Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbill
Trump ran on a 350 ship Navy but it's not achievable at this point. The mission hasn't changed and it has actually increased in the western Pacific. China is playing us in the South China Sea by claiming territory and interrupting freedom of navigation, the primary purpose of a peacetime navy. Our mission was North Korea and what we had there was sufficient, but along came China. China's navy is inferior to the US as far as technology, but they have more ships in the area and the logistical support of operating near their shores.
Like I stated previously, we're continuing to build ships that don't support any mission we're currently doing. Littoral Combat Ships are an answer to a question not asked, and the Zumwalt Destroyers don't have a mission, but they look cool. The best solution is to buy frigates from the Netherlands or Italy but that would never fly politically.
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Agree...the military pundits seem to have forgotten it's about protecting 'sea lines of communication' and power projection. Littoral combat ships to protect what? Norfolk and SanDiego..really dum but yup, they look good on the balance sheet. We need CVs, subs, and the ships that protect CVs but can project power(Tomahawk)...And altho expensive, in this day and age..why not a modern version of this? CG
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I know ya gotta feed the crew but w/o need for refueling, less need for USNS...Cancel aircraft that need 10,000 feet of concrete and lotsa of fixed base operations(USAF)..no red horde gonna be marching across the central plains of Europe anymore..
A 'squadron' of B-2s(6 aircraft+support)) cost roughly the same as a CV...BUT, the CV when deployed, does their mission everyday while the B-2s do flyovers for football games. Lessee...fly the B-2 From Whitman AFB..using how many tankers, to the straits of Taiwan..or park 2-3 CVs there for operations against China...hmmmm...
And before you talk about how juicy a target a CV is...when on CV-41(OLD tech)..we were lost by the Rooskies for about 2 weeks operating off the coast of Kamchatka peninsula..when operating with the Enterprise and Coral Sea..If the Badgers that were flying around looking for us hadn't noticed 'USS MIDWAY' on the side of our aircraft as we intercepted them, they might have not known the Midway was there at all..