Rusty's Naval/Military History thread

[Geo]

Granted.
And neither party really has the advantage in Ukranian skies.

I think the air supremacy situation would be a nightmare for US generals. They're so used to it. 

[Rusty Edge]

I think the air supremacy situation would be a nightmare for US generals. They're so used to it. 

Good point. I'm guessing they don't run exercises without that presumption. The Korean War was probably the last time that they didn't achieve it in short order.

[Rusty Edge]

Usually the thing that sets me off is Kennedy and vaccinations. I tend to rant and stress out.


Yesterday and today it's about our New Golden Age sec. of Defense, Pete Hegseth.  He's in the news because he got this bright idea to bring all of the officers with stars to Quantico to hear his speech. Perfect time to nuke D.C., right? But hopefully nobody is serious about a nuclear war these days. Besides being foolish, it seems like a waste of money. Surely some of this could be done by zoom.

The history buff in me anticipates a loyalty pledge to Cheeto Mussolini/ purge. Why not get the senior military sorted out before you order something unconstitutional? Or maybe it's something silly, like Hegseth's idea that the military focus should be on physical fitness and personal appearance. Dude, we are in the nerds rule era of military might. Or maybe he is going to reveal a plan to get women out of the military by downsizing them during next week's shutdown.

But whatever Hegseth does I always come back to his confirmation hearings and his emphatic opinion that the rules of engagement should be determined by the officers closest to the enemy, not by officers with eagles and stars ( colonels, navy captains, and above).

NO! The rules of engagement should be determined by people who can see the big picture. Around WWI they determined that the officers with that knowledge shouldn't be at the front where they might be captured, they should be in the rear or the middle of a fleet. Those who know what the goals of the war are, what the intentions are post-war, the current distribution of forces, the supply capabilities, air support, the enemy's intentions, things like that.   Gettysburg and Waterloo were meeting engagements that decided wars. Let the big picture people choose the time and place of the battles. You usually win more wars that way.

[Buster's Uncle]

I got my flu shot Tuesday - I feel like it's my duty as a citizen. 

[Geo]

I'm curious how quick the gist of that meeting will be leaked.

[Rusty Edge]

The CiC will be in attendance, and it is being billed as pep rally for the new "Warrior Ethos". Of course, If the government shuts down, the 4 star officers may be stranded, since they fly private, not commercial. Of course Hegseth wants to cut 30 or 40 per cent of the 4-stars, so that would be convenient.

[Rusty Edge]

Maybe it was more silly and less sinister than I thought. Apparently, Hegseth's warrior ethos speech was about physical fitness and personal appearance. He wants no more fat generals and naval officers with beards. Then [Sleezebag] followed up rambling about how great Hegseth's speech was, how [Sleezebag] was a military person, and how he rebuilt the military and mostly how he personally signed all of the certificates for generals, no autopen, and that he changed them to a high quality paper with lots of gold on it. The story behind changing the name of the department from Defense to War.
Oh, and recruiting for the Space Force is at 106%, the highest in a generation!

I'd be tempted to allow Pete Hegseth haircuts & sideburns, and [Sleezebag] haircut and spray tan as regulation.

[Rusty Edge]

I was wrong today and right before...

Cheeto Mussolini said No more "stupid rules of engagement".

[Geo]

Perhaps Hegseth's mentioned standards should apply to the CIC as well?

"Unfit for duty, due to obesitas. Dismissed!"

[Elok]

Much as I despise the lout, civilian control of the military is important, and anyway most of WWII was won by a president who couldn't even walk.  As I understand it, this is something of an issue for some people in the military since exceptions to norms in general are just not great for morale; never served a day myself, but as I understand it they feel it's important that absolutely everyone is subject to the same standard, with only very limited exceptions for health etc.  For example, sometimes black men are allowed modest beards due to their hair texture promoting serious irritation if they shave regularly.  This is what a veteran I know tells me.

