Our Greatest National Security Threat is Our National Security Establishment

When David's article went up Sunday, I was amazed; amazed at the audacity of arrogance and betrayal.

Since we, yes we, caused the unnecessary drowning of 17 of our Sailors in their bunks in the summer of 2017, many of us thought at last we have something that will shake our Navy to take an honest self-assessment and change what we were doing.

We were wrong.

I thought after some rather good comprehensive reviews and nice words spoken by very smart and senior people that we would re-prioritize what we were doing.

I was wrong.

The people and their elected representatives hoped that after the international shaming directly resulting from our poor maintenance practices that begat dirty, rusting, and CASREP besotted ships would bring resources to bear, and unnecessary maintenance deferrals to an end.

They were mistaken

We thought we would work towards a better service climate concerning undermanning and undertraining of personnel, and outright abusive personnel policies that consider it a feature not a bug to demand months of 100-hr work weeks from people who can't escape the skin of the ship - and then extended for months at sea without liberty or rest.  We all thought there would be changes to be better stewards of our fleet and its Sailors.

We were lied to.

Yes, that is a strong word - and I mean it.

One again, for the most gossamer thin reasons, we are about to double-pump a carrier and her crew. We are foolishly consuming in peace what we will need for war.

We are not at war. There is no great emerging threat - right now for the next six months - that demands extraordinary efforts, sacrifice, and taking readiness and availability risk tomorrow to gather deployment time today.

And yet - here we are - again;

After shattering the U.S. Navy’s modern record for consecutive time at sea, the carrier Eisenhower is preparing for another deployment early next year just six months after returning.

Two deployments within the same readiness cycle, colloquially known in the fleet as a “double pump” deployment, used to be seen as something of an anomaly: a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency maneuver that puts enormous strain on the crew and the equipment.

But the decision to redeploy Eisenhower early next year is the second double-pump carrier deployment in as many years and will almost certainly send the 43-year-old ship into another extended period of repairs, experts said. Furthermore, the move raises questions about why the deployment is necessary at all, when the military is supposed to be focusing on readiness and moving away from running its forces ragged.

What is driving this?

...the current commander of U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie has been vocal about his desire to get carriers in the region.

During testimony on March 10, McKenzie told House lawmakers that the aircraft carrier “has a profound deterring affect principally upon Iran.”

“They know what the carrier is. They track the presence of the carrier. And I view a carrier as a critical part of a deterrent posture effective against Iran,” he said.

McKenzie went on to tell lawmakers he believes that the reduction in Navy carrier presence in early 2019 and years prior may have contributed to the latest cycle of escalation from Iran that came to a head with the U.S. assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani and a retaliatory strike from Iran on U.S. bases in Iraq.

The carrier that relieved Eisenhower in Central Command most recently, the Nimitz, entered the Persian Gulf late last week, according to a U.S. 5th Fleet press release.

Of course ... of course - it is another example of the metastasized cancer of the ossified and tottering Cold War Era, Goldwater-Nichols COCOM structure that has each COCOM trying to out crisis each other for forces.

One carrier does not deter Iran from doing what she wants to do. If this is such a world ending requirement, who are we short-pumping next? Where are those Sailors coming from? Will they even get a chance to see the sandbox ashore for 96 hrs, or will this be another exercise is Sestakistic sadism?

Who in uniform in our Navy is willing to step up and stop this abuse? Who? Where is Admiral No?

We haven't even addressed what we all know this will do to retention. This is no longer, "Join the Navy and see the world." It is now, "Join the Navy and never have a home."

Sailors will give everything to her Navy, including their lives, on a simple order. They trust their leadership to make the right call so if asked to sacrifice, be it family time, long hours, or even their life, it will all be for a good reason. The right reason. An important reason.

Sell this. Don't demand it - as an institution if they don't know it yet, our senior leadership spent that professional capital years ago - explain the "why" to our Navy. If you can't do it with substance, then think about what, in the end, your accomplishment of reaching O-10 was really about at the end of the day.

We know where this leads. This is not new territory. 

Read it all.

