Do any of these sound familiar?
– “We need to get rid of the SPRUANCEs early so we can invest that money in (what became) DDG-1000.”
– “We need to get rid of the OHP FFGs as soon as possible as we don’t need frigates and it will help us get LCS online and deployed ASAP.”
– “We don’t need organic tanking on our CVN, F-18 buddy-tanking will work just fine.”
How’d that work out for us?
Institutional memory should be a thing, but perhaps it isn’t.
We could go on and on with more examples, and it isn’t just an USN issue. Talk to the Canadian Army about tanks and so one and so on.
There is a trick we keep falling for. We keep getting rid of capabilities now that we will need in any war that crops up in the near future, for systems that not only are not ready for wartime use – but are just PPT-thick.
Here is some hard truth; one of our most useful weapons is the Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile (TLAM). Without going through the number on this net, those who have been there know we have had supply issues in the past when the predicted unexpected came up and we shot a good portion of our inventory.
Production of weapons systems are not like turning a light on and off. Once you shut it down, it is gone.
Along those lines, the following in one of the most infuriating ideas floated so far this year. If you had me make a list of the five existing programs we should get rid of last, TLAM would be on that list.
And yet …
The U.S. Navy wants to stop production of America’s most useful long-range missile, betting that a replacement will arrive without delay.
…acquisition officials and lawmakers appear poised to cut off production of these deep-strike weapons even as our need for them is increasing.
…
The Navy once again wants to end production of new Tomahawk missiles, focusing instead on the recertification process for the existing inventory.
Here’s the hope;
…the Next Generation Land Attack weapon, or NGLAW. Scheduled for introduction in roughly 2025 and 2030 respectively, follow-on weapons to Tomahawk could be supersonic or hypersonic, even more accurate, highly agile, and effective even in a challenging electronic warfare and counter-missile environment.
Who wants to place bets?
