More Submarines and Less Aircraft Carriers: If the U.S. Navy Could Be Completely Rebuilt

Really could care less what a writer who has never served a watch on a ship has to say about how we should revamp the Navy. The Navy is a mix that has been worked on and perfected on over the years. When it needs to be changed, I believe the Navy leaders will figure it out. BTW, a submarine off the coast doesn't have quite the impact that a carrier does....

You know...I'm a 20 year submarine veteran, and even I know this is a stupid idea.

First of all, we're NOT building a navy from scratch. If we were, our navy would necessarily look different than it is now for very good reasons, starting with the fact that if we WERE actually in that position, then we wouldn't be the world power that we are right now and therefore the economics wouldn't support it.

This is a no-brainer.

Consider, for historical example, where we were when we really DID start out our navy on 13 October 1775. We had virtually nothing as a nation. We started out with a schooner, bought and paid for by George Washington himself.

A fishing schooner. Not a man-of-war.

When we got around to building our first, dedicated warships, they were 44-gun frigates. Fast frigates, but still frigates. And it was YEARS before we could fully arm them, even as individual ships, much less all of them.

44-gun Frigates. Not 124-gun man of war ships.

Second, 11 aircraft carriers isn't much, when you consider what we are tasking them with. Keep in mind, we don't deploy 11 carriers worldwide routinely, because they have a rotating schedule which includes deployments, home port, and maintenance availabilities they all cycle through. Between both coasts and all the world.

You want realistic?

Maintain the eleven carriers and build more submarines on top of what we have.

Great share, thought provoking.