Of Mothballs and Modernizations
By Steven Wills
June 16, 2017
U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Deven Leigh Ellis
There have been recent discussions in maritime news outlets and the blog world regarding the possible reactivation of U.S. warships from the “mothball” fleet. Such ships could be used to help build the fleet to the 350-ship mark endorsed by the Trump administration and numerous defense experts. While perhaps an inviting prospect on the surface, such an undertaking is problematic and is not a good choice for increasing the size of the fleet in anything but a short-term assessment. A look at the history of warship reactivations and modernizations in the 20th century suggests that such a program would be costly and at best produce naval combatants of limited utility. Even ships removed from active service in the last five years could face severe shortages in the basic hull, mechanical, and electrical systems (HM&E), as well as trained personnel needed to get them ready for mere peacetime operations. Old ships require more maintenance and would be an additional burden on a U.S. Navy maintenance system that lacks the funding to maintain the current fleet. Nearly all would require expensive combat systems updates to make them marginally ready for combat. Finally, U.S. naval strategy remains unclear at this point, despite a growing naval threat from the “four plus one” state and non-state powers that have been identified as potential U.S antagonists. A functioning U.S. Maritime Strategy equal in scope and organization to the 1980’s era Maritime Strategy ought to be in place before making potentially, costly decisions to reactivate old U.S. warships. Continued, if even slow construction of new warships with open architecture systems that can readily accept updated systems and software is the best choice to grow and maintain the fleet.
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/06/16/of_mothballs_and_modernizations_111600.html
