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Hospital Ships to Be Counted in U.S. Combat Fleet
Weekly Standard ^ | 3/17/14 | SETH CROPSEY

Posted on 03/17/2014 6:58:12 PM PDT by Nachum

Earlier in March, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus revised how to count the size of the U.S.’s battle force inventory. The battle force inventory is important because it measures the size of the U.S. combat fleet. The new definition will make the U.S. combat fleet look larger than it really is. This provides a political shield against legitimate concerns that the Navy is shrinking. Ships included in the battle force inventory had been “warships capable of contributing to combat operations” or ships that contribute “directly to Navy warfighting or support missions.” Aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibious ships, and submarines are included in the former; examples of the latter are mine warfare vessels.

Under the new definition hospital ships will be included in the battle force inventory. So will mine countermeasure ships: they had previously been categorized by their ability “to provide support to fleet units.” This classification made sense because while hunting for, and destroying, enemy mines could enable a naval squadron to conduct offensive operations, such missions could neither sink enemy ships nor project power ashore. Also added to the battle force inventory are coastal patrol (PC) boats. Weighing in at about one-seventh the displacement of the littoral combat ship, the Navy’s smallest combat vessel, the PC is armed with twin 25mm guns and several .50 caliber machine guns.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhodod; combat; fleet; hospital; ships; usnavy
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1 posted on 03/17/2014 6:58:13 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum

What’s next? Kayaks and Pontoon boats?


2 posted on 03/17/2014 7:01:32 PM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: Nachum

Great, now our hospital ships can be considered fair game in war.


3 posted on 03/17/2014 7:02:58 PM PDT by AU72
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To: Nachum

So will we count expended rounds as ammo on hand? After all we will still have the empty cases, and will we count any wounded on those hospital ships as combat ready troops? This clown has all of two years navy service and he is charge? It’s this kind of bean counter in the Kennedy administration that was responsible for so many of our soldiers deaths!


4 posted on 03/17/2014 7:14:28 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: AU72

They forgot to add tugs,LCU’s, and Mike boats(ships), this is the way government works. If the numbers look bad change the way things are counted, they do this in every nook and cranny of government. This is a contributing factor to the general distrust of national government.


5 posted on 03/17/2014 7:18:11 PM PDT by phormer phrog phlyer
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To: KoRn

They can count all the lifeboats and rafts on board...


6 posted on 03/17/2014 7:18:32 PM PDT by Kozak ("It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal" Henry Kissinger)
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To: Nachum

Maybe they can count the mothballed ones too!


7 posted on 03/17/2014 7:19:55 PM PDT by Seruzawa (Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for good a blaster kid.)
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To: Nachum

I wish they were counted as exempt from Obamacare. I’d buy a few, and park them off the coast.


8 posted on 03/17/2014 7:25:17 PM PDT by Defiant (Let the Tea Party win, and we will declare peace on the American people and go home.)
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To: Nachum
Typical Democrat debate strategy.

Change the definition of a thing so that it confuses the voter when it is debated in the media or in campaign literature and the press.

That was the entire reason behind baseline budgeting in my opinion and the strategy has worked wonders for the Democrat ever since.

9 posted on 03/17/2014 7:26:39 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Nachum

cookin’ the books:

Ya know how many US companies contract out their manufacturing to Asia?

Well starting soon the US gummint will count those countries as MANUFACTURERS..!

Nice, huh?

To COOK THE BOOKS, just like we see here...!

“OBAMA REJUVENATED US MANUFACTURING..!”

What a freaking LIE.


10 posted on 03/17/2014 7:26:59 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: phormer phrog phlyer

Every single day this Regime is proving Reagan’s dictum that “Government is not the solution, Government IS the problem!”


11 posted on 03/17/2014 7:36:45 PM PDT by AU72
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To: Nachum

This ain’t fooling our enemies. They can count, unlike our idiot jackasses in the D.C. crop circle.


12 posted on 03/17/2014 7:37:19 PM PDT by Up Yours Marxists
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To: Nachum

In dumBO’s Navy, row boats will count, and, jOkeass will claim the largest fleet in history.


13 posted on 03/17/2014 8:09:45 PM PDT by depressed in 06 (America conceived in liberty, dies in slavery.)
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


14 posted on 03/17/2014 8:10:10 PM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: KoRn

Zell Miller Speech Spitballs Excerpt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C58YAONY_hE


15 posted on 03/17/2014 8:11:43 PM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: Nachum

If they do abortions, that is part of War on the Family.


16 posted on 03/17/2014 8:23:16 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob ("The Pen" has a nice ring to it, kind of like "Graybar Hotel")
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To: Nachum; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; Jet Jaguar; ...

Active Duty ping.


17 posted on 03/17/2014 8:29:00 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Jet Jaguar

It must be hard for Putin to breathe properly these days from all the hard laughing.


18 posted on 03/17/2014 8:33:57 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: Jet Jaguar
Something dangerously wrong here - but I'm sure you knew that. Aside from the consideration that it will shrink our fleet, how can you expect any quarter to be given to a Hospital Ship when it is designated as a Combat Ship by its Command?

Girding myself and preparing for Battle!



America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

19 posted on 03/17/2014 8:35:13 PM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1<center> <table back969 - St. Mlichael the Archangel defend us in Battle!)
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To: ConorMacNessa

The administration can claim the hospital ships in the number of combat ships in order to state the number of ships have not been dropped.

The chinese/russians/norks/iranians can claim Obama called them combat ships so we were okay to fire missiles on them...

Correct.


20 posted on 03/17/2014 8:43:02 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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