I applaud your creative thinking--but for a ship to carry interceptors capable of the ABM role, they are pretty big beasts, and it seems impractical to site a proper launcher on either variant. Additionally, unless the ship was going to react only to third party tracks, it has insufficient power to drive a proper ABM radar.
I saw your interview about the Littoral Combat Ship on Ward Carroll's YouTube site. Might the Navy configure the LCSs for an Anti-ballistic Missile role stationed in the Great Lakes and other suitable inland waterways?
The ships could possibly sail randomly around their areas of operation to avoid anti-ship ballistic missiles while carrying SM-6s or follow-on weapons to intercept attacks by various nuclear powers, Iran and North Korea come immediately to mind.
Problems:
1. The Great Lakes have notoriously bad weather several months of the year--the Edmund Fitzgerald factor.
2. The Great Lakes freeze over at least in places.
3. Other inland waters might prove capable, while controversial--the Mississippi River and Lake Tahoe come to mind.
Possible advantages
1. No need for anti-air or anti-submarine systems.
2 Minimal need for anti-surface systems--ANTIFA et al will probably try to peacefully sink, damage, or both damage and sink any such ships--hankering back to the Spanish Civil War.
3. As low draft ships, other inland waterways might be very good candidates--Lake Powell and Lake Mead (if it ever gets deep enough again) for example
I realize this sounds somewhat odd to say the least. Still, we have the hulls and we have the threat. Perhaps equally important, "Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it." A. H.
Once again we have a liberal administration that figures we can stop the enemy at the Mississippi River instead of Europe or the Far East. The last liberal Democrat who knew what he was doing (instead of supporting social causes) was Kennedy. Obama and his elder Biden (who was there only to balance the ticket) have ignored defense for too long. Trump was just as bad. He apparently didn't trust the DoD. So what do we have...16 consecutive years of poorhousing all of our armed forces. This sucks so hard it's blowing.
-Middle of the road radical socially, somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun (but not so far as Vlad the Impaler) on security...
I'm more concerned about Fall and Spring good weather windows in and around one narrow, shallow body of water. There is still time do do more, but the need for urgency needs embraced.
I just think the bad guys finally got their act together and are loosely working in concert. I think China will use our presidential election cycle and the fall or spring weather windows to act against Taiwan.
Sir, don’t you think Congress should finish drawing up articles of impeachment for Biden and firing Univerdity Presidents before they embark on silly tasks like growing and empowering our Navy?
I recognize I misspelled university above. I have a request in with Congress to fix it.
<Sarcasm off>
Hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year Sir.
As the above comment suggests, deterrence requires more than posturing a CVN and an SSGN in the neighborhood, the bad guys have to believe that it will be used. What good are FONOPS when they don’t coincide with water cannon abuse of an ally? This is the “don’t cross this Red Line” crew in charge; they specialize in virtue signaling.
Great article and well said. Amen. It's certainly frustrating to see the past few Administrations' lack of efforts on addressing the Navy's shortfalls for a very long time. This will have a generational impact on our ability to command and control the seas...to be able to fight and win wars at sea and project power ashore. I do agree with all of your points, but probably would not give the Biden Administration too many gold stars. Ultimately, their lack of ACTION is impacting our overall deterrence. Hence our aggressors are taking full advantage of this and now shaping events to their objectives. Our present ability to disrupt these activities is starting to worry me and the Administration needs to be proactive in compelling these aggressors TO STOP or they will be destroyed. PERIOD. (I am thinking about my Earnest Will Days!!!) The Navy's mission of persistent presence is a key part of this, in my opinion. Which leads me to the following key question I constantly ask when I am with other fellow shipmates in Annapolis : Is today’s naval “presence” force designed to deter? and if it is not, which I believe it is not, what should be the value of our naval "presence" be? Just not by numbers but also by force structure design. I
Bottomline, as you have stated superbly, there is a current and dangerously growing mismatch with Navy mission/requirements and the force structure to be successfully in supporting. Congress and the Administrition (current and future) needs to pick up the ball and start taking immediate action (like yesterday!!!).
