This is part of why Ike actually came home earlier than planned.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
IKE Double Pump
- Thread starter robav8r
- Start date
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
The details of whether or not Bryan Clark is correct exceeds the classification level of aw.com. I'm simply saying that the argument 'we're running the force ragged for no reason' is an implicit agreement with this take and can have ripple effects on future force shaping and funding.
COCOMs do seem to have an insatiable appetite for carriers and submarines that exceeds what our Navy was built to handle.
I also think that it's a fools errand to 'implicitly agree to run the force ragged for no reason' in order to attempt guarantee funding for a future force with the hope that that force will neither be run ragged, or at least have a 'good reason' to be run so. Not saying that's your point, necessarily, but there are those that see it that way and the logic is circular at best.
COCOMs have an insatiable appetite for a lot of things. IAs and GSAs are like crack- shortcut proper troop deployment and manpower processes to poach a warm body from commands that do follow those processes. They're better vetted nowadays, although 10+ years ago when I demobilized with the assistant deputy historian of Afghanistan (that was the guy's no shit billet, random senior officer who happened to be in my group on the way back through Kuwait), the vetting was less than robust.
COCOMs will always ask for more shit until someone tells them "no," but even then they'll keep asking. It's just the way it is in the eternal war.
COCOMs will always ask for more shit until someone tells them "no," but even then they'll keep asking. It's just the way it is in the eternal war.
I don't care about Bryan Clark's take. My point was based on my personal observations over the last 12 years. The repeated surge deployments and quick turn second deployments have led to a carrier force that is overstretched. We're clearly seeing the effects on the maintenance side (reference our inability to get carriers out of the yards on time).
Call me shortsighted, but I don't give a shit about future funding. The Navy needs to find a better balance now between meeting COCOM demands and the health of the force. This isn't a new problem, and it blows my mind that we keep repeating the same mistakes.
Your second point is spot on.
On a completely separate point, this is a problem in of itself. DOD's capability requirements should drive future procurement, not entrenched political interests.
This is never going to happen with Congress holding the purse strings.
I think, nineteen years on in this endeavor, the tail has been wagging the dog too long. I've seen it at the Squadron, Numbered Fleet, and now Service HQ levels. God help us if we leave the current conflicts and CENTCOM doesn't get downsized accordingly.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
I wasn't saying that I think that double pumps were the right answer. I am saying that there are a lot of factors to be considered. Sailor happiness is one of them. Most of them we don't have visibility on, so it's really difficult to put together a reasoned argument for or against them beyond the sailor happiness factor, which is very clearly in the 'against' column.
You mentioned material management, but if there's no drydock available and no people available to do the work package, then what? I think our depot maintenence woes are ironically helping to drive a higher optempo. 'Idle time' is a dirty phrase... And that's politically driven on some level, too. I feel like the Deepwater Horizon incident has some pertinent lessons here.
Last edited:
Realizing now that the second part of my thought here would have completed this first thought a lot better if I worded it as I intended - that is - the denials from the SECDEF to the Combatant Commanders are infrequent at best.
Yeah everyone is talking about the Ike, but the TR is heading out again as well, maybe sooner than expected.
if you want to get a glimpse into some of that, read the SDOBs on SIPR. Can give you a sense of what issues are being considered in these decisions. Sometimes the services get overridden, sometimes it’s the GCCs. Shoot me an email on SIPR if you’d like a link.
Last edited: