Why have a navy? Why have a global force?

If More Money Buys a Smaller Fleet, What Will Less Money Buy? | TIME.com

You already know my opinion. Why have so much Navy? Note, I guess we can scratch Enterprise off the list.

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IMO 3 carrier battle groups at sea: Atlantic (Norfolk), Pacific (Pearl Harbor) and Indian Ocean (why not Diego Garcia?).

Of carriers, 3 in the yards. 1 in extensive refit. 1 in new construction.

Battle groups include DD's (and CG's), SSN's, support vessels, a marine expeditionary force (LPH & LPD) and a special ops force (LCS).

3 SSBN's. 1 Arctic, 1 Pac, 1 Atlantic. Attendant SSN's.

Patrol SSN's.

Patrol DD's (or CG's).

Independent LCS's and combat vessels (DD's, CG's, SSN's).

Maybe 100 active duty ships of all types.

Mothball the rest.

Have an active mothball reserve, in which vessels are periodically refurb'd and set in service for a few years. If they aren't good enough to return to service, scrap them. Don't keep useless machines.

IMO it is in our national interest to be able to: 1) protect US flagged shipping world-wide (let Panamanian and Liberian shippers pay for their own navy); 2) ensure security of seaports friendly to US shipping (let unfriendly countries pay their own way); 3) Provide a dependable core military resource to which friendly nations may meld if a combined fleet operation is needed.

Sounds like a great improvement. Botnst for Senate!

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Global Force........ for good.

America's Navy - 100 Percent - YouTube

When the world comes cryin for help, who does the President call?
THE US NAVY, that's who.

US Navy "Wave" - YouTube


BTW, that list is a little out of date. Scratch the Hawk & the JFK too. Both have been de-comm'd. No more non-nuke carriers left. Maybe some of the others have been scratched too. I don't know.

BTW, heard today at work that the third ship of the new Ford class of carriers will be named Enterprise.

Gawd, I still gag when I think of that - the "Ford" class - nothing against the President it's named for - but the brand of vehicle that will be the basis for bad jokes made about this class of ships for the next 50 years.

It's already started at work - one gent saying they'll only be deployed in tropical waters - because everyone knows a Ford doesn't run worth a damn in cold weather.

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Heard a rumor they were going to change the hull number of the CVN21's to start with 150.

But, seriously, 12 BILLION dollars for one ship? That's mind boggling. Can we sell advertising? Seriously, how about F-150 on the Island for the Ford?

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/03/15/navy-confirms-cost-overrun-on-cvn-78/

If that's the cost for just getting the SHIP built - and doesn't even include the aircraft and other hardware needed to outfit it - bloody right that's outrageous.

Back in the day, an Ohio class SSBN cost 3 billion - and that included 24 SLBM's complete with nuke warheads.

WTH? Huntington-Ingalls Shipyard? What happened to Newport News SB? I can understand wanting to have more than one shipyard capable of building these things - but the first-of-class of an untried design, with new unproven technology like electromagnetic catapults - seems like you'd want to go with the shipyard that's had over a half-century experience building these things to minimize screw-ups, not the new kid on the block.

Somewhere, Dwight Eisenhower is laughing his a$$ off and saying "I told you so!".

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Mitchell Oates
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Huntington-Ingalls is Newport News Shipbuilding. Northrop Grumman spun them off last year.


.

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If that's the case, it makes the cost overruns - and perhaps the overall design of the ship - even more questionable IMO.

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Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
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'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Who can afford to put that gold behemoth in harm's way?

Aye. The circle comes round once again. Same problem they worked themselves into with battleships a century ago - they'd already become so large, complicated, and expensive to build, that nations were loathe to risk them in combat where anything short of national survival was at stake.

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Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
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'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Navy to Stretch Deployments; Carrier Fleet Now 9

Sailors and Marines serving on aircraft carriers can expect long deployments for the next few years because of ongoing crises in the Middle East and a shrinking number of carriers available for duty.

The venerable USS Enterprise, commissioned in 1961 as the Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was deactivated last month, and the USS Abraham Lincoln is undergoing a four-year overhaul to increase its life span.

That has reduced the U.S. Fleet of carriers from 11 to nine, as the Navy struggles to maintain a two-carrier presence in the Middle East as required by the Obama administration since 2010.


We need 11 carriers to do the job. That's been pretty clearly written, and that's underwritten in our defense strategic guidance," Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, said recently.

Carrier deployments have lengthened gradually over the past decade, from six months to as long as nine months.
Adm. Greenert said it will be at least two or three years before carriers return to six-month deployments, as the Navy strains to keep operational its flattop fleet and the battle groups of combat and supply vessels that support their missions.

Navy to Stretch Deployments; Carrier Fleet Now 9 | Military.com

Is a *****in' sailor still a happy sailor ??

We need about 15 big Nukes. At least ten active carrier task groups allowing the others to be down for refit at any given time.

- Peter.

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According to the Government Accounting Office there are normally only four Carrier Groups on duty at any time, so if there are nine out now that is twice as many as the Pentagon usually has deployed.