Posted on Aug 28, 2015
Politicians and Analysts Call for Larger Navy: Can We Afford It?
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The United States Navy has been shrinking for decades and is now at levels last seen in the 1930’s. Politicians on both sides of the aisle say they want to reverse that trend. But is a larger Navy really affordable?
Today’s Navy has 273 active duty ships—14% fewer than were afloat on 9/11. During his 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney proposed a plan to get the Navy to 350 ships. Many of this year’s Republican presidential candidates have called for rebuilding lost naval capacity as well. But making the Navy larger and stronger Navy is actually a bipartisan position. The Obama administration’s budget calls for getting to a 308-ship Navy by 2022 and growing it to 321 ships in 2028.
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/08/25/politicians_and_analysts_call_for_larger_navy_can_we_afford_it_108407.html
Today’s Navy has 273 active duty ships—14% fewer than were afloat on 9/11. During his 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney proposed a plan to get the Navy to 350 ships. Many of this year’s Republican presidential candidates have called for rebuilding lost naval capacity as well. But making the Navy larger and stronger Navy is actually a bipartisan position. The Obama administration’s budget calls for getting to a 308-ship Navy by 2022 and growing it to 321 ships in 2028.
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/08/25/politicians_and_analysts_call_for_larger_navy_can_we_afford_it_108407.html
Navy
Politics
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 16
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Yes, when the federal government stops subsidizing Planned Parenthood, the Tobacco Industry, and thousands upon thousands of other pork barrel projects, groups, or social programs; when it eliminates welfare and hundreds of other entitlement programs; when it stops paying for every cost associated with supporting illegal aliens instead of shipping them wherever and building an impregnable wall across our southern border; when it eliminates the IRS and the current Tax Code and replaces it with a flat or consumption tax across the board; when it eliminates the Department of Energy; when it eliminates pensions for Congress; do just a couple of these things, and we could triple our military capabilities in all five services. REMEMBER THIS: "providing for the common defense" is the ONLY constitutionally-mandated job requirement of the Federal Government. Period!!! Not one damn thing else was written into nor is mentioned in the Constitution. Not one.
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SCPO (Join to see)
Oh, I firmly agree, SGT (Join to see). I'm just saying that's what it would take, and then this country would have all the money it needs to do the things it NEEDS to do.
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SGT (Join to see)
That would be wonderful! If the corruption ever ended, along with what you said, would be awesome for our future generation and us.
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PO1 Aaron Baltosser
We could also stop funding other countries and use those dollars as well. Especially countries causing us trouble like any in the Middle East, and South/Central America.
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A larger Navy is nice but you have to have the sailors to man the ships and that's going to be an issue.
Yes with technology theoretically we can have less sailors manning the ships because of automation and more efficient systems.
I see a lot of reliance on technology and less reliance on actual manpower. You will always need sailors to man the ship and be able to operate manually in an emergency.
With politicians not able to come to a consensus on a budget for the military I don't see how they can effectively build up the Navy or any other of our services.
Yes with technology theoretically we can have less sailors manning the ships because of automation and more efficient systems.
I see a lot of reliance on technology and less reliance on actual manpower. You will always need sailors to man the ship and be able to operate manually in an emergency.
With politicians not able to come to a consensus on a budget for the military I don't see how they can effectively build up the Navy or any other of our services.
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SGT (Join to see)
Good point PO1 Glenn Boucher. I'm sure they haven't thought of that with the tunnel vision they seem to have.
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PO1 Aaron Baltosser
Smaller manned ships are great...until it's time to generate a watch bill. I wish the powers that be thought of that before signing off on a ship with much smaller crews.
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PO3 Donald Murphy
The only solution is to remain competetive with civilian salary levels and go to a two-crew rotation so that sailors do not burn out. This would also solve a lot of unemployment issues.
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It isn't so much the number of ships but the mix. Some of these are non combatants (e.g. support ships) so the first question would be how many combatants? Then you look at the potential threats posited. How much of the threat could be littoral for instance (coastal or inland riverine force type stuff, how much is going to be open ocean or undersea how much will involve air and then you start to structure a Navy that can respond to these threats. Unfortunately we have bee saddled with some ships which do not meet their original mission and we have others that do but are in short supply. Then you have the whole acquisition problem and the maintenance problem. The number of yards that can handle certain ships is diminishing so projected maintenance can get tricky. So it is more than just the number, it is the types and the skills needed to support those types and then how well the new ships if any meet our actual requirements.
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