Posted on 09/18/2006 7:41:46 PM PDT by neverdem
Esactly, anti-ship missiles are designed to take out thin-hulled ships with speed and accuracy. It would take a torpedo to hurt a battleship.
They were JUST as effective in Desert Storm.
That's just it. It's not whether it is the most cost-effective platform. It's about DETERRENT. The 16 inch guns don't knock down buildings like a cruise missile. They knock down neighborhoods.
Better to scare the enemy into submitting than trying to fight them piece-meal.
The Sheffield was a destroyer.
They are sixty-five years old.
I am certain that we need fast BBs for the Straits of Hormuz and other close-in combat situations.
The question is not why don't we keep the Iowa class. The question is, why don't we build the Montana class?
Horse manure. We don't lack the ability, only the will.
The HMS Sheffield was aluminum. The Belgrano was the old USS Phoenix, a light cruiser of WWII vintage.
(I love good Navy ship porn)
Battleships were close to obsolete by the end of World War 2.
They are monumentally expensive to maintain and they all needed significant upgrades by the time we retired the final BBs....
Maybe we can come up with a new class of ship, but bringing back the old ones isn't in the cards.
The record of history is that naval gunfire support is ineffective against hardened defensive sites.
At Normandy, at Tawara, at Iwo Jima, the enemy poped up after the fire ended and killed many soldiers and Marines.
The preparation was sound and fury but accomplished little besides giving Marines a false sense of security.
My comment was only to point out just how tough our equipment is. :-)
Don't you think that the Chicoms and Ruskies said, "Uh-oh!" when the San Fran rammed a mountain then sailed home on its own?
Hang on there just a second...
The NGFS support provided by the "small boys" is still pretty good stuff...Maybe not the bang we'd like to see, but for the buck, I am sure there are a few Marines that love what is provided these days...
At least when we were just off the beach...I dunno about the pups these days...I hope they still practice it...
Yeah, but like my grandfather used to say:
"Age and treachery, will win over youth and skill everytime!"
Plus, I just figure its cooler to have an 11" advantage in caliber than a lot of other stuff out there these days...
I'm sure there would be no "real" complaints in the Corp in that regard...
Heck, yeah it got their attention! Given the fatal incompetence of the Chicom submarine force in the recent Golf II incident and the terrible state of maintenance in parts of the Russian fleet (along with the Kursk accident), they probably count themselves lucky every time one of their submarines surfaces after diving!
However this situation won't last forever (especially with the Chinese) and it is up to us to capitalize on the opportunity while it still exists by developing (and building in suffficent quantities) new classes of really superb naval combatants.
Not sure how (or even if) a modernized fast, big gun, heavily armored ship fits into that equation. Would love to see it though. There is nothing like a battleship for pure military sex appeal (Freudian pun intended).
The 5" guns are gone, but the gals and the coed heads are in. Quite and improvement, huh?
I'm glad my EAOS was up right before that happened.
That's a good question. When George P Bush runs for something perhaps nonmilitary service among perfectly capable young men will become an issue. I for one hope it does.
As a side note, after the September 11th attacks Duncan Hunter's son quit his job as an electrical engineer and is now a Marine Corps Artillery Captain. John McCain's son is a Marine as well. John Klines son is in the service along with a handful of young men from (mostly republican) congressman's families.
It has a lot to do with how a family brings up their young men. If you are a McCain, Kline or Hunter you take one option. If you are a Sununu or Romney or (you fill in the family)...you take another.
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