manning we have ? Can we exchange admiral billets for more sailors (hahaha)(more admirals will fix this problem for sure)?
We actually have a ship in production that with some enhancements, can do the majority of FF missions.
Called the PF version of the USCG National Security Cutter.
Standing by for incoming on the NSC’s vulnerabilities.
That's great! How fast can we produce them. Between March of '41 and October of '43, there were 176 Fletchers ordered and 175 laid down. That averaged just over five and a half a month.
Hot assembly line. Made for upgrade. Proposals on the table for ten plus years. Basically is a frigate. Same core combat systems. Supports helos and towed array for ASW in addition to hull mount. Could have had 30 by now, and ten before Constellation gets wet. But this would all be too easy. And no doubt there are political considerations involved in diverting funds away from FFX.
Surface Navy opposition was and is strong. Originally seen as big time threat to LCS in addition to general black shoe reluctance to purchase a Coastie ship.
They should consider OPCs at his point too. Its already being built in 2 yards and could be built in several more more easily than NSC, even with some upgrades. It also shares some commonality with Taiwan's largest Coast Guard ships which are even larger than NSC.
Ah yes. LSC. As for opposition from with in. Paint them gray. They'll get over it when opportunities for command arise. The HII Patrol Frigate proposal was quite impressive. The one drawback was speed. It could not keep up with a carrier group during flight operations. But NFD. that is not what the frigate mainly was meant for. And besides, that could be fixed with change to propulsion OVER TIME THROUGH EVOLUTION.
Me, I would go with one half of the DDG.1000 electric drive system. Everything is headed that way because of the known advantages. But I would downsize to a SINGLE SCREW mounted on a steerable pod for purposes of simplicity and cost savings. Maybe even fixed pitch. The OHP were single screw. With far less displacement that the Constellation, an OHP II could stand to be as well. The primary mission, you know, should be ASW and patrol.
Yeah, I used to play hat half plant of DDG-1000 idea. I think wha we have learned is that even that would be too pricey for what you are trying to use it to do.
I doubt NSCs are any slower or shorter legged than a Perry.
Foreign yards won't deliver faster. We still need our gear delivered to put on it and it wil still interface to our bureaucracy to slow it down. Plus other yards aren't as fast as we think they are.
If we pushed a build new strategy on CVNs and moved the workforce on the RCOHs to the new builds we would save about 2 DDG worth of billets for each Ford we deliver sooner.
Plus LCS is moving from 2 crews of 95-96 to single crews of about 112. There is hope. We just need to actually deliver the promise of education, personal development, and adventure to young men again. It can happen.
Considering that its what...1/2 a Burke for whatll surely end up as 2/3 the cost??? Yeah...Id kill it tomorrow. Its nothing like the parent design, and the idea behind quick development has already failed. Never mind that its not what we need. Deep six it now!!
Refocus on single purpose ships and lots of em. ASW frigates. No AAW except point defense. 3 helo capacity. Order about 60! Shrink the Burkes down for their AAW only mission. No helo facilities, no sonar. Just AAW. Save a lot of steel and $$$ that way.
And if any ship has a gun besides the CIWS, it better be at least 5in!!!
I want to see a recruiting effort that looks for Warriors. F everyone and everything else and make the USN exclusive as the place for Warriors to go to thrive & join with their fellow brethren.
Think of A Few Good Men but on PEDs. This will drive those who we need regardless of Race, Class or Orientation. People want a higher calling want to be part of a warrior ethos if can do overcoming & ruthless winning.
Every generation produces warriors we have just stopped wanting them. Stopped creating the environments that they strive and thrive in. Even when you look at this generation the online gaming shows this. They form teams, clans & ruthless strive to adapt overcome and find ways to win. Under it all we still produce the people we need it’s just that we stopped wanting them in the Services or think we need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. People want to be challenged.
Instead the DOD thinks recruiting single moms and fat ass layabouts and paycheck patriots as the way.
