Reply With QuoteEconomic realities catching up to the Pentagon
USN Won’t Build as Many Ships
President Obama wants the U.S. Navy to patrol the vast Pacific Ocean and build itself up in the Middle East. Which is a nice dream. But the Navy is conceding it won’t build many ships to make it a reality.
More:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012...er-navy-ships/
Economic realities catching up to the Pentagon
300 ships aint too shabby.
Yes, but I hope the taste of reality also has an effect on Congress. The Legislature is supposed to conduct oversight, especially of procurement, but has rubber-stamped shipbuilding decisions for over a decade. The theory being the "Generals on the ground," or in this case the "Admirals at sea," knew what was best and shouldn't be questioned. The problem is, as much as the brass may bitch about oversight it is essential for the long-term well being of the armed forces. I'm not just talking about bitching about program X going over-budget until it dies or is "fixed," as they've done recently. I mean examine the rolls and missions of the services, figure out how the plans do and do not match up to reality, then pressure the brass to make sure the needed changes are made.Originally Posted by Maximmmm
Sadly, I expect little. Legislators are more concerned with scoring political points than doing their job.
All countries are building fewer ships. The only ones that ramp up the numbers are the large third world countries that are playing catch up.
If US keeps building 2 new destroyers each year, they will be fine. What is the number now? The impression I got is 4 per year.
Asia mate not Africa.
actually dipping down to 276 ships in 2015 if you read the Shipbuilding Report......and while it goes upto 307 ships by 2035, as many as 55 of those will be the LCS
They need the money to pump it into the markets, if obama wants the number up he'll need to follow Reagan and re-activate the mothball fleet
Third world is not limited to Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_world
Different continents beginning with A
With the financial trajectory of the US Federal Govt, even these watered down projections are never going to happen. As for 300 ships in 30 years? Lol. Only if you start counting smaller ships in this number.the Navy won’t build any new ballistic missile submarines until 2021. It won’t build any big-deck amphibious assault ships, key for the Navy and the Marines to fight as a team, until 2017, when it will build… one more. After next year, the Navy won’t fund the construction of ships above replacement levels until 2018. All told, the Navy’s downgrading the total number of ships in 30 years it wants to maybe 300, a drop of at least 13 ships.
We don't have much of a mothball fleet anymore.
We "deep sixed" most ships soon after retirement.
My only concerns ar the type of ships we got. The LCS are a novel concept, but they are limited in flexibility and multi-role use as compared with the FFG's they are replacing.
Since WW2, the greatest threat and danger to USN vessels have been mines. Sadly, our mine warfare capabilities are very limited. A stupid analog mine can knock off a high tech digital DDG out of service.
Lately, there are many nations are aquiring submarines. With the retirement of the S-3 Vikings, and limited ASW capabilities of the LCS we're going to be in trouble.
In hindsight, the FFG should've been replaced with another FFG's (not LCS).
We still have shore-based P-3s, and lets not forget about the MH-53s, M/HH-60s, not to mention OUR SUBMARINES
Not as many P-3 as we had during the Cold war. Many old airframes. The P-8 can't come soon enough.We still have shore-based P-3s, and lets not forget about the MH-53s, M/HH-60s, not to mention OUR SUBMARINES
Our subs are good for intelligence, offensive operations and shooting nukes. But they can't lay mines.
We only have two MH-53 Squadrons- both are based in Norfolk far far far away from any critical choke points in the Indian and Western Pacific.
They absolutely can.
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