Accessing Salamander's Archive

Come on guys ... I've been tracking your IPs since early 2005. You Congressional staffers are getting slow to the game.

A key congressional subcommittee has questioned the manning plan for the Navy’s newest class of warships and signaled that it will force the Navy to keep three of seven selected cruisers from an early retirement.

The subcommittee took issue with the manpower plan for littoral combat ships, in particular asking why the Navy has decided to send ensigns and first-term sailors to these smaller crews, after previously saying they didn’t plan to do so. Lawmakers are concerned that junior sailors and ensigns assigned to LCSs won’t get the training they need on a ship with minimal manning and limited opportunities for training.

“The committee is concerned that the current LCS manning model is unrealistic and that relying on temporary solutions such as berthing modules to accommodate additional crewmembers is both impractical and detrimental to the quality of life of the entire crew,” the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee wrote in a report obtained by Navy Times. The report, which has not yet been publicly released, is to be considered at a markup Thursday.

You could have asked this, I don't know ... five years ago, eight years ago - but you're right. The Navy was telling a different story then than they are now.

That's OK - better late than never. Here is the fun part if you have time to pass this around - get hold of the NPS thesis of then LT now CDR Thaveepho Douangaphaivong, USN, presently the XO of NRD Minneapolis.

Wait ... silly me - here it is for you.

The Littoral Combat Ship’s (LCS) minimally manned core crew goal is 15 to 50 manpower requirements and the threshold, for both core and mission-package crews, is 75 to 110.

This dramatically smaller crew size will require more than current technologies and past lessons learned from reduced manning initiatives. Its feasibility depends upon changes in policy and operations, leveraging of future technologies and increased Workload Transfer from sea to shore along with an increased acceptance of risk.

Read it all - then give CDR Douangaphaivong an Operational Command for speaking truth before it became popular.

You want to reward "against the grain" thinking and intellectual courage? Start with him.

Let's see - you paid for him to go to NPS. No variable cost. CDR Salamander is free. So, how much did you pay for all those PPT, consultants, vignettes, Fantasy Island CONOPS?

Just to be fair - we'll take just 10% of the cost you paid them. CDR D and I will split it 50/50; time value of money and all.

Yes, his thesis is from 2004. Two Thousand Frigg'n Four.