Times-Union file photo
The USS Freedom Littoral combat ship (LCS 1) based in San Diego, CA, is in shown in port at Naval Station Mayport on November 12, 2009.
Times-Union file photo
The USS Freedom Littoral combat ship (LCS 1) based in San Diego, CA, is in shown in port at Naval Station Mayport on November 12, 2009.
Right and Fisher thought speed was “armour” for his battlecruisers in the RN in WW1. That went well.
Sounds like the Navy is finally awakening to Obama’s shrinking of vessels to nothing. Honestly, you’d think the Navy would know how to optimize fleet size, speed, armaments, and armor by now.
Didn't Admiral Scheer demonstrate this at Jutland?
And meanwhile somewhere in Iran they are planning to build a statue of American sailors surrendering. Speed and firepower are useless without leadership that has the resolve and fortitude to stand up for what’s right.
As we’ve seen modern ships are extremely vulnerable to fire. Read “Last stand of the tin can sailors” and see how much punishment a WWII destroyer could take and still fight. Modern ships with aluminum super structures and such can’t survive a single 8” hit much less several. While speed is important we are talking about a few knots difference in the 30knot zone. In reality this is a snail’s pace in the face of modern guided weaponry.
A WWII battleship’s bridge armor would resist a conventional cruise or surface gun seeing that the largest guns are 5” for the most part. I’m not suggesting we build battleships but it might be wiser to sacrifice a knot or three for a superstructure that won’t melt like butter. The other thing not generally discussed is the vulnerability of the electronics. A mechanical fire control computer might have less capability but it won’t go offline at the first sneeze.