SURFACE WARFARE
The Nucleus of American Naval Power
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I've taken the weekend to chew on this. Getting munitions out there to shooters is a cheap good move that should be happening now. We should also be buying gear to plug and play onto the Coast Guard NSCs and FRCS to fill our numbers gap.
LPDs can help, but at 2 billion a pop buying so many to reach 38 amphibs will eat money as will 3 Burkes a year and 4 Connies a year. That is a down the road need and I would even say Burkes at 2 per year to keep the lines alive is a better approach so we don't end up with too much Burke debt in the fleet holding us back once we have a real fleet strategy and DDGX.
The single purpose patrol boat is a great idea. It needs payload and legs. This is why I keep pushing a manned variant of the MUSV/Overload Ranger/Mariner hull or its longer variant. The great part about that hull and even the FRC is that we can have some of them ready in the Davidson window. If we focus up we can have them ready by our own election season through the next Presidential inauguration, which anyone who is being honest with themselves knows is a massive target painted on us.
I think the other right now item might be to gather and affix stern landing gear to every decent PSV and maybe even FSV we can find to step in for the LSM role until we have an LSM. We have seen that can happen fast. If we can do anything similar to an EPF or fast ferry great, but I'm not counting on it. I might also say, keep LSM real simple and try and make an improved Besson either like what we are building for Israel or something even a bit more updated and capable.
Final thought for a down the road, but not too far. Get working on a naval version of the OPC. I know we all had visions of an NSC frigate, but I think the money ball solution is in the OPC. Do whatever you need to do to get it up to 24-25 knots on diesels. Study the new 125m Taiwanese Cutters as they share some of the same DNA. This is the ship small enough to ensure real competition between yards to build it.
Missile FAC version of the Coast Guard FRC. More tenders and supply ships. Use the amphibious line to build light carriers with a squadron of F-35B, helicopters and UAVs. More Land-based Naval Air, P-8s, C-130 tankers, F-15EX, Super Hornets with conformal fuel tanks, and time to bring back seaplanes for close-in work.