(ahem) tiny quibble. love it all, but......like, Semper Fi, ya know?
The military aged males on the left hate America and America hates the military aged males on the right.
What is worth fighting for by many of us isn’t worth fighting for to others.
You say that, but if you talk to most kids I think they are most concerned about squirrely old people stereotyping them. Something most of them find very uncool these days.
I don’t call names. I simply read the factual numbers and laugh as DOD continues to admire the problem.
They do admire the problem.
I don’t agree with you often but I do here
Oh look! Our CCP booster is back from the mainland.
Yep but it’s funny how you sound like you’re pro PLAN with how good you’re making them sound 🙏🧸🇨🇳
Says the Chinese simp who doesn’t understand and American military mind who finds communists and particularly Chinese communists utterly fucking contemptible. You miss the nuance. Why? Ask your handler.
Ok if you want be emotional: It’s good you’re upset, that’s what happened after 911 and you wasted 20y in the desert instead of focusing on the real threat from China.
From your leaders in Congress , sounds like you’re making more emotional decisions (like Israel after Oct7) which leads to poor outcomes.
Me pro PLAN? You’re new here. I hope I get recalled to active duty to fight you fucks.
If it happens, think you can use your juice n get me recalled too?? Ill sail with ya. (Or anybody else thatd take me...not gonna lie!!)
Relax. The PRC builds crap. And their people won't fight for them. Stop fear mongering.
Thanks a ton! I was really getting worried there for a while. Now I can go back to the Sunday crossword...
Right?? So whats the 5 letter word for somthing that lives under a bridge??😂😂
By MODERN NAVY STANDARDS, the ships we won WW2 with were crap. But we had enough of them we won. If we have 100 ships in theater, and the Chinese have 400, even with a 3.5 to 1 kill ratio, we lose.
By modern standards, of course.
By 1940s standards, they were for the most part pretty good and were continuously upgraded.
During WWII the US built 50 Casablanca class escort carriers, 19 Commencement Bay escort carriers, 4 Sangamon escort carriers and 45 Bogue-class escort carriers.
24 Essex class carriers (in two versions), 9 Independence-class carriers, 2 Lexington-class carriers, 2 Saipan-class carriers, and 3 Yorktown class carriers
So 109 escort carriers and 40 big deck carriers.
4 Iowa class battleships
Etc.....
Does anyone think we can do that today? Do we have the facilities to build those ships? How about cast and machine the engines for them? Machine the propellers? Forge the shafts? How about the guns we would put on them - the CIWS? The VLS? The missiles for the VLS? Hell, the M2 .50 cals? M4's?
That's not even addressing the Army vehicles, wheeled, tracked...the Army weapons. The various helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, drones?
Do we have the capacity to refine the SPR to make fuel for these? Do we have enough fuel in the SPR?
Casting is not a problem; we just 3D print the molds. Machining will be a bit harder, but we could do it.
The real problem is all the NIMBY types fighting building the new shipyards.
Yeah, there are some very cool 3D printers that print very big sand molds for metal casting.
Work with them 6, sometimes 7 days a week!
Relax. The Japanese build crap. And their people all wear thick glasses. Stop fear mongering
Another hit of Dopamine for CQ...
"Quantity has a quality all its own" - Joseph Stalin
We're missing Sal's Hopium graphic
Wha-a-at? This one?
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/348x348q70/r/922/p3mGwh.jpg
No, the one of the manga girl in a naval uniform sucking on a tank of hopium....
EDIT: My mistake, the girl's tank is Copium! My bad. Still works though
Oh. OK. I don't recall seeing it. Thanks.
And you know this how?? Yeah, Ive seen the Wish memes too, but theres no reason to think they arent building top quality warships And why wouldnt they? They've stolen our tech, and we're funding their buildup through all our Dollar Store and WalMart shopping! Btw, their new large combatants are fresh new designs while we still are building Burkes designed in the 1980s. They've designed and built their first full size carrier, with all the new gadgetry our Ford has, in the last decade! So calling this fear mongering and assuming their ships are trash is, well, pretty ignorant...
