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-   -   Is the modern surface navy obsolete? (http://i-mockery.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69698981)

derrida Feb 5th, 2008 10:47 PM

Is the modern surface navy obsolete?
 
Reading this I'm glad I'm a sand squid.

Quote:

What happened in Millennium Challenge is that the Navy brass picked a prickly retired USMC vet named Paul van Ripen to play the Iranian commander facing a naval incursion--and van Riper, with nothing but small speedboats, civilian prop planes, and low-tech surface-to-surface missiles, managed to sink two-thirds of the US force by buzzing them with annoying but not openly hostile civilian craft, then attacking simultaneously with everything he had.
I made two important points in that column. The first is that war's entering a new phase where blurring the line between civilian and military isn't just an accident or cheating but crucial to any irregular force facing first-world attackers. It's how they win.

My second point, the one I got a lot of flak for, was that if we send our old-fashioned carrier battle groups into the Gulf in wartime, they won't come out. They'll make excellent dive sites after all the coral and urchins and other sea critters have colonized them--the Gulf is nice and shallow, so our ships will be resting in really prime diving depth--but they won't come out alive.
Well, durned if the Iranians showed they'd learned from van Riper even if the US Navy refused to. To celebrate the new year, the neocons decided to send another battle group into the Persian Gulf. And guess how the Iranians reacted. Yup: they sent a bunch of small "civilian" speedboats to harass the frigate screen, zipping and zooming in the US Navy's wakes. Waterskiing for all I know, just having a great old time trying to provoke the USN's close-in defense systems into a massacre that they could play for the home audience, tapping into that gigantic Shia lust for martyrdom.
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail....K_ID=35&PAGE=2

McClain Feb 11th, 2009 09:13 AM

I worked for the U.S. Third Fleet when I was in the Navy. We ran these types of exercises constantly with battlegroups. To say that the opposition "sank" two-thirds of the US force is a bit of a stretch. It's training.

colloq. And because no one is using real ammunition or explosives, it's akin to me and you playing Star Wars and me saying, "I just cut off your arm!" and you'd likely respond with a "nuh uh! I dodged it and lopped off your head. You're dead!" 'Cept in this situation they have expensive computing equipment, thousands of Sailors, and an impressive Command Information Center buzzing with rendered excitement.

U.S. Navy ships don't have a soft underbelly, or a blind spot for "close-in" defense systems. Why not? Because even the smallest ships will have at least six .50 cal's on deck. Not to mention RPG, M16s, smallarms, etc.

And to top it all off, you're expecting objective American military information from The Exile?


BUMP FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

Evil Robot Feb 11th, 2009 02:58 PM

The US Navy invented the LRADS, or "puke ray". No other navy has a "puke ray".

Zhukov Feb 12th, 2009 08:52 AM

The way I always saw it was that even if a small group of rubber boats can take out a great hulking cruiser or whatever (really not down with what the boats are called now that WWII is over) countries still need a fleet of sizeable ships to defend their nuclear submarines in the open seas.

Because nuclear submarines can shoot MRBMs.

Something along those lines, at least.

El Blanco Feb 12th, 2009 09:46 AM

moving large forces by sea is 100x easier and more efficient than by air. So, if you want to be able to put troops and equipment in a foreign land, you need a modern surface navy.

kahljorn Feb 12th, 2009 12:53 PM

Doesn't this only pertain to wars with people who use guerrilla tactics anyway? That's like saying our ground troops are obsolete because of vietnam or something ;\

MetalMilitia Feb 12th, 2009 01:03 PM

The thing is, I can't imagine there will be any other type of war in the foreseeable future.

If the US did go to war with -say- China my guess is missile and bomber technology is such these days that traditional battleship-type vessels would be destroyed within 5 minutes of being launched.

Tadao Feb 12th, 2009 02:38 PM

Don't know, maybe we have ways of hiding from radar and satellite.

Dimnos Feb 13th, 2009 03:20 PM

Puke Ray for the win!


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