[tanknetter]

Why not just take some of the ships we have in mothballs and put them out to sea? You don’t need an Aegis class cruiser to take out a Somali pirate.

Which ships that we have in mothballs?

Fact is that there are exceedingly few USN ships in the reserve fleet these days. The SpruCans are all gone: except for a couple held as possible museum ships, they've all been sink-exed. The Kidd-class DDGs went to Taiwan years ago. And both those classes were fairly manpower-intensive.

Same is pretty much true with the Knox-class FFs and Perry-class FFGs, except a good number of those classes have been sold or donated to foreign powers.

The USN has actually been sink-exing recently decommissioned ships to get them out of inventory. This includes ships from the Tarawa-class LHAs and the Flight I Ticonderogas.

Nailing pirates would be an ideal mission for the old Pegasus-class hydrofoils. They were expensive, but were a good fit for the mission. It's easy to imagine a good scenario where they operate in conjunction with a Tarawa (as a mothership). But they were cut up years ago. The Cyclone-class patrol boats are ok, but are spread too thin and have actually been used to plug holes in the Coast Guard's capabilities. And there are only two LCS in commission at this point - both of which are being evaluated to determine which class (Freedom vs. Independence) gets built.

[ASOC]

Humm

Think about this
Just how may US flagged cargo ships are left? Not many.

Also:
The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S. Navy also has the world’s largest carrier fleet, with 11 in service and one under construction. The USMC, measured by itself, would be the 4th largest Navy on the planet.

Something has to give, we are trillions in the hole and still digging.....