Eight Aircraft Carriers

That's A Good Day

On Friday past, my friend the redoubtable Chris Cavas posted this series of Tweets (yes, Tweets) on Twitter (yes, Twitter).

Eight aircraft carriers at sea on one day, four of them forward deployed. Of the remaining three, one is in a long overhaul and two others are in maintenance. We have as many aircraft carriers in maintenance right now as any other Navy on Earth has in its inventory. This is a good thing. A continental-sized world power with friends on its borders and global interests and responsibilities requires a Navy constructed like no other, which is why comparing it (size, capabilities) to any other is an exercise in inanity. The only relevant questions on size and capability come back to what it is we wish for the Navy to do. We currently wish it to be powerfully employed forward in three widely separated regions (Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific) in order to deter aggression, and so that is what it is doing. The problem is that it is sized to be powerfully employed forward in only TWO widely separated regions, an artifact of the post-Cold War drawdown and a halving in the size of the Navy. We have known for at least a decade that this “two-hub” Navy was insufficient, that the Navy was a third smaller than our requirements would suggest. That we need to be forward deployed in three widely separated regions is not a function of world instability (war in Ukraine, war in Israel, Chinese aggression), though world instability highlights the need. We must be powerfully deployed forward in three regions simultaneously and continuously because THERE is where our security and economic interests lie. We have been playing Navy Whack-A-Mole since the end of the Cold War, sharing forces among the three major theaters with a Navy sized for two and always trying to convince ourselves that we can turn our backs on the Middle East.

As the world becomes more dangerous—and it is—we will find that the difference between the Navy we have and the Navy we need is enormous. Were we to do the right thing and keep three carrier strike groups forward deployed simultaneously and continuously, we would need five more aircraft carriers. Our current industrial base would need DECADES to be able to take the current force from 11 to 16, and so instead of addressing the industrial base deficiencies, we kvetch about how expensive carriers are and we wish away their importance in the face of opponents judged ten feet tall.

We need 450 manned ships including 16 carriers and 75 attack submarines to get to the baseline Navy we need to address the world as it is. An additional 100-150 unmanned ships will act as force multipliers. Our Navy and political leaders know this, but they look around at the workforce and the capacity of our shipbuilding industry and they shrug their shoulders and they say it cannot be done. This is true. It cannot be done if we continue to do things the way we are doing them now. But if we make steadily growing the Navy a priority and stick to it, a great deal can be done. This is going to take more resources, a lot more.

I believe we will pay those resources. The problem is that I would like us to pay them now and over time in a disciplined manner, and my fear is that we’ll pay them only as a result of a national security calamity.

Veterans Day

There is no subject I have read more about than the U.S. Civil War. The Revolutionary Era is in second, but far behind. I’ve read about the Civil War since I was a boy, and I continue to devour new offerings as they come up. One of the things I was fascinated with as a youngster (and continue to be as an oldster) was the photographs of Civil War veterans marching in parades and having reunions with their units—well into the 20th Century. I loved looking at those photos.

Civil War Veterans marching in 1908

These gents are marching forty-three years after the end of the war. They aren’t strolling. They aren’t walking. They’re marching. Look at all the crooks in their right legs. Well, except that one guy over there on the left. But these men, my age today and older—are MARCHING in a parade—full of pride.

When I retired sixteen years ago, I was proud of my service and the things I’d done, but I didn’t feel like a “VETERAN”. I was too young. I had a whole life ahead of me. I wasn’t one of those old codgers marching in a parade. Being thanked for my service made me feel a little uncomfortable, especially when the plain truth of the matter is that I got far more out of that service than I put in.

Sixteen years later, I have changed. I think it started when the Harris Teeter arrived in Easton ten years or so ago, and they had two reserved parking spots for Veterans up front. I parked there with inordinate joy, not because it was a hardship to walk from farther away, but because I had “earned” this spot. Around that time, Catherine told me we could get 10% off at Lowe’s because of my retired status. I don’t need the 10%. I thoroughly appreciate the gesture (there is reserved veteran parking there too). In the dark days of the COVID clampdown, when only selected/special groups were getting shots while the stocks were being built up, the VA offered shots for veterans in the system. I drove up to Baltimore and got a shot, then walked over to a seat to sit the required 15 minutes before they’d give me the shot card…and I just cried. I cried because my country cared enough about what I’d done to give me a preferred place in line for the first line of defense against a disease that was killing thousands of Americans a day. I was utterly grateful to my fellow citizens.

I drove Catherine to stay with some friends last night near Reagan Airport, because she had an early morning flight today (Saturday). I drove home and read for a while, then slept in well past 0800. At around a quarter to nine, Catherine called. She was on a layover in New York, and she called to wish me a Happy Veterans Day. I couldn’t respond. I had only seconds earlier been sitting by the fire in the kitchen with the day’s first cup of coffee, reading a text message from one of the great men I served with wishing a group of us the best of the day. I sat there in near-drunk reverie remembering the midwatches, Eric at Force TAO, me at Ship’s TAO—Captain Giffin running the whole show. Alan the Engineer, Steve the Ops Boss. Dave the XO. I loved these men then and I love them today. I was full of pride and appreciation and gratitude, and when Catherine called, Catherine who means more to me than any other human being, to wish me a Happy Veterans Day, I was struck dumb by the staggering array of blessings extended to me.

To all the Veterans reading this, thank you. You aren’t better than any other American because of what you did, but you did do something worth our gratitude. We are in your debt.