Posted on 01/14/2024 10:43:06 AM PST by Kazan
Joe Biden, amidst his mental confusion, must think he is John Mccain reincarnated. I bet he’s humming, “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb; Bomb Bomb Iran.” You know how it is, Iranians, Yemenis, they all look alike. While the bombs are causing some damage in Yemen, Yemen has seen it before and is unfazed. In fact, the bombing appears to be strengthening the resolve of Yemen to continue its blockade of the Red Sea.
The United States does not have enough bombs to force Yemen to surrender. Why? Yemen’s rocket and missile force is mobile. They can move dozens of missiles at the same time in different directions, which then forces the United States, notwithstanding robust ISR, to find the needles in the haystack that is Yemen. The U.S. can kill and destroy some, but not all.
But that is not the big problem. The U.S. Navy does not have the ability to sustain its presence off the coast of Yemen. My friend, Stephen Bryen, has written his usual excellent article detailing the problem:
The first answer relates to the number of missiles aboard a ship. US ships are relying on SM-2 missiles, part of the AEGIS system. One expert estimates the number available as follows:
“The [AEGIS] destroyers have a complement of 96 VLS cells, while the [Ticonderoga class] cruisers have 122. …However, they need to fit a mixture of weaponry in those cells so they can’t all be used for air defense. This includes:
ESSM (quad packed into a single cell)
SM-2 (and its newer counterpart the SM-6)
Tomahawk cruise missiles
ASROC anti-submarine missile
SM-3 anti-ballistic missile
The exact ratio of these weapons is largely dependent on the mission and the possible threats faced. However, at least 200 ESSM and another 100 or so SM-2 or SM-6 seems like a fair guess. Maybe a bit more.”
In short, each of the AEGIS has around 100 missiles.
The British Sea Viper air defense system is the main defense system HMS Diamond relied on to fire at Houthi drones and missiles. “Type 45 Destroyers, also known as Daring-class destroyers, are specifically designed around the Sea Viper (PAAMS) air-defence system. Each Type 45 destroyer is equipped with a 48-cell A50 Sylver Vertical Launching System. This system is designed to accommodate a mix of up to 48 Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles.”
Neither the US nor the British ships can be reprovisioned at sea, so they have a limited ability to “stay in the fight” if it continues for any length of time.
There you have it. Yemen can launch a hundred drones and missiles at U.S. ships and the destroyer escorts will exhaust their supply of air defense missiles. In the 1970s the U.S. Navy had ship tenders that could pull alongside a destroyer and resupply it. Not today. The Vertical Launch Systems have to be reloaded in a port. That means the destroyers will have to sail to Dubai, which means the U.S. aircraft carrier they are accompanying will have to follow because it relies on them for protection from ballistic and cruise missiles.
Here’s the bottomline, if you are going to get into a gun fight you better have enough ammunition on hand to finish it. Only we’re not talking about having a million rounds of 9 mm pistol ammunition. The missiles the Aegis system uses are damn expensive. Here’s Stephen’s take:
One needs to add that using missile defense is very expensive. Each SM-2 missile costs $2.1 million each. Sea viper, which can either be an Aster 15 or Aster 30 costs either £1m to £2m a time ($1.25 million to $2.5 million). Nor does this take into account the challenge of replacing these missiles, once expended. It not only will be more expensive, but could take years of production time.
Yemen is showing how a so-called third rate military can effectively bankrupt the Naval power of a “Superpower.” The neo-cons urging Biden to attack Iran are math challenged. Iran has more missiles, drones and rockets than Yemen. If little Yemen is doing this to the U.S., just imagine the havoc Iran could cause.
Washington is like the degenerate gambler who is playing a losing game of blackjack. Instead of accepting his losses, Joe Biden seems intent on doubling down and destroying the reputation of the U.S. Navy as the most powerful force in the World. I suspect the Russians and Chinese are enjoying some heaping buckets of buttered popcorn as they watch this spectacle of national suicide.
So you say, but I’ve seen them do it in various YTs.
It’s not working because that is the plan.
Make everywhere equally crappy.
Balkanize everywhere.
Homogeneous societies are a problem to elite globalist trash.
Russia lives large
—
Russia stole the name from Ukraine in the 17 hundreds and renamed their swamp and forest country of Moscovia to Russia.
Peter the Great (sic) did it to gain the prestige of being a real civilized empire like Byzantium. Or how to turn a swamp into a civilization by stealing a name.
