“With aircraft and missile technology, I don’t think it will ever be the same. Are we ever going to see mass troop and supply movements by transport ships that are vulnerable to submarines? I don’t know about that either. Are subs the premire anti-shipping weapon, or are aircraft and missiles the state-of-the-art? Subs are a great balistic missile platform, because you can’t target them from space yet (as far as I know), but that might be where they really shine now, unlike the U-boats of WWII.”
You bet. It is likely we are in a phase of U.S. Naval history not unlike the transition from wind and wood to steam and steel. New weaponry, new technologies, these are changing the rules in ways we still do not grasp.
Imagine ship-based over-the-horizon laser systems, small boat swarming technologies that put the Iranian joke to shame, coordinated weaponry with satellites, subs and ships, novel technologies for disabling the enemy before a shot is fired...this is just the stuff we can glean from what is published. You can only imagine the things that are being kept under wraps.
I say let the ChiComs waste blood and treasure on chasing us with blue water navies. Matching up frigate for frigate, battle group for battle group, anti-ship missile for anti-ship missile will be insufficient. Besides, winning the economic war will do a lot to render our naval strategies irrelevant.
Over-the-horizon ship-based laser? Don’t laser beams only travel in straight lines.