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year and thanks again for the terrific articles.
BTW...it's a shame on Commission on the Future of the Navy. Keep up the good fight, sir.
Brian, great words. Fully agree. While the Navy has made mistakes in shipbuilding the lack of a NATIONAL MARITIME STRATEGY supported by leadership and in this case as you correct state the PRESIDENT. WINTER IS COMING!
BZ. A clear statement of both the problem (cough progressives in power cough) and what is needed to fix it. I sure wish I could be optimistic, but I can't. I cannot imagine the politicos shrinking the public handouts to fund defense, and I don't think they are willing to increase taxes enough to do the job without such shrinking.
Good summary of the current state of affairs. That said, wasting money on LCS that have limited capabilities and questionable survival designs didn’t help. We need robust multi mission battle force capable as well a ships capable of a full range of independent operations in numbers that meet US National Security and economic requirements. As has been pointed out recently yet again the world’s economies depend on sea routes that depend on choke points that are susceptible to interdiction. Keep the pressure up Bryan.
Well said! Unfortunately, it is too late. As you, me, and others have pointed out, there is no quick fix and once the war with China starts we will quickly see starkly the problems from the neglect of the Navy. When I went to sea in 1970, we had 792 combatants and one enemy. Today we have 240 and enemies in at least 3 theaters. It's going to be ugly and no one will remember we warned them....it will be all finger pointing and hand wringing. I published this article in 2020. I warned Mark Meadows about the coming problem beginning in 2017. https://cimsec.org/ignorance-of-china-is-not-bliss/
I applaud your creative thinking--but for a ship to carry interceptors capable of the ABM role, they are pretty big beasts, and it seems impractical to site a proper launcher on either variant. Additionally, unless the ship was going to react only to third party tracks, it has insufficient power to drive a proper ABM radar.
I saw your interview about the Littoral Combat Ship on Ward Carroll's YouTube site. Might the Navy configure the LCSs for an Anti-ballistic Missile role stationed in the Great Lakes and other suitable inland waterways?
The ships could possibly sail randomly around their areas of operation to avoid anti-ship ballistic missiles while carrying SM-6s or follow-on weapons to intercept attacks by various nuclear powers, Iran and North Korea come immediately to mind.
Problems:
1. The Great Lakes have notoriously bad weather several months of the year--the Edmund Fitzgerald factor.
2. The Great Lakes freeze over at least in places.
3. Other inland waters might prove capable, while controversial--the Mississippi River and Lake Tahoe come to mind.
Possible advantages
1. No need for anti-air or anti-submarine systems.
2 Minimal need for anti-surface systems--ANTIFA et al will probably try to peacefully sink, damage, or both damage and sink any such ships--hankering back to the Spanish Civil War.
3. As low draft ships, other inland waterways might be very good candidates--Lake Powell and Lake Mead (if it ever gets deep enough again) for example
I realize this sounds somewhat odd to say the least. Still, we have the hulls and we have the threat. Perhaps equally important, "Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it." A. H.
Wilder
Once again we have a liberal administration that figures we can stop the enemy at the Mississippi River instead of Europe or the Far East. The last liberal Democrat who knew what he was doing (instead of supporting social causes) was Kennedy. Obama and his elder Biden (who was there only to balance the ticket) have ignored defense for too long. Trump was just as bad. He apparently didn't trust the DoD. So what do we have...16 consecutive years of poorhousing all of our armed forces. This sucks so hard it's blowing.
-Middle of the road radical socially, somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun (but not so far as Vlad the Impaler) on security...
I'm more concerned about Fall and Spring good weather windows in and around one narrow, shallow body of water. There is still time do do more, but the need for urgency needs embraced.
More concerned than what?