Saving the US Merchant Industry with Captain John Konrad - on Midrats

 

The neglected American merchant fleet and industry is a problem long standing. The realization of the growing challenge on the other side of the Pacific, and the knowledge of what is needed to support it, has brought the problem in sharp relief. 

Like most long neglected problems, the causes are many and deep. Ships, personnel, legal, regulatory, and the latest punch from COVID-19 have all intensified an already gathering storm. 

Returning to Midrats this Sunday from 5-6pm to discuss this critical foundation of maritime power will be Captain John Konrad. 

John is the founder and CEO of the maritime news site gCaptain.com and author of the book Fire On The Horizon. He is licensed to captain the world's largest ships and has sailed from ports around the world. John is an adviser at MassChallenge, SeaAhead, and the MIT startup blkSAIL. He is a distinguished alumnus of New York Maritime College. 

If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes button at the main showpage - or you can just click here.

Fullbore Friday

 

Slowly the sea gives up her secrets;

Divers have found what they believe is the wreck of a U.S. Navy submarine lost 77 years ago in Southeast Asia, providing a coda to a stirring but little-known tale from World War II.

The divers have sent photos and other evidence from six dives they made from October 2019 to March this year to the United States Naval History and Heritage Command for verification that they have found the USS Grenadier, one of 52 American submarines lost during the conflict. 

You can ignore the sub pic in the article linked to above - that is of a later USS Grenadier (SS-525) an not the one in question that we have pics of here, SS-210.

From the exceptional website OnEternalPatrol, here is the story of her loss; 

On the night of 20 April 1943, having had poor hunting for two or three days in Lem Voalan Strait, (northwest of Penang on the Malay Peninsula) GRENADIER ventured out ten miles west of that place to see what she could find. She found two ships, but before she could attack, they turned away. Figuring that they would come back to their original course in an hour and a half, Fitzgerald planned an attack to meet them on their course at that time. About 15 minutes before time to dive and prepare for the attack, a plane came in on GRENADIER, and she dived. As she was passing 120 feet, a violent explosion shook the ship, and all lights and power were lost. She was brought to rest on the bottom at about 270 feet. The hull and hatches were leaking badly aft, and a fire in the control cubicle kept the ship without propulsion. A bucket brigade kept the motors dry, and later a jury rig pump was called into service to perform the task, while the electricians worked all day to restore propulsion. Several men were prostrated by heat and exertion, but the work went on.

At dusk, GRENADIER surfaced and continued the work of trying to restore herself. Finally, they were able to turn over one shaft very slowly, but everything possible had been done, and no more speed could be expected.

Toward morning what appeared to be a destroyer, but was actually an 1800 ton merchantman, and an escort vessel were seen on the horizon, and a plane was driven away by gunfire. The skipper decided to scuttle the ship then, and it was done, with all hands being taken prisoner by the enemy merchant ship. 

That was not the end of their ordeal;

...an hour later were hauled aboard an armed merchant ship, which took them to Penang, a major port town on the Malayan Peninsula.

At a Catholic school requisitioned by the Japanese for use as a prison, events took an even darker turn.

“The rough treatment started the first afternoon, particularly with the (enlisted) men. They were forced to sit or stand in silence in an attention attitude,” wrote Fitzgerald. “Any divergence resulted in a gun butt, kick, slug in the face or a bayonet prick. In the questioning room, persuasive measures, such as clubs, about the size of indoor ball bats, pencils between the fingers and pushing of the blade of a pen knife under the finger nails, trying to get us to talk about our submarine and the location of other submarines.”

After a few months, all the crew were transferred to camps in Japan, where the abuse continued. Four died from a lack of medical attention.

You can see a full list of the crew and those who died in captivity here.

She had a solid, workmanlike war record prior to her loss; 

GRENADIER's record prior to her loss was six ships sunk, for 40,700 tons, and two ships damaged, for 12,000 tons. Her first patrol, beginning in February 1942, was conducted off the coast of Japan, and GRENADIER sank a freighter. Going to the Formosa shipping lanes for her second patrol, GRENADIER sank a large transport and a freighter. On her third patrol, she sank a large tanker. GRENADIER's fourth patrol was a mining mission in the South China Sea, and she damaged no enemy shipping. On her fifth patrol, this vessel patrolled the Java Sea area, and sank two small freighters and a sampan. In addition she damaged a freighter.

