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Who are you, and what have you done with Bill Oreto??
That was really well put! I find myself agreeing with you. "I feel a great disturbance in The Force." Raspy breathing... Previous Message
You kind of expanded there as USCG requirements though similar in some ways to USN differ in many ways as well.
But I believe the point of your question was why we can’t get afloat and remain in proper condition.
And the list is:
1. Government Naval Yards were shut down with loss of many skilled workers.
2. Repairs are put out to commercial bid.
3. Design is outsourced then reviewed to meet requirements. Change after costly change occurs because of experience challenging inexperience.
4. Cold War ends and fleet auxiliaries such as submarine tenders and repairs ships were retired eliminating the skills in The Navy to make its own repairs afloat.
5. Lack of substantial inventory of spare parts due to lack of dollars for required maintenance and understanding of the design especially when low bid is awarded. Maintenance is always the first account that gets savaged to pay for other bills.
6. Over design of what is sent afloat thereby increasing the cost to train upon and repair thereby hastening the ship to scrappers .
7. Decline in merchant ship building thereby making smaller the skilled labor pool to draw upon as well as draw down in suppliers and manufacturers of all items needed upon and within a ship’s hull.
8. Poor pay for highly skilled ship builders leaving no attraction to become an apprentice and improve your skills and move up.
Do you wish me to go on ? I can name Congress and its many faults that have affected USCG/Navy acquisition and maintenance.
You can lay today’s problems at the feet of Lehman who thought the fleet should be all teeth and very little tail. Rumsfeld “We can do more with less” which introduced the gold plating in design and continued cuts in tail . And finally “We have no peers” group which demanded a peace dividend that cut into all areas of The Navy including its experience.
Most in the general public think a fleet is the number of hulls which equate to combat power. Not realizing to maintain a fleet in being that effectively projects national interests takes years of building, years in gaining experience and training, years in building logistical support and above all future vision. Only wealthy nations therefore can have truly effective navies if they have training and experience. The rest are just hulls flying their national flag.
Reading the history of the RN from the Bronze Age until after WW2 one would read how it built upon itself to ultimately reign supreme in 19th century. An example of training and experience is the IJN who from the early 1900s trained vigorously night and day with what they had to give the USN a good run for the money during the war. An example of planning and future vision is War Plan Orange in which the USN designs and builds warships to meet its commitments to the plan while maintaining budgeting for its logistical support and only incorporating innovation in increments . Unlike the Ford which comes back from it first deployment needing 200 + million dollars in repair.
Enough said but it took us 60 years to get into this mess and it will take another 60 years to get out of. The best we can hope for in a future naval war is attrition to peace table as opposed to victory. Previous Message
the USCG has a $7BILLION infrastructure, maintenance /repair backlog, more than doubled in last 4 years, USN has seven years wait for some submarine repairs, 7 years to make half the drawings for the "new " icebreaker and at least another 7 to build it, what is going on??????
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