Jura The idiot
General
Mar 15, 2019
The Pentagon’s plan to decommission an aircraft carrier looks half baked and dead on arrival
reposting just
‘Civil War’
part so that I'll have read it three times:
andnow
Acting SECDEF Shanahan Defends Truman Carrier Cut to Senate Panel
The Pentagon’s plan to decommission an aircraft carrier looks half baked and dead on arrival
reposting just
‘Civil War’
part so that I'll have read it three times:
‘Civil War’
The move to decom Truman is the result of a deal cut between the Office of the Secretary of Defense — its Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office being the driving force — and the Navy. In that deal, the Navy traded the to buy two Ford-class aircraft carriers from Huntington Ingalls Industries for canceling the Truman’s refueling, according to multiple media reports and confirmation to Defense News by defense officials who spoke on background.
The backdrop for the move is an ongoing “civil war” over the future of carriers in the military, . Under Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, OSD began pushing the idea that by 2040 the carrier would no longer be relevant against peer adversaries, Foreign Policy reported. The carrier is under threat from evermore sophisticated Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles with ranges out to 1,000 nautical miles from shore, and the loss of the ship is untenable, the argument goes.
Furthermore, Mattis’ acting successor, Shanahan, has also taken up the cause, pushing for a gradual step back from carriers.
The Navy internally pushed back on that idea, arguing that a mobile airfield is will remain more valuable than a stationary one, and that tactical aircraft will be needed in a fight with China or Russia.
Publicly, the DoD maintains that it’s committed to carriers, but, somewhat disjointedly, pivots to investments it’s making in the areas of hypersonics ad unmanned technologies.
“We harvested savings in terms of the two carrier buy, but also the Truman recapitalization, and canceling that availed other opportunities for the department to invest in new areas,” a defense official said, speaking to reporters on background in conjunction with the fiscal 2020 budget rollout. “We’ve got further experiments to do, but those resource that were made available there will be applied to new war-fighting techniques as we look to the future.”
The Navy in 2020 is procuring a large unmanned surface combatant, part of the effort to distribute fires and sensors away from large manned combatants that control them. But so far it seems no such large unmanned hull exists. The hypersonics and other long-range, long-standoff weapons that the DoD believes will recoup the advantage from China are also still in development and not mature.
Moving away from a mature technology without conducting a thorough analysis on the hope that new technologies pan out is foolish, said Callendar, the Heritage Foundation analyst.
“The Navy will have [aircraft carriers] for at least another 40-50 years in some capacity,” Callender said. "Rather than declaring victory for the Chinese and just decommissioning them all, OSD and the Navy should focus on near- and longer-term capabilities and concepts of operations that will make the carriers and carrier strike groups more survivable and able to fight where needed.
“Some of these are the capabilities OSD is directing the Navy to invest in that will indeed make the [carrier strike group] more survivable and lethal in a great power war. The primary focus should be on longer-range, survivable air-launched weapons for [carrier air wings] and new manned and unmanned strike/fighter carrier aircraft with longer range and the ability to penetrate enemy air defenses better.”
In the end, it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition, he noted.
“It should not be all-in for high tech weapons and give up on current fleet and air wing,” he said. “OSD should strive to develop emerging technologies and weapons that can regain the strategic advantage, while also adding more mature capabilities today and developing new tactics and [concepts of operations] to address an adversary’s weakness with current forces and weapons systems used on different platforms and new missions other than original design.”
But others question whether continuing to develop the aircraft carrier is the right approach if technology that will only continue to advance threatens the ship type’s viability.
“The history of warfare is a history of the ebb and flow between offensive and defensive capabilities,” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with The Telemus Group. "The supercarrier has been the exemplar of offensive power projection for a century now but it appears that either the enemy has gained an advantage in defensive fires from shore or that the Navy has decided that the cost of investing in a new longer ranged carrier airwing is just too great a burden at this time.
“It appears that we have taken the first step towards moving away from the carrier as the centerpiece of American naval power perhaps toward more submerged capabilities, or hypersonic missiles launched from surface or submerged platforms. Either way the Navy seems intent on regaining the ability to project power ashore and hold the enemy at risk effectively.”