I just think the bad guys finally got their act together and are loosely working in concert. I think China will use our presidential election cycle and the fall or spring weather windows to act against Taiwan.
Hey Bolt! Happy New Year. I would dearly like to see Congress get back into the business of legislating.
Sir, don’t you think Congress should finish drawing up articles of impeachment for Biden and firing Univerdity Presidents before they embark on silly tasks like growing and empowering our Navy?
I recognize I misspelled university above. I have a request in with Congress to fix it.
<Sarcasm off>
Hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year Sir.
Well said, Bryan.
As the above comment suggests, deterrence requires more than posturing a CVN and an SSGN in the neighborhood, the bad guys have to believe that it will be used. What good are FONOPS when they don’t coincide with water cannon abuse of an ally? This is the “don’t cross this Red Line” crew in charge; they specialize in virtue signaling.
Hi Bryan,
Great article and well said. Amen. It's certainly frustrating to see the past few Administrations' lack of efforts on addressing the Navy's shortfalls for a very long time. This will have a generational impact on our ability to command and control the seas...to be able to fight and win wars at sea and project power ashore. I do agree with all of your points, but probably would not give the Biden Administration too many gold stars. Ultimately, their lack of ACTION is impacting our overall deterrence. Hence our aggressors are taking full advantage of this and now shaping events to their objectives. Our present ability to disrupt these activities is starting to worry me and the Administration needs to be proactive in compelling these aggressors TO STOP or they will be destroyed. PERIOD. (I am thinking about my Earnest Will Days!!!) The Navy's mission of persistent presence is a key part of this, in my opinion. Which leads me to the following key question I constantly ask when I am with other fellow shipmates in Annapolis : Is today’s naval “presence” force designed to deter? and if it is not, which I believe it is not, what should be the value of our naval "presence" be? Just not by numbers but also by force structure design. I
Bottomline, as you have stated superbly, there is a current and dangerously growing mismatch with Navy mission/requirements and the force structure to be successfully in supporting. Congress and the Administrition (current and future) needs to pick up the ball and start taking immediate action (like yesterday!!!).
Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year and thanks again for the terrific articles.
BTW...it's a shame on Commission on the Future of the Navy. Keep up the good fight, sir.
Best regards,
Nigel
Thank you--Happy New Year to you!
Brian, great words. Fully agree. While the Navy has made mistakes in shipbuilding the lack of a NATIONAL MARITIME STRATEGY supported by leadership and in this case as you correct state the PRESIDENT. WINTER IS COMING!
Happy New Year my friend.
How many bodegas in LA, mom & pop stores in Baltimore and Dollar Stores in DC are thriving after defunding the police? Ask the policy makers that.
BZ. A clear statement of both the problem (cough progressives in power cough) and what is needed to fix it. I sure wish I could be optimistic, but I can't. I cannot imagine the politicos shrinking the public handouts to fund defense, and I don't think they are willing to increase taxes enough to do the job without such shrinking.
Good summary of the current state of affairs. That said, wasting money on LCS that have limited capabilities and questionable survival designs didn’t help. We need robust multi mission battle force capable as well a ships capable of a full range of independent operations in numbers that meet US National Security and economic requirements. As has been pointed out recently yet again the world’s economies depend on sea routes that depend on choke points that are susceptible to interdiction. Keep the pressure up Bryan.
Well said! Unfortunately, it is too late. As you, me, and others have pointed out, there is no quick fix and once the war with China starts we will quickly see starkly the problems from the neglect of the Navy. When I went to sea in 1970, we had 792 combatants and one enemy. Today we have 240 and enemies in at least 3 theaters. It's going to be ugly and no one will remember we warned them....it will be all finger pointing and hand wringing. I published this article in 2020. I warned Mark Meadows about the coming problem beginning in 2017. https://cimsec.org/ignorance-of-china-is-not-bliss/
Happy New Year, Admiral. And thank you.