Taking the post below to a little higher level - I'm pondering the broader way forward over at USNIBlog.
6 hours ago
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
A Crisis, or an Opportunity?
Taking the post below to a little higher level - I'm pondering the broader way forward over at USNIBlog.
Labels:
Maritime Strategy,
Shipbuilding
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6 comments:
That picture of a very young (ie; new) AEGIS cruiser is just so painful to see. Running a CG aground in broad daylight, with no storms, no enemy, no confusing shipping channel. To just drift aground while doing 0 knots (and remain there stuck on coral for several days) is so embarrasing to every retired Naval officer who ever stood countless OOD watches all over the world. And this sparkling repainted ship-of-the-line had just completed a prolonged, expensive overhaul. She had to return to the very same drydock in Pearl Harbor that she had so recently departed. Oh, that photo is ever so painful.
Hopefully she will be performing TBMD (along with ASW, AAW, etc) for the next 25 years or so. Cannot envision the US Navy (and Congress) constructing any new CRUISERS within the next 25 years, so we must take extra good care of our remaining 22 CG's, which are spread awfully thin. Too bad the Hawaii waters are so gorgeous in that terrible photo.
Grampa Bluewater's post over at USNI was just so full of win I had to put the best part over here - to quote DB, he gets +10 internets!
"We are giving up cruisers for coastal gunboats dressed up in a sequined miniskirt and a tease line, and a thirst for tea at single malt prices. All saucy promises and a thug in the alley just down the street.
The LCS is a hussy, and we are getting set up to get rolled. When we wake up in a benjo ditch, hung over, bruised all over, with two black eyes, in a ruined set of whites, no wallet and a day AWOL, will the FOGOS sober up then?"
False choice. 40 non survivable overpriced gun boats will be defeated in detail by any real warship in each one's first real combat action.
A CVN has its vulnerabilities, but its escorts and its aircraft are are there to defend it. The LCS can't even defend itself, with a huge and growing fixed cost. All the LCS can do is plane guard, if that.
Don't want any LCS, they are just a huge waste of time and treasure, and pathetically vunerable.
LCS delende est.
<span>Yeah, agree with GBW above.
How 'bout this choice? We RCOH the GW since the ship is not yet twenty years old, keep her in commission, can the LCS, and build useful, tough, powerful smaller units that actually help with influence and power projection?
Where do I collect my $825,000 in consulting fees in this period of "fiscal austerity"?</span>
for the price of one LCS you can get easily one SSK or one decent frigate capable of ASW , ASuW and area AAW with ESSM...
Or we could invest in a cheaper alternative like the Absolom or a half dozen cheaper alternatives that are actucal warships and are cheaper.
And get a CVN 78.
.... or we could invest in those Cheaper frigates.......and invest in the complete overhaul and upgrading of 4 Iowa class BB which could form their own battlegroups.
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