*** I have returned from a long sojourn with my wife to Croatia and will be writing more regularly and trying to address issues arising more contemporaneously than the previous month. We were delayed in returning by Hurricane Milton but finally managed to get home: home is intact but gardening and fencing wrecked, recovery in process. ***

In 2005, the US Navy slow sank a carrier in an exercise to determine vulnerabilities. Since that time, the munitions technology and delivery systems have evolved significantly. Much of the data remains classified but one has to remember that not sinking the carrier is still catastrophic if it can no longer launch and retrieve manned aircraft.The tens of billions of dollars wasted by the US Navy continuing to dump increasingly austere defense money in these things will historically be seen as just as foolish as the planetary navalists obsession with the battleship prior or December 1941.

Dubbed “SINKEX” drills by the Navy, much of the lessons learned about sinking the supercarrier remain classified. Multiple images of the sinking warship were taken. But for operational security reasons, the images are classified. All but one, that is. It shows the great ship submerging bow-first into the whirling sea below. The warship’s size, its double-layered hull, and its multiple compartments contributed to the great difficulty in sinking the America.

So many people took to the internet to opine that the nearly 30 days it took to sink one mothballed supercarrier was proof-positive that carriers were the greatest naval weapons platform ever conceived. By implication, anyone who would dare question the efficacy of continuing to blow tens of billions of dollars on these systems would be insane because they so obviously can take a pounding.

To be clear: these boats can take a beating. One would hope they could have a modicum of endurance, given their size, cost, and complexity. 

Yet, it should be noted that the Navy was not intending to sink the supercarrier as quickly as possible—as any attacker would be trying to do in a real combat setting. The purpose of the SINKEX drills were to sink the boat in slow-motion so that the eggheads could glean as much data as possible on the various aspects of sinking a modern carrier. 

 

Even the normal clapping seal narrative of the defense Coprophile Media acknowledges carriers are on borrowed time through this one columnist:

Therefore, all the talk about how the US carriers today are basically unsinkable is a bit ridiculous. And the key thing to understand is that America’s enemies who are deploying A2/AD systems against American flat tops do not need to sink them. All they need to do is damage them—specifically the carrier flight deck—and that would be enough to remove the carrier from the board as it were. 

And finally:

For the US to continue to invest in carriers that have decreasing strategic utility in the age of A2/AD is one of the most irresponsible things we have ever done. The sinking of the USS America is not any indicator of how survivable a modern US carrier would be in the face of Chinese A2/AD fusillades. 

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/4-weeks-explosions-navy-failed-sink-their-own-aircraft-carrier-210673

Stop building these things.

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Fire all uniformed flag officers in the chain.

Releive all SES and naval civilians leaders in the chain.

Immediately.

And this is peacetime.

And keep this in mind, find this many faulty welds and ALL welds on the ship have to be inspected and certified. That is very time consuming and expensive. Will the USN do the right thing? I doubt it.

The fraud cavalcade never ends in the US Navy. And they are lying when they say this did not affect ship safety. Welding is an important component of keeping metal objects intact.

In a letter to House and Senate armed services committee members Thursday, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said impacted ships include the recently-revamped aircraft carrier George Washington and the brand-new attack submarines Hyman G. Rickover and New Jersey.

Citing shipyard officials, Del Toro wrote that the issue involved “welders who did not follow welding procedures properly.”

“Importantly, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has assessed that the welds were not on components or systems that affect ship safety or operations,” he wrote. “NAVSEA, as the technical warrant holder, has determined the ships are safe to operate.” [Ed bolded]

I call BS.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2024/10/04/navy-identifies-three-vessels-impacted-by-faulty-shipyard-weld-work/

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The US Navy and Marines have not conducted an amphibious assault on contested beach since Inchon in Korea (10-19 September 1950 although arguably the last major contested amphibious campaign in May of 1945 of Okinawa) and have practically abandoned surface maritime connectors from ship to shore in favor of helicopter lift and vertical envelopment. The recent debacle in Gaza with the shabby portable pier that lasted 20 days after delivering 8,800 tons of aid at a cost of 320 million dollars, now lost is a demonstration project that the US Navy has essentially lost its ship to shore capabilities.

The Navy is trying desperately to maintain a 31-ship amphibious fleet [10 amphibious ready groups (ARGs)] harnessed to a  doctrine that is now defunct. To be clear; the US Navy conducts amphibious operations; the Marines conduct amphibious assaults.

American naval and marine forces have no capability conduct an amphibious operation/assault against a contested beach in a near-peer or peer environment.

And everyone reading this will know it not be capped at ten billion dollars.

A $5.79 billion award funds the detailed design and construction of three Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious warships – LPD-33, LPD-34 and LPD35. A second $3.8 bill award funds the advanced procurement and detailed design and construction for the future big deck amphib Helmand Province (LHA-10), according to the contract announcement.

https://news.usni.org/2024/09/24/ingalls-wins-9-6b-in-shipbuilding-contracts-for-4-amphibious-warhsips

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