Now, did they need to haul all the generals into a meeting for this?  I'ma go with "no."

[Rusty Edge]

Remember the naval railgun?

It seemed that the barrels cracked after less than 30 rounds. So impractical that they scrapped the program. It probably didn't help that the class of destroyers that was capable of meeting it's power requirements has also failed. The hypersonic  projectiles were a success and are being adapted to 5 inch naval guns and army howitzers.

Meanwhile, China and Japan seem to be having some success with rail guns, so maybe there is a future for the weapon.

[Geo]

Meanwhile, China and Japan seem to be having some success with rail guns, so maybe there is a future for the weapon.

Are you saying Eastern Asia has superior metallurgy skills?

[Rusty Edge]

I have no idea, I assume Japan and China are striving for more modest specs.

But maybe they have a bunch of samurai swordsmiths beating out barrels and folding them a thousand times....

[Rusty Edge]

US NAVY and Department of Defense ( Whoops! Should I say Department of War? ) perils.

Where to begin?

I think I've said before about how some weapons systems evolve. The F-111 fighter/bomber had so many technical difficulties and crashes during the Viet Nam War that Time magazine feature a cartoon with the tail having "F 1 ( and a picture of a lemon)" . The Bradley armored personnel carrier was originally aluminum, which gives of toxic gasses when it burns that are lethal to humans and animals.
But over time they refined the designs and fixed the bugs, and became heroes of Dessert Storm. The M-1 Abrams tank was another game-changer because the contractor sourced parts from all 435 Congressional districts. M1s equaled jobs back home. Even when the Army and Marines insisted, they had more than enough, Congress kept buying them.

 The U.S. Navy is in a jam. Aging vessels. New designs that weren't practical to roll out at scale. Not enough shipyards to build new vessels and keep the existing ones repaired and returned to sea in a timely fashion. 

 In one sense, it was logical to stop building warships after "The War to End All Wars," it was logical to close shipyards after the Cold War. But standing navies are cheaper than say, WWII or a war with China this century. International incidents between the USA and China always get swept under the rug because we are so co-dependent with commerce and finance. Even I thought that war could never happen. At least before we adopted chaos as a "leadership style".

Once upon a time we came up with a warship concept dubbed the "Metcalf Cruiser." The idea was that the primary purpose of a surface warship was to fire missiles, so maximize the missiles and minimize the people. Also integrated radar systems. The downsized result was the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer. All steel, vertical launch, and very successful. Now in its third version because the new concepts in naval warships didn't work out.

As the numbers of warships have dropped, there have been programs to refurbish ships to extend their life. But it's kind of like stretching a highway construction project out extra years because of a budget crunch. It makes secure jobs, but it costs more money in the long run. Costs go up year by year, and while the road is under construction, you don't get the benefit of it.  So a ship is out of service, a drydock and skilled labor (that could be building a new ship or refurbishing one that isn't nearing the end of it's useful life) is unavailable.

 The navy wants to retire the Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers. They are obsolete, they take more men to operate, they require constant repairs. Their operational readiness and accuracy is less than that of the Arleigh Burke. They are part aluminum and part steel. The metals don't fuse well at the seams. They flex differently as well. So they crack. And when they drydock them, they find more cracks. Which takes more time and costs more money.

But Congress sees busy naval yards as good for the naval yard workers and contractors.  They see each ship strictly as a number of missiles, not how many days of the year it's at sea, or the accuracy of the missiles against Chinese technology, or the cost of upkeep. So they continue to refuse to retire them.

Somebody needs to make a computer game simulation. It could get through to the staffers, who could then steer their bosses into actually making strategic decisions.  You know, like building more of something that is reliable until there's a working replacement, instead of patching obsolete stuff for the sake of quotas or sending new tech to sea that hasn't been debugged.

[Geo]

Its actually quite simple, design a new class of [insert whatever necessary], and call it the [Sleezebag] Class.
I bet ya it will be approved in Congress in no time.