Zumwalt class destroyers.
Posted on 05/07/2010 5:30:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum.
Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation.
Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so disturbing. He seems to think naval supremacy is a luxury we can't afford and that, like every other aspect of our military, an already shrunken U.S. Navy needs to downsize.
"As we learned last year, you don't necessarily need a billion-dollar guided missile destroyer to chase down and deal with a bunch of teenage pirates wielding AK-47s and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," Gates quipped.
We are not laughing.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Actually Admiral Hyman Rickover, “The father of the nuclear navy” said basically the same things that Gates is saying. I don’t agree but I’m simply stating that this is neither a new point of view nor necessarily one geared toward weakening the United States.
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Gates is a disgrace. He is willing to pander to this administration in exchange for his career. In my opinion these people are worst than people like Boxer or Frank.
and your point is?
IMO that’s not the problem. I think Gates is all for Gates, and to Hell with anything else. He has his marching orders from the WH, and he is marching as instructed.
The Left has always wanted to destroy our military superiority. They’ve tried everytime they’ve been in power.
Humm
Think about this
Just how may US flagged cargo ships are left? Not many.
Also:
The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S. Navy also has the world’s largest carrier fleet, with 11 in service and one under construction. The USMC, measured by itself, would be the 4th largest Navy on the planet.
Something has to give, we are trillions in the hole and still digging.....
He seems to think naval supremacy is a luxury we can't afford and that, like every other aspect of our military, an already shrunken U.S. Navy needs to downsize.I expect that the US Navy will be heavily involved in the war against Iran and its proxies in the oil shipping routes, and of course will be relied upon for air strikes against targets in Africa, Iran, and elsewhere. Thanks Kaslin.
That’s spelled
Ga(y)tes
Ping
Damn straight, and if he tries mothballing those carriers, he’s going to have the American public looking for a short rope and a tall branch.
No they are on the Saudis and Chinese payroll.
Most mothball ships are no longer adequate. Probably the last that will ever be revived were the Iowa-class battleships during the Reagan years. Getting them active was very difficult, as many essential parts were no longer manufactured. Otherwise, most are scheduled to be scrapped.
It would be far cheaper to build new, destroyer sized ships. Unlike our current destroyers, that are of the size of cruisers, these would be the size of traditional destroyers, and a group of them would likely have a destroyer tender ship, to extend their mission range.
He is a member of all three one world order social clubs: Bilderberg, CFR and TriLat.
Zumwalt class destroyers.
"As we learned last year, you don't necessarily need expensive aircraft to chase down and deal with a bunch of Pacho Villa's teenage Mexican bandits wielding Winchesters," ...... Secretary of War, February, 1917
Name one, single American-made aircraft that saw combat in World War One in 1917 and 1918.
You can't.
The U.S. was so unprepared for a "real war" that American pilots had to fly the left-overs that the French and the British allowed them to have. (Nieuports had a nasty habit of shedding wings during combat, so, the French gave them to the Americans so that French pilots could have first dibs on the sturdier SPADS).
In the next major naval war, possibly with China, we won't have the luxury of being unprepared.
That is not what those ships are built for. When the balloon goes up, those billion dollar ships are the ones that will be protecting our CVN's from air power and submarine threats.
In the 1940's, when the Japanese caught America flat-footed in both Pearl Harbor and the Phillipines, the 1940's style of war allowed America the luxury to spend years building up its might from nearly scratch.
In the 21st Century style of warfare, you have no such luxury. The entire war may be decided in a couple of hours in the first major engagement.
With most of our “high quality” navy in Reserve, to attack our “cheap ships” would be insane. And yet such ships would be just fine for doing the ordinary, boring jobs, like policing pirates.
The only thing that you need to "police pirates" is the political will that the Russians showed last week. Right now, somewhere off the coast of Somalia, an inflatable boatful boatful of pirates is slowly dying of thirst, cast adrift by the Russian Navy.
Once you have the political guts to kill them, dealing with pirates requires nothing more high tech than tramp steamers fitted out as Q-Ships.
No, we need 13 to 15, of which, to be blunt about it, three or four would be reserves against losses in any confrontation with anyone whose asses we'll have to kick so hard their hemorrhoids will get stuck to their tonsils.
The stink of rationalization is all over this "review" Gates is talking about.
We have plenty of "cheap ships" if he needs them: They're laid up in Bremerton and Suisun Bay and the James River.
If the politicians can stop expending them as targets.
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