Posted on 06/02/2016 4:31:23 AM PDT by lowbridge
As China builds military bases on man-made islands in the South China Sea, the staggering decline in U.S. naval readiness was made clear when a group of Navy captains testified before an unusual joint hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and readiness subcommittees last week. It was made clear that President Ronald Reagan’s 600-ship Navy is a distant memory as we return to the Jimmy Carter era of ships that can’t sail and planes that can’t fly for want of spare parts.
This sad state of affairs is accomplishing what the Japanese Imperial Navy could not -- defeat the U.S. Navy and leave the seas increasingly open to hostile adversaries and leaving us increasingly unable to come to the aid of our remaining allies. As the Navy captains testified:
“About every three months or so we would get a new schedule” for the submarine USS Albany, said Capt. Gregory McRae, deputy commander of Submarine Squadron Six. “Today, we are looking at a 43-month overhaul for a maintenance period that was supposed to last 28 months.”
“Cannibalization” -- pulling scarce spare parts off one ship or plane to fix another about to deploy -- is now routine, the captains testified. For example, the USS Normandy has served as an organ donor for 13 different “mission critical” components over the last 45 days, crippling the anti-aircraft cruiser‘s radar. “I could not possibly surge right now” for an emergency deployment, testified Normandy skipper Capt. Scott Robertson.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The HoR controls the purse strings.
What are they doing about this?
Many Service people died from faulty parts, cannibalization, stoned out mechanics and poor leaderships under Jimmy Carters piss-poor leadership. We survived somehow. Perhaps we shall again. Keep the FAITH!
Hillary says she wants to continue Obama’s legacy. Trump should point this out early and often while explaining the state of the military under this buffoon.
Starving the military to pay for social programs is page one in any libs playbook.
Well, theyre holding a hearing. After some months the committe will release a stmt about how the Navy isnt ready and all will be forgotten. Its like any other issue in DC...hold hearings, act busy, make a stmt and end of story.
our new eco-friendly solar powered subs should do the trick...
You are so correct, I was working in the Pentagon (as a civilian contractor, you know, the ones who do all the work) and saw it with my own eyes!
< our new eco-friendly solar powered subs should do the trick...
Yeah the probably have to surface for 12 hours a days to get enough solar energy to travel 20 miles
Isn’t that the idea? While the rest of the world develops machines for killing, we will develop GREEN machines to appease the lefties.
I might be gullible, but it that true?
Yet we’re spending almost $600 billion on the DoD.
It’s time for some serious attempts to increase efficiency and bang for the buck, and to cut some useless programs.
The Republican leadership of the House is doing whatever their ‘rat masters tell them to.
When I served on boomers back in the late 60s to mid 70s, there were 41 SSBN submarines ... “41 for Freedom”
Now there are 14. Scary.
The size of the SSBN fleet isn’t all that scary. The Ohios each carry 50% more missiles than the “41 for Freedom” boats each did, those missiles carry more warheads and those warheads are much more accurate over greater distances.
The 14 Ohios are just as lethal, if not more so, than the “41” were. Its like saying we “only” have a couple hundred F-15Es when we used to have thousands of B-17s ...
Every time Washington eats into defense spending in order to fund one of their social experiments, we end up in a shooting war of one degree or another. Wars, we usually lose.
“Politics is the art of delaying any decisions until the issue is no longer relevant.”
A local high school JROTC has 136 members. Don’t fret about people wanting to do service. They do.
“Its like saying we “only” have a couple hundred F-15Es when we used to have thousands of B-17s”
Not really. Not when you consider how the attack plan would be carried out. Every U.S. SSBN is constantly shadowed/trailed/pursued by a Russian fast attack boat with the intent to destroy the SSBN as step one in the attack on the U.S.
Having only 7 boats to destroy (remember, only half the fleet is at sea at any one time) is a much easier mission than destroying 20.
Plus, having only 7 boats to cover the North Atlantic, the Med, and the Pacific is tough with only 7 boats ad easier for the enemy to counter.
You argument is like saying a soldier with a 30-round magazine is more effective than three soldiers.
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