President Trump Is Spending $20 Billion on an Aircraft Carrier. The Navy Wanted That Money for Cyber

[applegrove]

Last edited Thu May 2, 2019, 11:53 PM - Edit history (1)

President Trump Is Spending $20 Billion on an Aircraft Carrier. The Navy Wanted That Money for Cybersecurity

Time BY JOHN WALCOTT 

http://time.com/5582063/trump-navy-truman-cybersecurity/?utm_source=reddit.com

"SNIP.....


In March, a report to the Secretary of the Navy warned that the service is preparing for the wrong war, one fought not with bombs and artillery but with terabytes and artificial intelligence.

“We find the Department of the Navy preparing to win some future kinetic battle, while it is losing the current global, counter-force, counter-value, cyber war,” the report says.

President Donald Trump, however, this week ordered the Navy to continue preparing for the last war, surprising Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, on Tuesday by reversing his February decision to retire the 21-year-old nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.

Trump’s decision will cost the Navy more than $20 billion over the next two decades, much of which the service had planned to spend on new unmanned vessels and other advanced technologies.


......SNIP"

[Marie Marie]

1. Let me guess... He wants it named after him.

[MFGsunny]

2. You're reading my mind. K&R

[applegrove]

3. I thought the same thing.

[fierywoman]

17. ...as did I.

[Quackers]

5. It should be painted orange and powered by hot air then. nt

[caraher]

13. It's an existing carrier - the Truman

[Vinca]

23. Exactly. Maybe we can find a garbage barge somewhere he can christen.

[Flaleftist]

4. I bet that makes Putin happy.

[captain queeg]

6. It's like Reagan ordering the recommissioning of the 4 Missouri class battleships.

Impressive ships and on one hand I liked seeing them in action. But they were dinosaurs at the end of WWII, much more so in Reagan’s time. Besides the cost of refurbishment you had to crew them with about 2,000. I think it’s closer to 5,000 with a big super carrier between sailors and air crews. I’d have to agree with the Navy’s thinking here. We need to be prepared for the next war not the last one and a cyber attack is the most likely. A place like N Korea could do enormous damage without a traditional military attack. From what I have read they are focusing their efforts and resources for just that kind of warfare and are pretty damn advanced already. Training a few thousand hackers is way more cost effective than building a military ship (talking about NK).

[applegrove]

7. Yes the carriers have a huge crew. I worked with a woman at the Halifax

Nova Scotia Casino gift shop and she said when the US air craft carriers come in to port the downtown doubles in size. But that is alot of mouths to feed and pay for something that is never going to be engaged in battle. Cyber invasion much more likely. It is assured Russia and China will continue to attack the West there. And when there is no cyber attack the cyber army can be repurposed doing other work.

[Initech]

8. Wasteful government spending!!!!

[Mr.Bill]

9. We have 13 aircraft carriers.

The whole rest of the world has 3.

The most successful and deadly attack ever on American soil was carried out by people armed with box cutters.

20 Billion would buy health care for how many people? Or would give how much of a raise in pay to every teacher in the country?

Fucking madness.

[DoctorJoJo]

10. I've Been Aboard Four--They Are Magnificent. But Now They Are One Missile Away From Deep Six!

[backscatter712]

22. Yep, they're big, powerful warships, and useful for power-projection. And they're vulnerable.

With Russia and China fielding hypersonic anti-ship missiles, carriers are now tempting targets.

And there are lots of countries now with attack submarines, that are getting quieter and deadlier. Even though American carriers are almost always escorted by the destroyers and cruisers in their strike groups (and a sub or two), the US Navy has a hard time protecting a big target like a carrier from being torpedoed by an attack sub. More than once in joint exercises, other nation's attack subs have succeeded in making "kills" against carriers.

[James48]

12. No- we have 11.

And with Truman coming up for refueling, it’s going to be out for overhaul/refueling for a while.

Still, ten is a lot, and that money is needed for other things, as the Navy already decided. I guess we will have to ask China to borrow more money on the credit card.

[Celerity]

15. the rest of the world has 9 in service and 7 being built, we have 11 in service and 2 being built

[Mr.Bill]

16. Thanks. I don't remember where I heard or read that.

Perhaps they were referring to Nuclear powered carriers?

[dameatball]

18. Interesting. I wonder how many people knew that Italy had two aircraft carriers. (+1 in the works)

[ooky]

19. Interesting. China has 1 in service and 1 under construction for a total of 3.

Chinese math?

[backscatter712]

21. The one in service is the Liaoning, formerly the sister ship of Russia's Kuznetsov.

There's a second one in late stages of construction, maybe in sea trials, which doesn't have a name yet.

And there's a third one in design stages IIRC. That one's going to be nuclear powered, and likely equipped with catapults, so it's more likely to be able to stand toe-to-toe with a Nimitz-class.

[ooky]

20. We are the only country that is responsible for protecting the entire world.

We're the Global Navy.

[soryang]

11. The U.S. Navy Is Unbalanced. It's Time to Fix It.

The U.S. Navy Is Unbalanced. It's Time to Fix It.

by John S. Van Oudenaren

In the decades after the Cold War, the U.S. Navy absorbed sustained budget cuts resulting in large force reductions. The total size of the fleet dwindled from nearly 600 active ships in 1987 to around 285 today. During this period, naval planners focused their substantial, yet shrinking, budgetary resources on large, costly, high-end platforms such as aircraft carriers at the expense of smaller surface warfare combatants such as frigates. This approach perhaps suited the range of global expeditionary missions that the navy was called upon to support in the 1990s (e.g. Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo), a time when the United States faced no proximate military competitors.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/us-navy-unbalanced-its-time-fix-it-55447

[caraher]

14. Weirdly, the Navy is required by law to have at least eleven carriers

(b) The naval combat forces of the Navy shall include not less than 11 operational aircraft carriers. For purposes of this subsection, an operational aircraft carrier includes an aircraft carrier that is temporarily unavailable for worldwide deployment due to routine or scheduled maintenance or repair.

From 10 U.S. Code § 5062 - United States Navy: composition; functions