Red Sea Attacks Demonstrate the Need to Modernize Our Surface Fleet

[rangerrebew]

Red Sea Attacks Demonstrate the Need to Modernize Our Surface Fleet
Published 01/16/24 06:00 AM ET
Seth Cropsey
 
The U.S.-led naval operation in the Red Sea may be strategically listless but, operationally, the U.S. Navy has demonstrated its combat skill. American sailors have defended themselves and merchant shipping against a range of anti-ship threats, including missiles, drones and fast boats. 

The issue, however, is sustainment. The Middle East crisis has placed extreme stress on the fleet, particularly its personnel. As China menaces Taiwan, Russia savages Ukraine, and the Middle East threatens to slide into cataclysm, the U.S. must expand its surface fleet or risk being overstressed.

The Surface Navy is the unsung linchpin of American grand strategy. Supercarriers can deliver as much combat power as national air forces; nuclear-powered attack submarines can evade hostile reconnaissance, conduct intelligence activities, and penetrate enemy strike networks as a premier war-fighting tool. And the guided missile submarines of the “Silent Service,” armed with 154 land-attack cruise missiles, are the best-armed conventional assets in the world. 

https://themessenger.com/opinion/us-navy-expansion-modernize-surface-fleet-deployments-stress-american-strategy

[Timber Rattler]

The fleet's already been modernized to death...we just need a lot more ships and sailors!!!

[DefiantMassRINO]

Maybe the US Navy shouldn't have wasted all that money on those Littoral Combat Ships (LCS, Little Crappy Ships).

[Timber Rattler]

Maybe the US Navy shouldn't have wasted all that money on those Littoral Combat Ships (LCS, Little Crappy Ships).

Yep, and Zumwalt DD21s, DDG-1000, etc. which were huge money pits.  What the Navy should have been doing was building new hulls based on proven designs like the Ticonderoga cruisers, Burke destroyers, and Perry frigates, with more submarines, all using the updated tech. 

After a 35-year break, the US Navy is building frigates again, and it has a lot of catching up to do

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-started-building-its-new-constellation-class-frigates-2023-5   

In the summer, the shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine began construction on the US Navy's first Constellation-class frigate, making the first cut of steel at its Wisconsin shipyard on August 31.

Fincantieri plans to lay the keel of that ship, USS Constellation, this August. It will be the US Navy's first frigate since the retirement of its last Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate in 2015.

When it arrives later this decade, USS Constellation will mark the return of a small but versatile class of ships to the US Navy.

To realize its ambitions for the Constellation class, the Navy is applying hard lessons it has learned from recent high-profile warship programs that have cost too much, taken too long, or done too little.

The Navy's current Maritime Strategy is rather weak too...

https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/2449829/navy-marine-corps-coast-guard-release-maritime-strategy/