We’ve heard this kind of talk for years from the Air Force: “who needs a Navy? All we need is the Air Force. Are you in the Air Force, or retired from it, by any chance?
The bubbleheads, Navy Sub Sailors, say similar things.
Just facing reality. The electronics revolution has made virtually any floating entity definable. Any man made object that goes to sea generates a distinct electronic fingerprint from the inherent radiation it generates. It is not that difficult to identify those “broadcasts” by satellite or surveillance aircraft and identify the exact location of those ships. You can try to shield of fool the monitors but in the end those ships will be located precisely.There are many other ways to locate these ships. Stealthy drones are only one form or ordnance that can be used to destroy them. On a modern battlefield, if you can be seen, sensed or heard, you cannot survive.
Morrison had the classic insight that a great navy, controls the seas, projects power and ultimately wins wars. However the thinking in naval circles now should be “Is a great navy in modern times still tactically possible to sustain?” Technology very well may have made large surface task forces obsolete. This has already affected policy.
For instance. Little has been written about the strategic realities Obama faced when dealing with Iran. A key component of the military coercive pressure on Iran was the assembly of massive American firepower in the Persian Gulf. At times two big carriers and their escorts patrolled very close to Iran. However the Iranians fortified the Persian Gulf with state of the art Chinese made shore to ship missiles. The Chinese developed these missiles ( the guidance system courtesy of the Clinton administration), to clear the Taiwan Strait of hostile naval elements in the event of war with the ROC. Those big blue water ships of the US Navy in the shallow narrow Persian Gulf, faced a debacle worse than Pearl Harbor in less than fifteen minutes if shooting started. Those that argued that the ships defensive weapons could stop over 400 incoming missiles with a flight time of less than 30 seconds were delusional. Obama was right to disengage from the Gulf. American battle fleets far from home will be subject to compatible lethal dangers.