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The U.S. Navy is risking everything on a fatally flawed technology
medium.com/war-is-boring/ ^ | May 29, 2015 | David W. Wise

Posted on 05/30/2015 7:52:30 AM PDT by ckilmer

Edited on 05/30/2015 9:54:43 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

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To: ckilmer

as i was reading i wondered are submarines protected from EMP? does anyone know. Could EMP wipe out a task force?


21 posted on 05/30/2015 9:29:09 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2 (civil law: commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong Blackstone Commentaries I p44)
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To: Charles H. (The_r0nin)

a knot is, be definition, a nautical mile per hour.

“knots per hour” is landlubber talk.


22 posted on 05/30/2015 9:32:03 AM PDT by telstar12.5 (...always bring gunships to a gun fight...)
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To: dp0622

I don’t mean to sound snarky, but is your assumption based on how well they’re (the government) doing everything else? The author gave several examples of how our military always fights the last war.

How many of our naval personnel would be lost if just one carrier group was successfully attacked?

The loss of life, not to mention the equipment lost in a successful attack is beyond my ability to comprehend.


23 posted on 05/30/2015 9:37:21 AM PDT by Nacho Bidnith (Leftists can see racism everywhere except the mirror)
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To: ckilmer
Carriers will become obsolete when they no longer have air supremacy, ship board defense (and group), and ASW.

Right now the strike group has all three.

Hitting Beijing from the sea is something to think about, right Sun Tzu?

5.56mm

24 posted on 05/30/2015 9:37:32 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: Nacho Bidnith

I’m just like the average joe. little knowledge of the military and it’s strategies, and I just assumed aircraft carriers had lots of anti missile defenses and other ships around it and jets to protect it.
and I read about these startling laser and electronic beam weapons that sound futuristic.
it’s easy to get confused.


25 posted on 05/30/2015 9:41:35 AM PDT by dp0622
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To: ckilmer

26 posted on 05/30/2015 9:43:54 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: ckilmer

Whatever became of the “if it flies, it dies” slogan used by the Navy?


27 posted on 05/30/2015 9:44:17 AM PDT by odawg
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To: reg45

not to be pedantic but:
1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour (speed)
1 knot per hour = 1 nautical mile per hour per hour (acceleration)
BTW 1 Nautical mile is 6000 ft vs statute mile (5280 ft)


28 posted on 05/30/2015 9:53:30 AM PDT by class8601_nuke (don't just be critical, be prompt critical.)
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To: dp0622

I always did as well, until I read this article.

I suppose this is the consequence of having completely lost faith in this government.


29 posted on 05/30/2015 9:55:23 AM PDT by Nacho Bidnith (Leftists can see racism everywhere except the mirror)
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To: class8601_nuke

I forgot to add that knot per hour makes no meaningful sense and no one uses it


30 posted on 05/30/2015 9:56:21 AM PDT by class8601_nuke (don't just be critical, be prompt critical.)
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To: KC_Lion

bkmk


31 posted on 05/30/2015 10:02:40 AM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44
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To: Charles H. (The_r0nin)

Well spotted. But perhaps it’s like gravity, and they go faster and faster the longer they go ;-).


32 posted on 05/30/2015 10:12:48 AM PDT by Moltke
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To: ckilmer; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; Jet Jaguar; ...

Active Duty ping.


33 posted on 05/30/2015 10:23:45 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: ckilmer

We could learn a lot from history.

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/the-wwi-battleships-that-saved-and-doomed-the-british-empire/


34 posted on 05/30/2015 10:45:54 AM PDT by FreeInWV (Have you had enough change yet?)
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To: M Kehoe; mrsmith; class8601_nuke; PreciousLiberty
At one point in World War II the United States was launching one Kaiser ship everyday. They were plodding, rolling, slow, ungainly tubs but they were ubiquitous. In those days the United States had manufacturing infrastructure starting with mining running through manufacture of steel and final manufacturing and all with the logistical delivery system in place to make it happen. Hence it was possible for Henry Kaiser to launch a ship day.

Today, it is not the United States but the Republic of China which has the vertical infrastructure with which to manufacture a multitude of ships. Their ships need not be substantially inferior to ours, like their jets the Chinese will soon become capable of turning out satisfactory warships, no doubt cloned in many respects, but they will have the advantage of having multiple shipyards in which to build them while the United States will be reduced to a couple of shipyards.

I fear that we are debating the wrong issue. Misplaced allocation of precious resources for the defense of the nation is the result of a dysfunctional political operation in Washington. There is no reason to believe that defense lobbyists have any less influence over our elected representatives than do domestic lobbyists. We should think that we are defending ourselves not with taxpayer dollars but with borrowers' dollars. That means that we are running out of the infrastructure, not just the manufacturing and distribution infrastructure, but the financial infrastructure to support superpower defense operations. Our ability to borrow into infinity is illusory.

Let me hasten to add that the military budget has been cut by sequester and we have seen that politics have made those cuts politically less unpalatable but not militarily logical. Even in spite of those cuts we still maintain a military budget far in excess of our rivals. Politics will make further cuts inevitable. If politics alone does not do so, the implacable laws of economics will.

The single best thing we can do to preserve our security is to get our fiscal house in order so that we can maintain the world's foremost defense capacity. The problem is the Democrats will sellout the country to get their hands on defense money and the Republicans have sold out long ago on just about every issue. There is nowhere to turn. The defense establishment, like entitlements, is out of control making decisions based on politics or rather than readiness.

That which cannot go on, the sage said, will not go on and the American ability to borrow its way into tomorrow will end tomorrow or the day after. Our greatest danger is not the rise of Isis, nor the brazen aggression of Putin, not even the far more sinister plans of the Chinese, the major threat to the security of the United States is fiscal irresponsibility.

The author asks, how vulnerable will these carriers be in 50 years? I ask, never mind the carriers what sort of country will we have in 50 years?


35 posted on 05/30/2015 10:54:47 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: KC_Lion

Strongly worded.

Might be accurate.

I do not, however, trust the “Pentagon” to decide properly nor accurately. Since 1956-58. And it has gotten only worse since Reagan left.


36 posted on 05/30/2015 11:10:18 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: mountn man

Sad, but true.


37 posted on 05/30/2015 1:22:23 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (BINGO!)
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To: dp0622

I heard this stuff in the 80s. It’s always the same crowd, the defund/liberal groups that want us to “do more with less” and who are afraid of the power projection that carriers allow. There is a reason every nation in the world who considers itself our enemy is seeking to BUILD carriers.


38 posted on 05/30/2015 1:49:24 PM PDT by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: Nacho Bidnith
But that's really not the question. The question is, what is the alternative to power projection through a carrier group and so far there is none. NOTHING compares with the versatility, flexibility, and sheer non-nuclear power that a carrier has. This is why all our enemies are desperate to build carriers. The Soviets gave up when they couldn't begin to match our carriers.

I've heard the vulnerabilities of carriers for 30 years, yet the technology always seems to stay a step ahead and there is nothing else like them.

39 posted on 05/30/2015 1:52:33 PM PDT by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: LS

that makes sense.


40 posted on 05/30/2015 1:53:49 PM PDT by dp0622
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