most beautyous when the leaves change
Posted on 01/25/2014 7:09:17 PM PST by ClaytonP
The U.S. Navy is about to cut in half the number of aircraft carriers it keeps ready for combat. Starting in 2015, just two American flattops will be on station at any given time, down from three or four today.
The change is spelled out in a presentation by Adm. Bill Gortney, head of Fleet Forces Command. The U.S. Naval Institute published the presentation on its Website on Jan. 24.
The new “Optimized Fleet Response Plan” represents an effort to standardize training, maintenance and overseas cruise schedules for the Navy’s 283 front-line warships, in particular the 10 nuclear-powered carriers.
The OFRP is also meant to save money and keep the Navy functioning under budget cuts mandated by the sequestration law. But to be clear, even after the change the Navy will still deploy more, bigger and better ships than any other maritime force in the world.
Warships will adopt a 36-month calendar. In each three-year cycle, a ship will sail on patrol once for eight months. “All required maintenance, training, evaluations and a single eight-month deployment will be efficiently scheduled,” Gortney claimed.
That means less than a quarter of the combat fleet—possibly fewer than 70 ships—will be deployed at any given time, down from 81 today. The Navy keeps around two-thirds of its combat power in the Pacific, equal to around 45 deployed ships under the OFRP.
Fewer frontline ships will be on patrol under the new plan, but those ships—and their crews—should be in better condition, having spent more time at home for training and refit, Gortney claimed. “The Optimized Fleet Response Plan has been developed to enhance the stability and predictability for our sailors.”
Sailing less often also helps the Navy shift funding into ship maintenance, a traditionally under-funded but vital activity that ensures vessels can serve for their entire 30-to-50-year planned lifespan.
But the undeniable fact is that there will be fewer Navy ships near potential hot spots starting next year. Based on historical patterns, it’s likely the Navy will keep one aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific near China and another in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to watch over Iran.
U.S. flattops will be routinely absent from the rest of the world’s oceans, although the Navy will also be able to deploy two assault ships carrying helicopters and Harrier or Joint Strike Fighter jump jets—mini-carriers, in a sense.
Moreover, the OFRP standardizes and enlarges carrier strike groups, concentrating the smaller deployed fleet into fewer but bigger formations. “These CSGs will be composed of seven to eight, vice current three to four, surface combatants,” Gortney explained.
The concentration will be achieved in part by shifting ballistic-missile-defense ships—cruisers and destroyers fitted with missiles and radars for shooting down enemy rockets—away from independent patrols. Instead, many of the BMD ships will sail alongside the carriers.
The addition of missile-defense ships to the carrier groups could help the flattops defend themselves against Chinese-made DF-21D “carrier-killer” rockets in the event of a major war.
But Gortney stressed that some missile-defense patrols will need to be independent—most likely, those conducted by the Navy’s new four-ship destroyer squad in Rota, Spain. Those four ships are meant to patrol the Mediterranean, where American aircraft carriers will rarely venture.
The handful of destroyers carrying Scan Eagle drones and Fire Scout robot helicopters could also be exempted from carrier-group duty, Gortney added. These vessels frequently sail alone along the East African coast in order to gather intelligence for Special Operations Forces secretly working ashore.
The new plan will mean fewer but more powerful Navy deployments, but does not mean an end to routine, small-scale humanitarian and goodwill cruises. Rather, those “softer” naval missions are increasingly the purview of the quasi-civilian Military Sealift Command, which operates more than 100 lightly-armed specialist ships alongside the frontline Navy.
The Navy recently bought MSC 10 small, speedy catamaran transports and four Mobile Landing Platform “sea base” ships specifically so that those cheaper vessels could handle soft missions. Sealift Command ships might become a more common sight across the globe at the same time that aircraft carriers become rarer.
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Damn it guys, that dough is needed to fund welfare benefits for the millions of new illegals who will flood across the border if the morons in congress even THINK about reforming the so-called “system”.
You just don’t understand.
most beautyous when the leaves change
Yes the leaves are amazingly pretty. Outsiders wouldn’t understand but it’s true!
It’s all part of the plan to knock down the USA so they can implement their New World Order.
Armed with a single M2 .50 caliber Browning, this much feared naval vessel carries up to 30 rounds of aluminum piercing ammunition. It is the first in an entirely new naval architecture class -- technically, “clitoral” (not to be confused with “littoral”) -- being pushed on the Pentagon by the defense minded wussies in the Obama Administration as a cost-saving measure. If you look closely, you can see the heavy-duty seat restraint which prevents the pilot/gunner – Kamakazi Kowalski – from leaping from the vessel prior to engaging the enemy. The 12 V trolling motor – which lacks a reverse function -- propels this sophisticated craft forward at a top speed of 4 knots. Reverse travel – at approximately 35 knots -- is achieved by firing the Browning.
The no-bid contract to build 200 of these fearsome warships was to have been awarded to Obama-Soros-Emanuel Shipbuilding and Stormdoor Manufacturing (formerly General Dynamics) and will be administered by trusted Obama associate and former Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel who commented that, at $12 million each, they are a bargain. They will be constructed exclusively at the company’s facility in Kenya with major subcomponent production (rivets and miscellaneous fasteners) at the company’s Harlem and Skokie plants. Delivery is expected to begin in 2024 (or as soon as the subcontractors’ funds are safely in the contractor's Swiss account).
bkmk
The British Empire ruined itself by too many commitments, too many allies, too many interventions. They did not heed the wise warnings of the great Conservative PM, Lord Salisbury, of the danger of national exhaustion through endless involvements in foreign strifes.
America needs to bring back American manufacturing.
We are shrinking.
Our military budget is maxed out. We need to grow.
Going the path of the UK!
To keep “ANY” ship combat & crew ready they must spend considerable time underway for both the crews readiness sake and the ships systems. Many situations can only be trained for at sea.
This is like closing up your house and living in it only once every three years for eight months. Not lived in houses do not fair well in the long run nor do non deployed ships. Every Captain worth his salt is eager to get his ship out of the yards and back underway because the ship is most efficent and top operational doing so. Granted there is needed down time as well. Even Junior Enlisted sailors are smart enough to understand this.
Obama: So much surrendering and so little time.
The time of the petro dollar reserve currency status is over.
We are living history.
Robert Gates new book “Duty” offers clear insights into how the administration feels about the military. He goes into how politics impacts budgeting and operations in considerable detail.
Yep.
If the brass can’t manage on their budget, then they need to quit. The Navy is like a lot of universities: they make commitments based on money they don’t have yet.
i expect the chinese to have 3-4 carrier groups within 2 years
and we’ll have 1-2.
quality. that’ll help the country
The military brass {as in commissioned officers} aren't the ones who make the monetary commitments nor often the military ones for that matter. The civilian side of it SECNAV and Sec of Defense civilian staff are the ones who set funding on what gets done and what doesn't upkeep wise. But let their decisions cause a major class A screw up like the two carriers right after 9/11 and they go hunting an 0-6 to blame. For example the JFK had been unoffically used as a reserve status carrier for almost a decade and lacked maintenance funding. Two ships Captains one from the JFK the other the Kitty Hawk were offered up as the scapegoats.
More ObamaFones, more Section 8 housing, more Obungu-Kare, more illegal immigrants...
Fewer ready aircraft carriers/ let Putin and China take over the world and carve up the Middle East along with Iran
It is the ones above O-6, I am talking about.
There's no reason to do that since we have air bases, coast guard, etc. We also keep air bases around the world. The carriers need to be out where they can respond in minutes to an attack on one of our allies.
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