Post by merc on May 5, 2020 20:31:41 GMT
Not so long ago Mr. Putin decided to launch a naval attack into Syria. He proceeded to direct four of his more capable and modern ships, Buyan-M corvettes and a Gepard class frigate, to launch the attack.
These ships weren’t in the Mediterranean or Red Seas or the Persian Gulf.
They were in the Caspian Sea. Yes, the land-locked Caspian Sea. And they were small combatants.
That should tell you something. Needless to say his bigger more impressive ships weren’t all that useful even if they could get underway and out of the dock.
Battleships were built to fight on the battle line against other battleships, something that they did from the time of the first ship of the line right up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf. With the rise of air power they slid into a role of amphibious assault and anti-aircraft support and in the German case served mostly as a threat to thin skinned convoys but it was pretty clear that with the development of the modern aircraft carrier, the quiet air-independent submarine (nuclear or otherwise) and the not that well named “destroyer” that was really the successor of the cruiser the battleship would be mostly a marginal, expensive and not that practical thing to have, mostly because there was no more need for the battle line unless you wanted to tee up targets for submarines. There were no more battleships to fight. They might as well have just assigned all of the remaining Iowas to the Gator Navy. Russian naval doctrine led them to build some large surface combatants but when the United States made a half-hearted attempt to replace the battleship they came up with this rather impressive beast:
It was a good idea, just not the right idea.
If I were in Congress (and don’t worry about that) I would not build a battleship per se but I would build a mix of cheaper, more flexible and capable combatants.
I’d start by building on the success of the USS Ohio conversions to SSGN boats. They carry 7 Tomahawk missiles in each of their 22 tubes. They also are nearly impossible to discover and can silently get in range of any of our enemies undetected. The new Block V Virginia Class boats are not quite as impressive but I’ll take it.
I would also take the basic LPD hull and make a capable, flexible platform for surface operations with a rail gun, a duo of 76mm guns, a big VLS and a hangar full of drones and a well deck full of autonomous craft and an interoperable computing and communications infrastructure that could network all this along with the escorts. It would be ugly, cheap and able to operate relatively independent of a carrier for much less money.
And then I would build more of these:
www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Team-Ships/PEO-Ships/Exp-Transfer-Dock-ESD-Exp-Sea-Base-ESB/
Ugly, slow and cheap but with modern technology you could keep one of these at every hot spot in the world just over the horizon pre-deployed to show the flag and support small combatants and even provide some air cover.
Battleships were built to fight battleships. In this age where Putin is flexing seapower without even being on a proper ocean the idea of the battleship has to change to a different idea of projecting naval power.
These ships weren’t in the Mediterranean or Red Seas or the Persian Gulf.
They were in the Caspian Sea. Yes, the land-locked Caspian Sea. And they were small combatants.
That should tell you something. Needless to say his bigger more impressive ships weren’t all that useful even if they could get underway and out of the dock.
Battleships were built to fight on the battle line against other battleships, something that they did from the time of the first ship of the line right up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf. With the rise of air power they slid into a role of amphibious assault and anti-aircraft support and in the German case served mostly as a threat to thin skinned convoys but it was pretty clear that with the development of the modern aircraft carrier, the quiet air-independent submarine (nuclear or otherwise) and the not that well named “destroyer” that was really the successor of the cruiser the battleship would be mostly a marginal, expensive and not that practical thing to have, mostly because there was no more need for the battle line unless you wanted to tee up targets for submarines. There were no more battleships to fight. They might as well have just assigned all of the remaining Iowas to the Gator Navy. Russian naval doctrine led them to build some large surface combatants but when the United States made a half-hearted attempt to replace the battleship they came up with this rather impressive beast:
If I were in Congress (and don’t worry about that) I would not build a battleship per se but I would build a mix of cheaper, more flexible and capable combatants.
I’d start by building on the success of the USS Ohio conversions to SSGN boats. They carry 7 Tomahawk missiles in each of their 22 tubes. They also are nearly impossible to discover and can silently get in range of any of our enemies undetected. The new Block V Virginia Class boats are not quite as impressive but I’ll take it.
Ugly, slow and cheap but with modern technology you could keep one of these at every hot spot in the world just over the horizon pre-deployed to show the flag and support small combatants and even provide some air cover.
Battleships were built to fight battleships. In this age where Putin is flexing seapower without even being on a proper ocean the idea of the battleship has to change to a different idea of projecting naval power.
