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I agree that drones are a cheap force multiplier for nations who lack the resources to develop exquisite weapons systems and blue water navies What platform(s) and tactic(s) will drones make obsolete in our doctrine? Russia has no B-2 analogue to degrade / destroy the C5I network needed to...

I think something that often gets overlooked in the Russian / Ukrainian conflict is Russia's inability to establish air superiority / utilize CAS to any significant degree for various reasons - lack of proficiency, corrupt / incompetent leadership, lack of precision munitions require low flight...

I think that his analysis is spot on, particularly the segment about involving children. That's what makes moderates flip from 'whatever you want to do as an adult is none of my business' to 'what the hell are you teaching my children?'

If you have any potential graduate school aspirations that would require undergraduate calculus or physics, I highly recommend that you re-take the courses to have actual college grades associated with them. Using AP credits basically shows up like you've been exempted.

A STEM education is antiquated 2-4 years after graduation if you don't use it regularly.

They come from all commissioning sources. I know because we write the Director about every check in and transfer. People do sometimes change majors or take intro sequences to keep their options open. When you go to the interview, they condense your transcript to only technical courses. There...

I was asked to derive the area of a circle. It's really easy to pass interviews when the person conducting it is a pocket protecting nerd who treats you like you're retarded. The bar for exceeding expectations is low.

Not a true statement. Roughly 35% of any given wardroom on a sub is non-stem, with no impact to career progression. There's also no data regarding whether tech majors attrite from the pipeline at a different rate than non tech majors. Getting a B+ or better in the pre-requisite courses and...

There's probably not data available, but imagine a DDG wardroom with 0 STEM majors trying to decide on COAs with AEGIS tits up and explaining the risks of repair vs live with it staying on station to a CTF commander. You're definitely going to lose something if not one of the members of the...

Not disputing that. Your explanation for the policy is to ensure a qualified pool of candidates for nuke, and I'm saying that they are qualified after a 101 / 102 calculus and physics sequence, so that hypothesis doesn't pass muster. I think that the Navy believes technical majors will have...

A STEM degree isn't required for nuke, only a year of calculus and calculus based physics.

I would agree the data doesn't exist. The other question to add is not one about individual leadership performance, but what % of officers being technical majors are required to have a "critical mass" of aptitude as an organization and what is the impact to "off ramp" career paths that can make...

Are you suggesting we should just forget all the lessons with officers lacking education that led to Goldwater Nichols because it worked more than 75 years ago? I haven't seen whether there's data or not to suggest technical majors do better at learning to employ today's Navy, which is why I...

That's the wrong question. The Navy hires its Os to meet control grade (O4 to O6) flowpoint goals while maintaining optimal in zone promotion rates. The question is whether technical majors make better O5 / O6 tactical unit commanders. Considering the nature of Naval combat and the routine...

My question was not whether you have ever encountered an E6 or above that could read well, but being incredulous that you had never encountered one who could not. An extremely important distinction. I've also worked with senior Os who were challenged with literacy.

Meh, people read "functionally illiterate" and misconstrued that means they can't read and write basic sentences at all instead of what it actually means, which is they can't regularly apply reading and writing to real world scenarios unless someone explains what's on the page to them. If...

Fuck if I know. Probably the same way people pass driver's license exams when not speaking the language the road signs or questions are in.

That's because Marine company grade officers have balls and Navy junior officers (meaning O4 and below) don't. We can have honest conversations.

Is that a serious question from a veteran? And from a Marine? You're telling me all your E6 and above could read beyond elementary school sentences and didn't 'fake it till they make it' by uptasking their officers?

You're saying that as a college graduate and not someone who got Cs in high school. I've also served with COBs (CMC equivalent) who can't read... plural. It was a significant barrier to leadership.

I mean, if you've ever needed home repairs done then you've dealt with dozens of mildly retarded business owners, many of whom won't even write a contract (because they're illiterate).

Growing up, being Republican would get a VERY visceral reaction from anyone working in trades because the Democrats were very pro-union. Fast forward to 2022 and the Democrat POTUS takes a 1 ton dump on railroad unions. That and his amnesty policies cost them reelection.

Literally that's the top 0.1% of tradesman. The most chill HTCS I ever met worked building skyscrapers in NYC before he joined the Navy at ~30. His perspective was always that the Navy never put him at risk of falling 100 stories to his death and he makes more money in a safer environment, an...

To put numbers on "do quite well," the average starting salary for a dealership mechanic is around $34k, with the overall average being $54k. The high end of the range is $70-80k but that's usually in higher cost of living areas so they're not seeing a better QOL. That sounds good when you're...

Yeah, I got it, everyone knows a guy who made it quick and easy in the trades. The average time it takes someone to get an apprenticeship is 2-4 years. Before that, they have to beg and plead as a helper doing back-breaking labor for less pay than working at Walmart until someone gives them a...

