Posted on 05/07/2010 5:30:56 PM PDT by Kaslin
Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum.
Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation.
Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so disturbing. He seems to think naval supremacy is a luxury we can't afford and that, like every other aspect of our military, an already shrunken U.S. Navy needs to downsize.
"As we learned last year, you don't necessarily need a billion-dollar guided missile destroyer to chase down and deal with a bunch of teenage pirates wielding AK-47s and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," Gates quipped.
We are not laughing.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
“The Navy I served under The COLE could have been fuel at sea even by a carrier if necessary.”
Eh? They can’t do that any more?
Russia doesn’t have now enough tradesmen, skilled technicians, engineers, nor the hundreds if not thousands of small, high quality contractors. It’s taking them a decade from laying the keel to launching a hull. Even longer.
...negative, and that’s what I thought. We are severely short of folks who can perform a good weld.
COLE's help was on the other side of the ditch in the Med Sea. I doubt a USNS oiler was in the area either. A bunch of protocols were violated.
They have the skills not the money. What workers they don't have can be imported. BTW I look for Russia to go back to the Old Ways soon. If China and Russia decided to start turning out even older Diesel powered subs we would be in a world of hurt because SOMEBODY discontinued such valuable programs as the S-3 Vikings as well. A certain Congressional majority allowed it to continue on into the 2000's until booted from power.
Only one carrier was ever built with a sonar dome and the Navy sank it. Even that carrier relied heavilly on S-3 and helo's for antisubmarine warfare. Underestimating China and Russia military capabilities and determination will be a very bad and possibly fatal mistake for our national survival. One lucky hit into NORVA and that's it.
No, they don’t have the skills. The skills up and left for Germany, England, Brazil.
They won’t import workers for military work, and can not afford western rates. Heck, we can’t afford them.
That’s why they are thinking of buying a French chopper carrier. They can’t build one.
Russia is depopulating. High and getting higher rates of AIDS, suicide, early death, child abandonment, abortions.
They right now do not have enough people to economically develop their 13 time zones, let alone go adventuring and rebuild their military industrial base.
ALWAYS remember this, Gates works for Hussein Obama.
Hussein Obama makes all the final calls on the preparedness, and equipment for our standing Army & Navy. Do you understand what is being said here — who do you think wants the USA to be on an equal or lesser basis with the rest of the military world?
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