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Maybe we should buy more ninjas?
January 16, 2009 | Posted by Abu Muqawama - 2:46pm | 27 Comments
As I understand it, navies exist to do four things:
You might add "artillery in support of land operations" to this list. (And any naval officers or sailors should chime in here. I took my understanding from this man.) But basically, the core tasks have remained the same through the years. Tom Ricks makes the excellent point that if you can do these core tasks with aircraft carriers and battleships, great. But if you need more ship-boarders (SEALs) to accomplish the mission, then perhaps you might want to recruit and train more of them rather than buying a shiny new boat.
1. Protect seaborne commerce.
2. Protect movement of armies and their supplies.
3. Deny enemy trade and commerce.
4. Deny movement of enemy armies and supplies.
You might add "artillery in support of land operations" to this list. (And any naval officers or sailors should chime in here. I took my understanding from this man.) But basically, the core tasks have remained the same through the years. Tom Ricks makes the excellent point that if you can do these core tasks with aircraft carriers and battleships, great. But if you need more ship-boarders (SEALs) to accomplish the mission, then perhaps you might want to recruit and train more of them rather than buying a shiny new boat.
Keeping the sea lanes open, especially for oil, should be a top priority for the U.S. military. Instead we seemed to defer to the Indians, Chinese and others, letting them take the lead. The Navy may feel that all its special operators -- the guys trained to board and take over ships -- are busy in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, admiral, does that tell you that you probably need more ship boarders, and maybe fewer aircraft carriers or anti-missile systems? You think maybe?
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