The 1990s.

That's horseshit. All those job positions are looking for journeyman and they pay shit for someone with that level of experience. Union nepotism is a huge gatekeeper, which is why the jobs ultimately get performed by illegal immigrants at an extremely high rate. And also... racist trade company...

Having a sign for hire is only part of the story. So you're a 19 year old college student and see a help wanted sign on Walmart. You want to work evenings and weekends, but they're hiring a part time role for Tues through Thurs 7-1200. As for full time roles that have career growth potential...

1 in 5 ADHD diagnosis are false positives. That is an astoundingly poor rate for medicine. It absolutely is a real thing that Karen brings precious Breighden to the psychiatrist the moment he gets in trouble in school or anything less than an A. And since kids are hyper (because they are kids)...

Unemployment among people under 25 has skyrocketed to roughly 25%. The military opened the flood gates by being more generous with psychiatric waivers. *Samuel L Jackson voice* the amount of moms who want their children to have a mental illness so they will be considered special is too damned...

That's standard NETC guidance for all training.

Nothing could possibly go wrong by building a submarine to metric specifications and turning it over to a country that does everything in English units.

Ok, for INT against surface assets, that would be a very expensive and redundant capability with unmanned space platforms, assuming that you could solve the stealth issues that @Gatordev pointed out. As we frequently say today "nobody needs pictures of surface ships" (unless you're doing a CK)...

You skipped a step... what useful warfare function(s) is it doing by "mowing the lawn" for a bit? What warfare functions do you want it to do in the next 25 years?

In terms of "dreams," it's far more realistic for us to get to target production of 2.0 VACL subs per year (up from 1.2) than for Japan to ramp up SSK production rate enough to export them to the US at a 1.0+ per year acquisition rate. Note that once Japan exports them, we still have to spend...

It's not parroting Russian talking points to look at demographics and realize that the math ain't mathing. Same reason someone ought to have told Hitler that Operation Barbarossa was going to fail before anyone ever conceived it. Without direct US or EU military intervention, the entirety of...

Right... and Japan cannot produce SSKs at a fast enough rate to have a surplus to sell to the U.S. They are also producing about 1 submarine per year. Which goes back to my point that the limiting construction item is not the nuclear propulsion plant.

I have intimate first-hand knowledge of the successes and challenges of the VACL program and the tactical capabilities and limitations of SSNs vs SSKs vs SSPs that far exceeds the cursory research the author of the article decided to perform. The VACL program has its challenges, but it's the...

That was my point - I recognize it's politically unpalatable to say this, but if the goal is to sacrifice Ukraine to ensure Russia scores a pyrrhic victory, then great. We're not saying that publicly, although I understand why that would be politically unpalatable. But if the goal is a free...

@robav8r might have proposed some aggressive responses, but his point is very valid: We seem to have failed at crafting a cogent policy / strategic goal and then implementing measures that would achieve it. If the goal is a free and independent Ukraine, we need to give far more support than...

I don't think anyone puts UUVs in the same category as SSKs / SSPs. We are pursuing UUV technology. Aside from technical challenges like battery life, the question does arise - how do you employ a UUV in combat operations when you can't communicate with it and / or it needs to be on a relatively...

Based on what? We have more submarines forward deployed at any given time than every other nation in the world by an order of magnitude. The desire to have more submarines is based on an operational requirement that SSKs cannot do - blue water ASuW against modern, capable DDGs. If you think...

SSKs or SSPs have no place in U.S. doctrine. Our Navy is constructed around blue water maritime superiority. SSKs are primarily for coastal / strait defense. They worked for Germany in WWII because their coast is the size of the coast of Texas bordering the Gulf of Mexico America. Using SSKs or...

2, 3, and 4 stars all make the same basic pay, right? If so, the demotion is merely symbolic and no one outside of said GO / FO's inner circle will know or care.

Listening to sports radio, one of the broadcasters recalled an interview with him well after he retired. Broadcaster promised not to bring up gambling or the scandal and only talk baseball. Well, apparently during the commercial breaks, Rose took out a sheet of paper and started going down the...

Against his and his family's wishes.

Yes. I was not hassled. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't be hassled. Do those steps. An official letter from the NRD CO or service agreement can substitute for message traffic orders (I'm convinced no one reads the orders anyway). Also, I've always terminated my residential...

As a baseball enthusiast, I hate that Maddux gets remembered for the years he spent past his prime. Maddux was a power pitcher in his prime. He came up throwing 92-94 mph (measured as the ball hit the catcher's mitt, unlike today where it's measured at release). He also had pinpoint control and...

Umm, are you at all familiar with the WWE during the attitude era? That her daughter got breast implants to partake in the shenanigans? That her husband decided to roid up at over 50 years old? That she essentially excommunicated her own son from the family because god forbid someone say ehhh...