Quote:
Originally Posted by Rufus Shinra
Having ships more adapted to these "commitments" (to which I personally fail to see the interests, as there aren't such things as guided missile destroyers flying the Jolly Roger in the 21st century) would be more sensible. The vast majority of missions where the USN deploys a DDG could be done entirely by a FFG. Arleigh Burke crew: 300+, FREMM (European MultiMission Frigate): 130.
And, hell, for many, many missions, even a FREMM would be overkill, so the USN could still do what the politicians want from it while saving a lot of bodies, if it switched from a full DDG/CG format to a mixed FFG/DDG/CG one. I mean, imagine if the USN tried to win the Pacific War by acquiring nothing but heavy cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers.
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While I agree with you that many of those missions can be completed with FFGs the problem is that US needs to maintain dominance in naval theatres which means that they need all those DDGs and if anything I think that the decision to focus on them was a good one given limited USN resources post Cold War.
As to the crews - USN is known to deploy intentionally larger than normal crews as this makes at sea maintenance and the like easier.