SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Defense Department study calls for cutting 2 of the US Navy’s aircraft carriers

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Defense Department study calls for cutting 2 of the US Navy’s aircraft carriers

Smart move. Times have changed, tech has changed. Military is always fighting the last war. Now, hopefully the govt will reduce the defense budget accordingly.

Defense Department study calls for cutting 2 of the US Navy’s aircraft carriers

https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/3D...OJTH33KJWE.JPG

Quote:

An internal Office of the Secretary of Defense assessment calls for the Navy to cut two aircraft carriers from its fleet, freeze the large surface combatant fleet of destroyers and cruisers around current levels and add dozens of unmanned or lightly manned ships to the inventory, according to documents obtained by Defense News.

The study calls for a fleet of nine carriers, down from the current fleet of 11, and for 65 unmanned or lightly manned surface vessels.

The Navy is currently developing a family of unmanned surface vessels that are intended to increase the offensive punch for less money, while increasing the number of targets the Chinese military would have to locate in a fight.

That’s a push that earned the endorsement of the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday in comments late last year.

“I know that the future fleet has to include a mix of unmanned,” Gilday said. “We can’t continue to wrap $2 billion ships around 96 missile tubes in the numbers we need to fight in a distributed way, against a potential adversary that is producing capability and platforms at a very high rate of speed. We have to change the way we are thinking.”

Wow, this will be something!
Thanks for the post, Onkel Neal!
:Kaleun_Cheers:

I guess this means that the US lasers can't protect our carriers?

Why not just cut the cost of producing ships using the War Powers Act? We need to build more ships faster and cheaper and better.

The problem is not only the cost of the ship but also the turn over in the Navy. The Navy is more and more specialized with a need of highly qualified sailors. And the pay is not at the level they can get in the civilian market so after a tour they are leaving unless the Navy give them a big bonus to sign again.
The whole retention level is around 78% but the zone A (1 to 6 years of service) is less than 60%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UglyMowgli (Post 2664913)

There's also a problem of finding recruits who would be willing to take orders and be physically fit. :o

This isn't one of those "back in my day.." issues. Think about how many kids are used to getting a trophy for just showing up, or are already flirting with diabetes and high cholesterol. How normal is it today to be still living with their parents when they are in their late 20's, and there's nothing wrong with that? :yep: How many have been medicated since they were in elementary school?

Pulling a hitch in the Navy that only lasts two weeks or is classified as a part time gig is not an option.

/\ especially now that everyone avoids covid-prone cruise ships:ping::ping: what mom will let her kid join up and end up on something that will suffer from a fatal collision(s) in his bunk; or quaratine in Guam-with one dead 40 yearold chief petty officer(career over BBY) and a captain fired for caring about his crew in peacetime...(career possbly over)?!:hmmm:

I agree with the down sizing and the unmanned options :up:

Have you heard about the plan to have shipping container ships transport some of the containers with drones in them?

Only problem would be what country would they be registered in?

I think USA should develop some kind of a smaller carrier

A carrier which only have unmanned aircraft and where the pilots to these are placed in a bunker somewhere in USA or on the ship itself.

I can very well imagine such a carrier with 150-200 unmanned fighter jets
with a size 1½ time bigger then the one they use today

Markus

"Doing more with less" is a logical fallacy that falls on the backs of the servicemen and their families. It is a glib way of saying we are sacrificing their quality of life.

You cannot accomplish more with less. This to me looks like another attempt by the guys with stars to avoid having to address over-deployment and quality of life issues for the volunteer force they take for granted.