Letter to running mate Ryan and state of things on the World’s seas.

I want to address something mentioned in Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s replies during yesterday’s debate.

You complained, sir that “the US Navy is at its smallest format since WWI.”

It does not accurately portrays the real situation at sea. If you go strictly by ships numbers, yes 287 main battleships active now is only 40 more than in 1916 and to the exception of the 2000-2006 period ( under G.W. Bush ) less than at anytime since. But let’s give context, analysis and comparison. In 1916, the U.S were not the dominant nation on Earth and no one had ever heard of an atomic bomb. Since then, the seas contain US, UK, French and Russian, Chinese and Indian ballistic nuclear missiles launching submarines. Conventional warfare including naval has thus changed a little.

In 2012, the United States Navy is a formidable fighting machine still ahead of China in big ships, outweighing by tonnage the 10 or more next navies. When you factor in the the qualitative edge and rank navies accordingly, the picture does not blur : First of class in front of France and the UK. Much smaller in number of ships, they both are allies of the US. France has the only fully interoperable carrier group in the world as we speak until the UK finishes to build its new carrier which will then be interoperable with the US Marine Corps as well. The USMC which by the way is developing new concepts of littoral warfare and intervention also shared with the French as in Bold Alligator 2012. If chance brings you the laurels you yearn for, do check with your military men before establishing policy.
In the third tier, we likely could group Japan another ally of the US with a qualitative edge over China’s greater numbers. Russia and India would follow. Japan rarely ventures outside the Pacific and Indian oceans so that its navy is quite strong relative to the task. China’s ships include a few very interesting innovations which point to a strategic understanding of the plethora of networked units concept that arose from irregular naval warfare instances noted in the last decades as in the Houbei Type-022. It is growing for sure. Russia has an ageing fleet and military naval industry which sorts of make their Full Operational Capacity somewhat below what one would tend to believe. India on the other end is progressively ramping up a modern able naval force but between refurbished Russian stuff and first try native inductions doubts arise. Next in line stand South Korea, Italy, Turkey and Spanish navies which even the most paranoid would rule out as attacking America.

Let’s turn our attention to carriers then with 11 for the US and one from France, all nuclear, all launching different types of aircrafts from catapults. Add to those the three LHAs and seven LHDs and the upcoming British ship to find 11 more for a total of  21 to 23 fixed-wing platforms. Forgetting Italy & Spain, what do they face? One brand new Chinese one not fully operational, one and a half Indian ones not that operational either and the Russians’ one.
( Brazil also owns an ex-French one, more like a tactical laboratory before building one for real. )

One also has to understand how ships have changed since WWI. That is a 1923 US destroyer :

as one can see, a big ship of 1,300 tons that carried 122 personnel and 4 50-caliber guns, 1 20-caliber one and 12 torpedo tubes.

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Below is the latest Arleigh-Burke class, the USS Michael Murphy, a 9,200 tons ship carrying 380 men and providing firepower as follow,

1 62-caliber gun, 2 x 25mm ones and 12.7mm machine guns and two torpedo tubes and a  20 mm Phalanx CIWS system PLUS 96 cells of Tomahawk or ASROC missiles!!! The latter is anti-submarines and the former probably the world’s best known all weather and long range cruise missile. From the excellent shipyard of Bath Iron Works and commissioned on the 6th, 6 days ago!

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Click on pic to reach the ship’s USNavy page.

“Truly multi-mission combatants, Aegis destroyers are the most balanced surface warships ever built, with the weapons, electronics, helicopter support facilities, and propulsion, auxiliary and survivability systems to carry out the Navy’s missions today, and into the new century.”

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So the idea that the US Navy is in dire straits save maybe around Hormuz is just plain wrong. The reductions in budget that are coming include the end of the costs associated with the Irak presence and eventually in Afghanistan and the rest of the cuts can almost all be counter-balanced by implementing better procurement schemes within the military and in its relationship of codependance to the big equipment manufacturers. Get the money back from excesses in the Comanche, EFV cancellations or the F-22 and now F-35 programs and count it up. If overcost and “ubertech-itis” were under control, Defence would be just fine and the taxpayer spared.

In parting, I am glad to read this in the last iteration of the H.R.3 bill : “‘‘(1) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest;” instead of the despicable longer version of the text that you precendently supported. I do understand that you follow the line instaured by President Bush years ago with his “sordid rape” comment but can tell you for sure that it is a compounded error to the one of abortion that you fight to deprive a rape victim of any possible rights. Otherwise, let’s also re-open the debate on Legitimate Murder? Or have a national referendum on such subjects that concern the individual, hum? Here is a cause you can champion to assuage the hurt caused without political afterthoughts as it is not really a US problem. http://www.savegirlchild.org/

Did you notice the header slogan? 10 Million?

Have a good day nonetheless sir and good luck with your campaign, Tay.