Fullbore.

 H/t Shu.

A Four Year Late Start

Rumors of a plan to find the money to build the fleet we knew would be a priority almost four years ago are floating about again.

Will they come to anything?

I'm asking over at USNIBlog.

Come on by and ponder with me.

USAF to USN: "New Fighter? We already got one ... oh Yes, its Very Nice!"

I have to tip my hat to the USAF, I didn't see this coming. 

BZ to our friend Valerie for the scoop:

The U.S. Air Force has secretly designed, built and flown at least one prototype of its enigmatic next-generation fighter jet, the service’s top acquisition official confirmed to Defense News on Sept. 14.

...

“We’ve already built and flown a full-scale flight demonstrator in the real world, and we broke records in doing it,” Will Roper told Defense News in an exclusive interview ahead of the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference. “We are ready to go and build the next-generation aircraft in a way that has never happened before.”

Meanwhile ... last month over at NAVAIR;

 After nearly a decade of fits and starts, the Navy has quietly initiated work to develop its first new carrier-based fighter in almost 20 years, standing up a new program office and holding early discussions with industry, USNI News has learned.

The multi-billion-dollar effort to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and electronic attack EA-18G Growlers beginning in the 2030s is taking early steps to quickly develop a new manned fighter to extend the reach of the carrier air wing and bring new relevance to the Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

Navy acquisition chief James Geurts told reporters last week that the service created a program office for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative.

Keeping an Eye on the Long Game: Part LXXXVI

 I don't think this is quite the graphic we should be using to make our point - whatever that point may be.

As reported by Brian Everstine, Pentagon editor at Air Force Magazine, General CQ Brown, Jr., USAF, the USAF Chief of Staff, shared the above slide with the following additional comment;

 ...USAF Airmen are the 'force multiplier' that make the difference, and a need for better sustainment. "Better to have a force of quality."

Well. 

I guess I need to go there, don't I?

1. First of all, the most expected flash point in WESTPAC involves Taiwan. As such, you can take all the South Korean units off that slide. They don't want any of that.  If 2025 is your point, you can take all of Japan off the slide as well. They unquestionably don't want any of that. Maybe later, but Japan needs another decade of seasoning before they are ready for that COA.

The Aussies? That is a hard best to make. Would they throw in for Taiwan? Impossible? Sure. Good chance, no.

2. I think we make a significant error to underestimate the "quality" of the Communist Chinese forces. Are they person-to-person-unit-by-unit as "good" as ours? No ... but the gap will be a lot closer in 2025 than it was in 2005 where most people's minds seem to be stuck.

We have a history going back to the Korean War in underestimating the Communist Chinese. We would be fools to do so now. You can say an American will kill 10 Chinese for every American loss, but if the Chinese are throwing 15 at you, you have a problem. 

We would also be fools to count as a given our allies forces. They are sovereign nations. They have agency ... and they may have other ideas about what is or is not worth poking the neighborhood dragon over. We have an entire Pacific Ocean to retreat over ... they don't.

H/t Blake.

Shipyards & the Maritime Industrial Base, with Maiya Clark

 

Concerned with the ability of our maritime industrial base to not just build the navy the nation needs, but to help maintain it? Well, do we have the episode for you! 

Join us this Sunday at 5pm with out guest for the full hour, Maiya Clark, as we discuss the issues she raises in her recent work, U.S. Navy Shipyards Desperately Need Revitalization and a Rethink. Maiya Clark is a research assistant in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, focusing on defense industrial base issues. 

Before joining the Center for National Defense team, she worked at Heritage as assistant to Dr. James Jay Carafano, Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. She originally joined The Heritage Foundation in 2018 as a research and administrative assistant in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Maiya holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations with a minor in economics from the University of Southern California. 

If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes button at the main showpage - or you can just click here.