Now being called by its original name of Moscovia, which we know is a freezing swamp that cares nothing for its people, excerpt how to make them suffer more and die.
Interesting contrast. The smiling ones are the ones you need to worry about because they are only in it for themselves and trying to figure out how to use you for that purpose. Otherwise to them you are nothing. The scowling ones are scowling because they are trying to get something done in a system that inevitably screws up everything useful you try to get it to do. If you are not his present problem you’re doing just fine. Rickover was like that. When someone complained that the way he came across it sounded like he didn’t trust people to do a good job. His respone - if I thought you weren’t doing your job you wouldn’t be here.
We're running low on ammo and missiles. Our ability to produce ammo is a fraction of what the Russian capacity is. And, our missiles and weapon systems are ridiculously expense and hard to maintain.
The defense industry has a big, lazy business that makes thousands rich but can't produce cost-efficient weapons or weapon systems. And, we don't have the manufacturing base to produce ammo at anywhere near what would be needed if the neocon numbskulls end up provoking a world war.
And, we certainly can't afford to waste ammo a worthless, tyrannical country like Ukraine just so BlackRock can continue to rolling in the money to rebuild it.
National defense shouldn't be a business and way for our politicians to get rich.
You were only supposed to use the $2M missiles to sink $1B ships or shoot $100M aircraft out of the sky and you can afford the missiles a lot more than the other guy can afford to lose ships and planes.
Problem is that cheap drones change the equation. You can't afford to shoot at the drones and you can't afford not to.
So, the reality should be, you make us spend $2M shooting down a useless drone. We will use another $2M missile to take out a $2B asset of your. Iran, we will start with oil wells and military bases. But it's against our doctrine to go for countervalue, which is like trying to play penny anny poker with solid gold chips. You can only lose.
Navy supply ships to not carry replacement vertically launched missiles.
Drivelous neo isolationist clap trap
Russia misinformation and propaganda piece.
———-
Where have you been? Our twenty something lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan prove beyond doubt bombs, arms, even troops on the ground in countries 6,000 miles away, will not never squash the Islamists.
Until the US realizes we have been in a religious war ( remember Bush? “ Islam is a religion of Peace”…gag, gag) and Islam is our enemy, we will continue to see defeat after defeat….fact is our DOD, and all sectors of our government have been infiltrated.
Political correctness has destroyed America in so, so many ways.
King was a legend:
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt described King as a man who “shaves every morning with a blow torch.”
It is commonly reported when King was called to be COMINCH, he remarked, “When they get in trouble they send for the sons-of-bitches.”
When asked to state a public relations policy for the Navy, King replied “Don’t tell them anything. When it’s over, tell them who won.”
I was talking more about not being able to rearm at sea, having to go into port to rearm.
That’s nuts in a global conflict.
Hell, it’s nuts in a limited regional conflict, as we are seeing.
I guess same planners that made the Abrams tank too heavy to operate in most of Ukraine, and so maintenance intensive and fuel consuming it takes a logistical army just to keep it operating.
Some weapons can be reloaded at sea and some cannot be.
L
Sonar 21 & Larry Johnson = RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA
* IGNORE *
What you said...
About the only thing they can do is transfer food, mail and fuel.
You cannot reload VLS tubes on a submarine from a sub tender and you cannot reload VLS tubes from a supply ship.
The entire structure of US naval surface groups were meant to fight a two-three week intense conflict. It would take ground based assets from Saudi Arabia, Israel and at the extreme end of the likely scenarios Egypt to keep up sustained operations.
I can’t imagine Egypt is at all pleased with the evaporation of Suez traffic and would love to assist but publicly cannot or will not.
They can be reprovisioned at sea. They can’t be rearmed. Reloading the launch tubes needs to be done dockside.
CC
Ignore = can't refute the points made.
What part of the population in the USA supports the Houthis?
The only people that seem to support them are hard core communists, Hamas supporters, and pro-Russian propagandists.
Is that why all the sophisticated, guided Russian weapons rely on parts smuggled in from US and European suppliers?
I’m just ignoring the pathetic Russian lies and propaganda that infest this site
You and the other Russian stooges have been saying for the last year that Russia was winning ... IF that was really true, Russia would have defeated Ukraine by now!
Instead, we see that Ukraine remains undefeated, and Russia keeps flailing about on the battlefield ... that’s not winning
You need to stop the lying ... Russia is losing
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.