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Fact is, after the Falkland debacle, every military analyst knows that ,in an age where a 10K missle can easily destroy a billion dollar ship, the age of surface navies is past.
Agreed, wasn't the last navel battle in 1945? Why are we still spending billions on these ships, submarines? How many navel battles have taken place in Iraq, Afghanistan? In addition, the Cold War ended in 1991.
I cannot imagine what life would have been like if we had lost two or three guys from our shop and this was in the 90's. I was an ET for the record. You barely had enough time to repair broken equipment, fill out casualty reports, and do Pm's in a 14 hour day. Also add in the fact the deck division and mess decks wanted bodies, field day on Fridays until noon or later, different watches on duty day, and surface warfare training. In your spare time you were expected to study in order to advance and learn pq's on other equipment you didn't have nec's for. All rates in the Navy complain at sometime about their job, but ET's on Burkes and Aegis cruisers had some of the toughest jobs in the Navy.
I cannot imagine what life would have been like if we had lost two or three guys from our shop and this was in the 90's. I was an ET for the record. You barely had enough time to repair broken equipment, fill out casualty reports, and do Pm's in a 14 hour day. Also add in the fact the deck division and mess decks wanted bodies, field day on Fridays until noon or later, different watches on duty day, and surface warfare training. In your spare time you were expected to study in order to advance and learn pq's on other equipment you didn't have nec's for. All rates in the Navy complain at sometime about their job, but ET's on Burkes and Aegis cruisers had some of the toughest jobs in the Navy.
OS's and Rm's made life hell for both ratings. You never saw one that didn't have the look of a strung out meth addict at the end of a 72 hour binge. I think those guys lived on coffee...
the cuts have pretty much keep military budget at the same levels for years. The navy really suffers more from who is doing the combat and needed more. Still our navy far exceeds any other on this earth. Few realise that by the end of WWII ;the united states had grown to having more ships that all other navy combined just in its pacific fleet. That starting from washington treaty levels.
Fact is, after the Falkland debacle, every military analyst knows that ,in an age where a 10K missle can easily destroy a billion dollar ship, the age of surface navies is past.
I think that's a little harsh. Here's why:
1) The Royal Navy task force was screened by numerous submarines (including the HMS Conqueror which blew the ARA General Belgrano to kingdom come and forced the Argentinian Navy to flee back to port). The Argentinian Navy was made up almost entirely of WWII era ships brought from the US Navy in the 1950s and 60s - they had no change in a surface to surface engagement with the Royal Navy and they knew it.
2) 2 of the 6 Royal Navy ships sunk/damaged beyond repair were actually Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels - they were civilian manned support ships thus not built to military standards. They were also unarmed (only after the Falklands were RFA vessels given defensive weapons).
3) The design and construction faults that led to the sinking of HMS Sheffield, HMS Antelope, HMS Ardent, and the HMS Coventry were rectified with the newer, modern Type 45 destroyers and the Type 23 frigates that replaced the Type 42 destroyers and the Type 21 frigates that served in the Falklands era.
Their ARE however alot of lessons to be learned from the Falklands and it's a damn shame that the US military ignores them.
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