Can the US Navy Rebuild their Fleet?

The United States and China are in the middle of one of history's largest naval arms races right now. In 2020 the Chinese Navy surpassed the US in the overall number of warships for the first time…on the other hand the US fleet is more advanced and has far more tonnage. But US Naval leadership has seen the writing on the wall and attempted to kick the Military industrial complex back into high gear. What new warships, weapons and tactics will they acquire over the next decade and will it be the correct ones needed to keep China in check?

Written by: Chris Cappy and Diego Aceituno
Edited by: Maksym

If we want to understand the US Navy’s plan to modernize, it is worth looking at its two greatest influences. Alfred Mahan was a United States naval officer, and strategist who wrote the 1890 book "The Influence of Sea Power upon History," it’s basically the navy bible now. In it Mahan argued that control of maritime trade routes were crucial for the success of a global power. He recommended maintaining naval bases and refueling logistics stations around the world. He pointed out that Control of strategic maritime choke points have had a decisive impact on the outcome of wars throughout history all the way back to 400 BC. We can easily see today how his theories were extremely influential on the Navy.

Then there was Sir Julian Corbett who was a British Naval historian and strategist who published “some principles of maritime strategy” in 1911 its like the Torah of the Navy no that analogy doesn’t make any sense. Corbett was in some ways the counterpoint to Mahan; he argued for avoiding decisive battles engaging in raids on the enemy instead. Critics of Mahan believed he had an Overemphasis on large heavily armed Battleships. They believed a smaller more agile Navy could be more effective at sea denial and disrupting larger fleets through asymmetrical means. Sir Corbett placed more emphasis on limited warfare and coordinating with the other military branches, even making use of diplomacy more. The Naval problems facing Mahan and Corbat over a hundred years ago are many of the same faced today. Their works have influenced national Naval policies around the world for over a hundred years.

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Nebulous: fleet command video game

Task & Purpose is a military news and culture oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.

#NAVY #USA #WAR

[metalman]

As a machinist that's been doing this for over a decade now starting when I was 18 the skilled labor shortage is very very real. I've been the youngest man in the shop or shipyard by decades. Most of the old timers that taught me are either retired, going to retire or dead. I get constant unsolicited job offers because there are so few younger guys that have the necessary experience. I try to pass down the knowledge I've obtained but it's not enough. There needs to be a resurgence of trade schools and less emphasis put on college degrees. I make a very good living with no college degree and going back to school now the hands on work experience is invaluable to the academic setting. Having gone to a vocational high school companies like general dynamics and Lockheed would come and give presentations telling us and the welders that once we turned 18 to apply and we'd be almost guaranteed a job. It's a very powerful thing to have on a resume. They know that they don't have to train you from square one and that you're not going to retire for the next 40 years.

[bullet]

A lot of high schools stop teaching basic carpentry, welding and other basic manufacturing skills...technology took hold with computers...we need the basics back...💯👍🇺🇸

[AndreiKucharavy]

Props for talking about the skilled labor shortage and Diego to explaining it so clearly. US used to be the factory of the world, and not a lot of people realize that that ship has sailed and that getting back would require radical changes to education, social security and economics of labor.

[MrAWG]

I love how the Industrial Complex is now advertising before the start of movies in cinemas for Columbia Class sub shipbuilders and now, the shipyard in Marinette WI cannot find enough workers to actually start building the new FFGs. “Naval Planning is Build Planning” is especially insightful when you cannot find the people to actually build the damn things.

[doubleoj]

7:13 Still takes longer to make GTA VI then it is to build a nuclear carrier

[paualdinicola]

Diego did well. He was very well spoken. And he has a natural "radio" voice!

[royrogers]

“Filled with water” is apparently a Chinese saying for using lower quality materials in order to save money.

[jefferydaniels]

Nice to hear from the guys behind the curtains! Thanks Diego!!

[PunchyWasHere]

Maybe I’m just biased but as a US Submariner, our boats are so far ahead of everyone else that seeing issues like “China building more ships than us” just makes me chuckle if I’m honest. During war games with our own ships we need to make an ungodly amount of noise to give even our most advanced ships a chance of detecting us and that’s with there active sonar. Don’t get me wrong, visual force projection is important, but if were talking about no hands tied proper naval combat. The US dominates to an ungodly degree with subs alone. There are some great modern sub stories online that give a fraction of our unclassified capabilities if anyone’s curious. Great video btw.

[carllong]

Doesn't matter how many ships the Navy has if they don't have the personnel to crew them.

[oyttxmd]

The Army uses the acronym METT-TC (Mission Enemy Terrain Troops Time Civilians) as a means of accounting for operational concerns. Designing a naval force similarly contemplated makes complete sense to me.

[phil_]

They need to replace the Brass and Congress first. In addition to filling the entire, 80 ship Constellation Class order, we need a new Corvette in massive numbers. They need to follow through with planned Arleigh Burkes and upgrades to the cruiser class. We need to go with plug and play, and proven designs. A new, bigger gunned cruiser should be on the table too. (No, I mean 203mm, not the awful 155mm. Put those on monitors.) OK, we can leave out the sloops.

[LightCanadian]

"We are short on labor and we are paying extremely well" where were those word when i didn't know what to do with my life after school!
We go to uni for like 10 more years when someone who knows how to weld with a short course on welding probably make as much as someone who went to uni for 10 years.

[thenegociater]

The capability to reload these VLS cells is very important as well. It is very difficult to achieve in any sea state via cranes. Ships essentially must return to port to reload. Developing the capability to reload them more quickly would shift the balance of firepower drastically. In the Napoleonic era, technology allowing higher rates of fire of muskets and rifles were closely guarded state secrets of strategic importance.

[arseneken]

Thank you for having Diego on the show, what a smart guy!

[evanh.]

I’m glad I’ve been a long time subscriber to this channel, I am glad I can always get a fr trustable pragmatic, logical, and a view based in experience from a veteran. Helps me a lot in my own forming of opinions, thank you man.

[Distalled]

As one of those Ship contractors I love I get to hear good analysis from my average infantry dude! Kudos! With lives of 40 years, maintenance is as much or more of an issue as emergent repairs are even more "custom" and cannot be scripted or automated

[hia]

There is no labor shortage for skilled manufacturing

There is a PAY SHORTAGE for skilled workers.

[Siege]

“If they’re wrong, it’s difficult to turn things round mid-development”
LCS anyone? 🤣🤣🤣

[kennethng]

I'm glad you mentioned the corruption in the us procurement process. Any time I see problems with a foreign power (Russia, China) I wonder if we have a similar problem. After all, human nature is human nature.