Posted on 11/02/2019 6:11:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Like a Christmas wish list, the Navy wants a fleet of 355 ships. It just can’t afford it.
“Will we get to 355 ships?” asked Admiral Robert Burke, the Navy’s Vice Chief of Naval Operations, at a recent conference. “I think with today’s fiscal situation, where the Navy’s top line is right now, we can keep around 305 to 310 ships whole, properly manned, properly maintained, properly equipped, and properly ready.”
The $205.6 billion for Fiscal Year 2020 that the Navy has requested – bigger than the economies of the majority of nations on Earth – would seem to be plenty. But even if Congress approves that amount, it would only bring the Navy’s battle force of warships and support vessels to 314 by 2024. That’s more than the current 280-strong force, but only about four-fifths of the 355-ship goal by 2047.
Burke’s conclusion was logical: more money equals more ships. “If our top line does not go up, if it remains where it is now and is projected to remain in the future defense plans, that’s about where we can get to and do it right, in terms of man those ships and maintain them and have all the ordnance for them and generate readiness,” he said. “We would need an increased top line.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
True.
If ANY of our enemies were able to see into the future. China can dictate that future.
Putting modern ships in WRS has actually proven to be a surprising money sink - modern electronics do not like to be left unused and there is also the issue of having to completely overhaul/update systems when pulling them out of reserve. Some countries have found it was actually cheaper overall to just run the ships and update them as they go along than to suddenly have to update everything after pulling the ship out of mothballs.
Thank you for that link...much appreciated!
Admiral Yamamoto actually did correctly predict what was going to happen. He was ignored and likely ordered to shut up about it on pain of being shot.
Well, yea... unless they’re woke millennials still living in mama’s basement. They might identify as a couch.... or a bag of Cheetos.
We never quite got President Reagan’s 600 ship Navy. Close, though.
In reading history he also said that they were afraid they’ve awaken a sleeping giant. How true were those words. Karma really works since the torpedo’s used at Pearl Harbor were made in Nagasaki.
The sole survivor of VT-8 was ENS George Gay.
Don't let the bastards get ahold of his name ...
That quote came from a movie. There is no evidence that he ever said that in reality.
The actual quote where he predicted the future is verified: “I can run wild for six months … after that, I have no expectation of success.”
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto%27s_sleeping_giant_quote
Yamamoto is one of those guys that these days an intelligent government agent would have decided to try to extract along with his family before hostilities started. A good, loyal and capable officer sadly fighting for the wrong side.
Sure, there are a lot of lessons learned from previous storage efforts that need to be evaluated and measures taken to counteract/compensate for deterioration.
The ships involved would probably need to be in a reserve-active rotation something like the way rotation of blue and gold crews is being done now. Perhaps sent to storage after a long maintenance avaIlability. These might be ways to get some use out of them; keep the electronics current; etc. Once funds are provided to build the ships, there are a lot of smart, experienced operators and maintainers available to figure these processes out.
However, it is pretty hard to refit and update ships that don’t exist. That’s what is bothersome about this issue and the report: the fact that this option was not even considered.
LCS and DDX ended up consuming all resources that weren’t being used for the Ford class carriers. We don’t *have* anything on the drawing board ready to be made.
594 by the end of Reagan's second term
Good Lord.
Sure. Ens Gay will be a gay boy! (I met him once)
Salute to the bravest of the brave of Taffy 3— Cdr Evers.
It would cost a lot but keeping a ship operating while giving the crew some down time would keep it running, up to date and us ready to rumble on or deployments. MM1(SS) Gold Crew SSBN 640.
Just double the missile batteries.
I like cheesecake.
Any article in the ‘National Interest’ today needs to e read with the understanding that this magazine is virtually a Neo-Con megaphone and is firmly part of the K Street perpetual war galaxy. It will never say anything positive about DJT, that is for certain.
Interesting.
Since it takes what? 6 to10+ years? to plan and build a new ship class lead ship, what is the majority of the $100+ billion in annual shipbuilding funds that CNO wants going to be spent on during the ramp up to the new ship builds?
I know some would go into the engineering and long lead time items. And we would continue to build carriers and other favored ship programs. But we are talking about slightly over a trillion dollars in shipbuilding funds during this ten year period.
Do we just build more modernized Arleigh Burkes and SSN/SSBNs to put into the barn?
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