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That is a periscope shot of USS George Washington (CVN-73), taken by USS Hammerhead (SSN 663) around 1992 (she was decommissioned sometime in 1995) when she popped up inside of our ASW screen during our shakedown cruise. Taking your picture through the periscope simulates firing a warshot that would not have missed, and they fire a green flare at the same time that lets the carrier's OOD know he just got had. Please note the clear and unobstructed view of the Navigation Bridge, the Flag Bridge as well as PriFly...

Whoops.

That picture is a scan of the original print of that warshot, and it was given to me in Newport News by my neighbor and good friend the COB of USS Hammerhead.

In fact our submarines exercise against our own fleet all the time, because it makes for excellent training for everyone all the way around.

Now that is one cool picture.

Question to you Bean Counter & pabianice. On my blog ChicoER Gate, I had a reader leave a comment and this is what he wrote;

The US Navy is the largest navy in the world, and on paper, certainly the most powerful. It is also unmistakably the most expensive navy the world has ever seen. Of that there is no doubt.

Now that the Russian navy is all but gone, and the Chinese Navy is still ascending, the American Navy remains the dominant sea power in the world. Yet, as this video proves, our heavyweight navy often has great difficulty handling the little guys. Indeed, if the US Navy were a boxer, one might say that his dominance is due mostly to his sheer size because he punches well below his massive weight. In this era of asymmetrical warfare, of David versus Goliath conflicts, perhaps it is time for America to rethink its naval strategy, lose some weight, and as sports announcers say, "focus more on the fundamentals."

For all the money America spends on its huge navy, it really needs to be much better. Edmund Burke once said, "A nation without the means of reform is without the means of survival." So, too, I would add, is a navy.

OK, my question to you would be, do you think our military is to sophisticated, and that we need to get back to basics so we can meet the challenge of the new era as Defense Secretary Robert Gates alluded to?