More subs is great and yes conventional ones as well. I'll make the same argument for conventional subs as I do saying we really need at least two conventional carriers. It takes IIRC 18 months to get a Nuke Snipe from Basic Training to being out of Nuke School and ready to go to a ship and qualify there. 18 Months conventional will have you a seasoned and experienced Snipe likely ready to take his E-4 Exam. This matters in relation to mass causalities a reality that has to be addressed. How many Nuke Snipes can be turned out vs Conventional ones and time frames involved?
Ships need for the purpose of material readiness {the operational maintenance of the ship}, and for personnel readiness and qualifications need to be at sea for substantial times. Parking any ship at the pier without sending it to sea on a regular basis will effect the ships operational readiness.
A typical cycle for us was coming out of the yards then doing a few short shakedowns. Then we'd do ops off the coast doing carrier quals getting the crew and pilots ready for the next stage. We'd head down to GITMO operations area for a month of intense training for all hands. We'd come back in to home port then head off on a one-three month deployment either to South America or somewhere like the Virgin Islands or a NATO Cruise to the UK. Upon return the ship would spends several weeks making final preparations for a six month plus deployment in our case to The Med Sea. Upon return we immediately went into the yards either for our three month stand down or the required one year extensive overhaul. Doing otherwise leads to issues like what we saw at 9/11. This applies to smaller ships as well as the big ones. Any Sec of Defense or SECNAV who allows five carriers berthed at the same base or even four should be fired.
>>Any Sec of Defense or SECNAV who allows five carriers berthed at the same base or even four should be fired.
That we are doing that is just mind boggling. Do these fools not understand what happened at Pearl Harbor?