Posted on 07/05/2025 12:57:43 PM PDT by Jacquerie
To deter China’s growing naval power, the US must rapidly expand its fleet through a modern Naval Act, embracing large block buys and innovative shipbuilding reforms to boost capacity and speed. A significant amount of money could be spent on ordering warships this coming year. Still, we also need to work on reversing the retirement of many warships that occurred under President Biden.
This reversal is all the more necessary when you consider what has been proposed for fiscal year 2026: the procurement of just 19 warships. That’s wholly inadequate given the growing dangers we face from our adversaries.
America Needs More Warships to Defend Itself Think China is a good neighbor? So far this year, it has tested a massive mobile pier for invasion of Taiwan, landed forces on the Philippines’ Sandy Cay, and sustained large-scale provocative military operations in the Taiwan Strait. As its decades-long military modernization and expansion proceed at a rapid pace, from 395 warships today to a fleet of 435 modern warships by 2030, there is little reason for Beijing not to push boundaries.
When our nation was confronted with revanchist foes in the 1930s, the President and Congress implemented the Naval Act, which set conditions for industrial expansion, enabling the arsenal of democracy to win World War II. As in the 1930s, we again need a Naval Act to revive our naval shipbuilding before it is too late.
Today, our Navy musters 293 warships, according to the most recent Index of Military Strength, which is rapidly aging and nearing retirement for a fleet that is currently assessed as too weak. Moreover, according to its most recent 2023 fleet plan, the Navy is short one aircraft carrier, 19 attack submarines, two cruisers destroyers, and 47 frigates.
There is a risk in maintaining the status quo.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Yesterdays wars...We need to be careful. If ships are unable to defend themselves against hypersonic missiles, then all manned surface vessels, including carriers would essentially become obsolete. This happened to battleships in the early 40’s.
Deterring China’s military power: stop buying crap from them.
They gotta get the money from somewhere. No reason to trade with the enemy.
Control of undersea drones is extraordinarily difficult.
To be practical, the CCC systems must react to a distinct and limited number of operational plans...and then trust AI to get the execution right.
Otherwise you can shoot yourself.
If you were to glance only at the op tempo of our carrier fleet, you’d swear we were at war.
Those crews are busting their kiesters trying to keep up. And we are ostensibly at peace.
Our warships deployed around the world are in harms way 24/7/365 for a ton of good reasons.
Do you want to be the one to take a potshot at a U.S. national asset? Or to try and sink one?
Defensive capabilities must always be refined and upgraded. But at some point, forward-deployed active duty service members know they are risking their lives.
Bring that fag bans back for recruiting
Since aircraft can handily destroy ships...
Exactly what type of ships are needed, more carriers?
Missile boat/drone carriers.
Missiles have become quite deadly.
The shape that naval vessels should take going forward has to take into account Ukraine’s great successes in the Black Sea.
The Japs took a pot shot at us and it could certainly happen again. Do you really think carriers will never become obsolete? Manned fighter jets will soon be replaced by unmanned aircraft. Tanks are basically obsolete now because of their vulnerability to drone attacks. Bullets from rifles will be replaced with laser weapons. There's an old saying, "Generals are busy planning to fight the last war." Let's hope our generals can avoid that mistake.
The U.S. Navy is actively developing and deploying a new generation of underwater drones, including the Manta Ray and Orca, to expand its capabilities in undersea warfare. These drones, both large and small, are designed for long-duration, long-range missions with minimal human oversight, and are seen as a potential revolution in naval operations.
Developed by Northrop Grumman for DARPA, the Manta Ray is a large, autonomous underwater vehicle (UUV) designed for long-duration, long-range missions. It can anchor to the seafloor and hibernate in a low-power state for extended periods. The Manta Ray’s modular design allows for easy transport and deployment. It has been tested off the coast of Southern California, including submerged operations and buoyancy-driven gliding.
The Orca, also known as the Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), is a large UUV developed by Boeing.
It is designed for long-range, modular missions and is expected to undergo operational testing and evaluation in the near future. The Navy ordered five Orca drones in 2019, and a test asset system was delivered in late 2023.
The Orca is designed to address critical undersea warfare needs, potentially including counter-detection and extended mission ranges.
Other developments.
The Navy is also using smaller UUVs like the Lionfish (based on the Remus 300) and the MK 18 Mod 2 Kingfish for various missions.
The Navy is taking a “SpaceX approach” to development, focusing on getting the systems out to the users for feedback and iteration, according to Business Insider.
The Navy has also established UUVRON-1 to integrate these technologies into the fleet.
The Navy is also pursuing the LDUUV program for long-endurance, deep-sea UUVs.
The Office of Naval Research and Development (ONR) has a longstanding competition with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as to which can make more and better tech advancements for the US military.
Why don’t we crush the Chinese economy so that they can’t afford their large navy, and the people decide on regime change?
There are only two kinds of ships - submarines and targets.
293 ships manned by DEI crews?
293 ships captained by DEI Annapolis graduates?
Consider that, with their own navy esentially eliminated, the japs, in March and April 1945, sank/crippled more ships than are currently in our navy...
In addition, they killed about 10,000 sailors in the same period... (Iwo Jima and Okinawa)
Carriers will continue to have their place, in larger numbers than presently, for decades, at least. So bad ass—there’s no substitute.
I agree with that sentiment. Our ships are sitting targets, obsolete in the extreme. I can see parking a carrier far away from land, and using them as launch and land platforms. In the Hormuz Strait and the Mediterranean? Madness.
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