"It happened on our watch, so we have to own it." We do own it, and conversely, it owns us. Going forward, we just have to do the best we can with what we have.
But, but, but.......
The Chinese navy is new, and small, and puny!
--so says the armchair strategist. Too bad we lack armchair logisticians.
Does anybody else share my opinion that the build-out of the CCG may be more problematic? That WW3 may be more likely to start over a deadly CCG/PN incident than an amphib invasion of a renegade province (Taiwan)
Perchance you have read today's news regarding a SCS collision. The CCG is now authorized to use deadly force against intruders in its territorial waters. For the life of me, I don't understand why we don't give the ROP a navy. Let them stand up to the Chinese in the SCS
You hit on a good point, our military and state department have lost focus on the value of making sure we can export good naval gear for our diplomacy. We do much better in the air and on the ground. We pretty much have run out of good hand me downs except for patrol boats. The Saudi LCS ships are them scratching our back for their own diplomacy. They could have gotten similar ships elsewhere for less money.
Why isn't our Naval leadership banging on the table loudly? Why is the SECNAV still pushing climate change as one of his top priorities? Why is our naval leadership more concerned about pronouns, DEI and which bathroom to use? Fundamental breakdown in leadership and total loss of focus on our core Title 10 responsibilities.
“Naval Leadership”. Nowadays that’s an oxymoron.
Their retirement checks do now allow them to maintain the same lifestyle in DC. That’s why.
Good help is hard to afford when you suddenly have to pay your flunkies out of your own pocket.
In the meantime, Europe is enjoying their afternoon tea and relaxing? Cause all wars ended in 1945 or 1989, right?
Then again, Europe isn't in the same shape as it was in 1946.
Don't worry, it's early june 1914 over there and the Grand Duke is going to visit Sarajevo in few days to help settle things down. It'll be fine.
Heh, best reply.
Sal, et al,…from the vantage point of a retired Army Aviator abeam Yorktown Weapons Station….
What worries me more, is HII (and NAVSTA Norfolk) are potentially blocked up by the HRBT from Hampton to Norfolk. My angst is how quickly our fleet in being and especially NNSY and HII could be interred. Not two weeks ago, a Chinese student decided to exercise his drone over HII. Damn, this is worse than the lead up to 7 Dec 41.
Baltimore isn’t cleared yet is it?
Been cleared for a week or so
That’s good news. What did it take? Months?
2 months to get the 50ft channel open.
Strong work, considering....
BZ to the Unified Command for gettin er done!
You are so right! This is worse! I have an acquaintance who was just a toddler, army brat in Hawaii on 07 DEC. She lived through the attack and the fires. Sixty years later, at her desk in the Pentagon, she survived the attack and the fire on 11 SEP. I always tell her I want to stay close, she has whatever it takes to survive.
Drop the bridge there, San diego. Block the harbors at Pearl, Apra, and Yoko, damage or disable the panama canal locks and that gives them enough time to really get to work.
COSCO runs the Panama canal.
Yep, and we can thank Jimmy Carter for that
At least w/ San Diego the LCS should be able to make it out via something other than the main channel, maybe. The CVNs and subs might make it out. Lets hope a DDG is out training with another at the loading pier. If one is up at Seal Beach too we might have something.......
Lcs might be shallow enough draft to make it out without needing the main channel. But I have my doubts. The shipyard is under the bridge in the east, so that might allow movement of larger ships.
But at least the banana supply won’t be interrupted.
CVNs dock on North Island; don't go under the bridge. Subs are also outside the bridge.
That was my point.
It's even class, and those are broad beamed.
The Navy fought the construction of a bridge in San Diego from the 20's to the 70's.