SUBMARINE FLEET SUNK
Many years ago when I was about to nominate my U.S. Navy duty preference there were essentially three choices: submarines; aircraft carriers; and surface combatants.
The surface navy, that is, destroyers, was the choice for those aspiring to be directly involved in sailing the seven seas.
Those desiring to enhance their promotional prospects had to choose between submarines and aircraft carriers. Naval aviation types presented submarines as "death tubes". Submariners countered with a very effective campaign showing an aircraft carrier with superimposed cross-hairs captioned, "Which end of the periscope would you rather be on?"
Over 25 years on the Royal Australian Navy has no such duty-selection dilemma: it has no naval aviation assets and its submarine force is diminished to the point of near irrelevance with only two of six vessels deployable:
Former senior defence official Alan Behm says the shortage puts the Australian Navy at a disadvantage should Australia go to war.If any nation more capable than New Zealand attacks, we're screwed.
"If it were serious ocean warfare though, we would be in a pretty poor position," he said.
posted by Anonymous at 5:07 PM |
5 Comments:
Don't worry Beck, we've still got Lisa McCune...
Thank fuck for the USA.
They are both flawed entertainers.
Submarines always have their big fans. I remember hearing some navy officer - I can't recall if he was a submariner himself - in the mid to late 70's saying that submarines equipped with cruise missiles would soon be making all other surface attack ships redundant. Didn't quite work out that way.
Apart from the never ending technical problems with ours, they just can't find enough people willing to crew them. I am curious how much they get paid - I assume the allowances must be pretty big already.
Then there was one... HMAS Collins, the first of six of it's class, has just got laid up in dry dock at Osbourne, SA, after suffering 'propulsion failure' in the Southern Ocean.
Fortunately, there is no one around that wants to go to war with us and there hasn't been for a very long time. The 'yellow hordes' to the north which the right-wing have been paranoid about ever since WW2 are far more interested in trading with us rather than warring with us. Why invade when all they need to do is email an order through together with their bank details and we'll sell it to them. It's a lot cheaper than invading and everyone makes a quid.
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