“Since 1999, the Navy has not built a single ship with the ability to sink an enemy ship in combat by itself”
Bryan McGrath, HERE
In a nutshell, the Navy STILL relies on the Harpoon, a low, slow, cruise missile deployed in the 1980′s (THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO). When the SUPERB, and DOMINANT Japanese fighter the Zero was deployed, thirty five years before that, the Wrights were still trying to get an aircraft to fly several miles. The Tomahawk DOES NOT NOW HAVE ANY….ANY…counter-ship ability. The rail gun which promises to be fabulous needs the electrical power of a 15,000 ton super heavy cruiser, and new lasers are effective only as defensive weapons.
Meanwhile …
The U.S. Navy’s newly minted concept of “Distributed Lethality” offers a long-needed offensive punch at sea. More firepower in more places is a necessary and achievable goal. Our sailors just need the right tools – secure, well-armed ships and precision weapons. As a retired naval officer who served 25 years, I’ve watched the Navy’s unwise procurement strategy unfold since the late 1990’s, with growing concern. For instance, the Navy replaced Oliver Hazard Perry Class guided missile frigates (FFGs) with “low-end” Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) that feature virtually no capability to engage another surface vessel beyond a few miles. The $600-million-plus ships might charitably be described as expensive targets –not effective warships. Worse yet, the newest “high-end” guided missile destroyers, so-called “Flight III DDGs, similarly lack surface-to-surface missiles. These sophisticated $2 billion air defense ships – sometimes operating far from the protection of carrier aircraft –are essentially defenseless. Arguably worst of all, the president’s most recent budget called for a drastic reduction in Tomahawk missiles, the long-range naval weapons that have been successfully fired from Navy ships and submarines in every major U.S. engagement for 30 years. And yet threats around the world are growing. China’s Navy is rising, the Russian Navy is staging a very visible comeback, and coastal navies of a half dozen other countries – Iran in particular – are getting stronger by the day.
Bryan McGrath, a well-known navalist, recently testified before the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee: “Since 1999, the Navy has not built a single ship with the ability to sink an enemy ship in combat by itself,” relying instead on the protection of nearby carrier-based aircraft.
To reverse this situation and all the others which are similar to this, requires as a first step a GROWING ECONOMY.
To have a growing economy, i.e. INCREASING DISPOSABLE INCOME at all levels of American society, we first must solve the issue of low cost labor overseas taking away every category of jobs, NOT JUST MANUFACTURING.
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