Road to 350: What Does the US Navy Do Anyway?

[Hair Warrior]

I would love to see a chart somewhere on the added manpower (broken down by officer, warrant, enlisted, civilian, contractor, as well as by designator/rating) that would be required to operate a 350-ship fleet. I imagine plussing up to 350 ships would merit a huge push for new accessions across the board - but I'd guess the increases would be lopsided... Notional: maybe we'd need far more SWOs than other URL designators.

this is about as relevant as debating the ideal size of Starfleet, and about as likely to happen.

Old school, next generation, deep space nine, or voyager?

 

[BigRed389]

By doctrine, a cruiser can simultaneously fight two major warfare areas (air, surface, undersea, pick two) because it is manned and equipped for that. A destroyer on the other hand is expected to fight only one. I'm quite certain the Burkes (let alone Zumwalt) have quite a bit more capability than "destroyer" but we call them that because we always have.

Yeah, if true said doctrine pub definitely needs to be updated.

In terms of actually fighting, there's very little difference between DDGs and CGs other than some minor differences, some of which have more to do with us not bothering to fund relatively easy solutions. The Flight IIIs will really further narrow that gap.

The more practical difference today is one usually is W, the other usually is not.

I would love to see a chart somewhere on the added manpower (broken down by officer, warrant, enlisted, civilian, contractor, as well as by designator/rating) that would be required to operate a 350-ship fleet. Notional: maybe we'd need far more SWOs than other URL designators.

Doubt it would skew things too badly.

Likely we'll see a big plus up in SSNs, and surface ships tend to generate corresponding increases in air and RL manning, depending on the platforms.

 

[azguy]

In terms of actually fighting, there's very little difference between DDGs and CGs other than some minor differences, some of which have more to do with us not bothering to fund relatively easy solutions. The Flight IIIs will really further narrow that gap.

The more practical difference today is one usually is W, the other usually is not.

+1

The W enablers are probably 90% a function of manning, 10% a function of the Tico platform.

 

[Flash]

Like it or not, we've already commissioned ~7 hulls of our next-gen FFG. As for the next CG- I don't know, either Zumwalt is Flt 0 of that class (unlikely), or it will end up looking a lot like Burke Flt III (much more likely).

Well you need guided missiles to put the 'G' in FFG, and that traditionally has meant SAM's, and since the LCS's don't have much of any armament....not so much.

I knew many that served on the BB's, engineering wise my friends has no issues with the BB's, what they had said were the guns had lots of manual items that required many sailors.

Had a guy in my reserve unit who did almost 4 years on a BB and couldn't stop bragging about how awesome it was to be on one said that materially the ships were in very poor condition overall. You would step on pipes and they would crumble beneath your feet, lots of stuff was weird and dangerous mix of WWII vintage wiring or equipment with a modern mod stuck at the end of it and so on. And while the guns were very manpower intensive, I think it was 60 or more sailors manned each of the big turrets, about 27 each or the twin 5-inch mounts and almost everything else on the ship was equally manpower intensive.

 

[AQ-AT-NAVCIV]

If you ever get a chance to go inside one of those 16" turrets (USS Alabama is a good opportunity) you will have a great appreciation for the effort that went into their operation.

 

[Uncle Fester]

If you ever get a chance to go inside one of those 16" turrets (USS Alabama is a good opportunity) you will have a great appreciation for the effort that went into their operation.

+1. Alabama is exceptionally well-preserved and -maintained. Well worth the visit.

And I might be mistaken, but I thought the 'up-gunned' LCS will be FFs, not FFGs?

 

[Flash]

...And I might be mistaken, but I thought the 'up-gunned' LCS will be FFs, not FFGs?

Yup, it is also known as the 'Small Surface Combatant'.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Well you need guided missiles to put the 'G' in FFG, and that traditionally has meant SAM's, and since the LCS's don't have much of any armament....not so much.



Had a guy in my reserve unit who did almost 4 years on a BB and couldn't stop bragging about how awesome it was to be on one said that materially the ships were in very poor condition overall. You would step on pipes and they would crumble beneath your feet, lots of stuff was weird and dangerous mix of WWII vintage wiring or equipment with a modern mod stuck at the end of it and so on. And while the guns were very manpower intensive, I think it was 60 or more sailors manned each of the big turrets, about 27 each or the twin 5-inch mounts and almost everything else on the ship was equally manpower intensive.

Not sure about topside material condition, just that the enginerooms were in good shape.

FYI, on a nuclear carrier we routinely had holes show up in pipes (not nuclear ones), it is just the nature of the beast when it comes to piping systems, pumps, reduction gears, line shaft bearings, those are the items you don't want to have issues with.

 

[azguy]

Well you need guided missiles to put the 'G' in FFG, and that traditionally has meant SAM's, and since the LCS's don't have much of any armament....not so much.

Good point, I stand corrected.

#swofail

 

[Uncle Fester]

Good point, I stand corrected.

#swofail

 

[Recovering LSO]

Someone needs to ask Zumwalt if LCS jumped off a cliff, would she do it too? Imitation may not be the sincerest form of flattery.

 

[Gatordev]

There probably wasn't really a casualty, and this was just a clever plan to be pier-side the whole time they're in Panama. As anyone who has done both can tell you, it's WAY better to be at Rodman than to have to take the 20-40 minute liberty boat and then 20 minute cab ride just to get to the city.

 

[squorch2]

Problems with first in class ships are nothing new.

 

[Flash]

Problems with first in class ships are nothing new.

That is true, but when all three completely new classes of ships have serious problems with their powerplants/power that should be concerning.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Problems with first in class ships are nothing new.

Because #innovation!