Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities for Fleet Design in the U.S. Navy
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- Опубліковано 14 гру 2023
- Host Bill Hamblet talks with naval officer and frequent Proceedings contributor Jeff Vandenengel about his new book, "Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in Fleet Design for the United States Navy" from the Naval Institute Press.
This episode of the Proceedings Podcast is made possible by the members of the U.S. Naval Institute. For more information, visit: www.usni.org/join
Great to see Navy has people who are self critical, look at situation objectively, and be able to discuss without being captive to biases.
This was a refreshing podcast. It's nice to see cracks in the monolithic "battleship mentality" which seems to dominate USN thinking. The points made here need to be echoed until there is finally recognition that the carrier's role needs to be reassessed, particularly in the case of conflict w/peer or near-peer adversaries. One point that could have maybe been emphasized here a bit more is the opportunity cost imposed by construction and operation of carriers, w/their 5k crews and their protective flotillas. It's understood that such cost doesn't leave much money left over for other fleet resources. :(
The ideas proposed by Commander Vandenengals' book should be given serious looks. The nuclear-powered mega-carrier has done the job during the Cold War, and on, for 70-odd years. In todays' missile-rich combat scenarios, a Ford-class carrier would take 5,000 sailors and 13 billion dollars with it, if it was sunk. Doubtless, the Navy has maximized a carriers' defensive capabilities, but an off-script, lucky shot anomaly is always possible. Can the US population take a loss of 5,000 people, and 13 billion dollars at one time?
Makes total sense... one thing we learned from Kamikaze attacks in WW 2 ... precision guided missiles, which what Kamikaze attacks were, did, by far , the greatest damage to naval vessels during the entire war... we should learn from that.... I agree with Vandenengel...
Thank you for another round of interesting insights into the Navy!
Great discussion! I just bought the book and look forward to reading it.
We need more small ships. We need more big ships! Yeah, build a couple of NEW battleships "from the ground up", so to speak. I think we're going to need more than 6 Ford Class carriers, but we need corvettes and cruisers too.
How is the modern navy going to sea lift the Army? Will the Navy at least augment the piecemeal transport ships that the Army operates? Surely the resources that go into one Aircraft Carrier could be put into an entire Amphibious Fleet that might integrate army units in a way that would be distinctly different from the existing Marine Corp Amphib Capes - perhaps more along the existing lines of Army Seagoing operations.
The man has a point. I would add a Flt II version of the Frigates with a few upgrades (ex: more VLS cells).
Having more ship yards wouldn't hurt.
I believe a better balanced fleet would be best. An even split of large and small surface combatants. With more offensive capabilities from the new DDGX. The carrier fleet should be 8 CVN’s and 8 smaller CVA’s. Arm the LPD’s with better air defense capabilities and most importantly have the maintenance capabilities to meet demands.
Although I agree with his theory, I still don't hear anything on how to accomplish on a flat budget. Lots of "we need this and that". Navy is still lacking on "how". A flat budget combined with a CR is the elephant in the room.
Columbia-class SSGN? I don't think so. The new SSGN's will be the Virginia-class Block V boats, not Columbias.
Bring back battleships and make them missile spammers.
There are too many capabilities that aircraft carriers provide to replace them. A large scale war with China would put our carriers at risk but there are many contingencies where a carrier would be most effective.