Are you getting tired of tankers and container ships running into our expensive state of the art destroyers? Well, I am and that it what this blog is about.
I have never sailed thru the Malaccan Straits, but my Passport sailboat has. The old owner after sailing around the world in the sailboat, he left all his charts on the boat. One chart showed a red line where he had sailed thru the Malaccan Straits. It is a very narrow area with a lot of pirates. Every Captain of every boat that sails thru that area knows that they have to keep careful watch all the time. It is no different for the Captain of one of our expensive state of the art destroyers. In this case, we are going to have another Navy Captain "fired". How many do we have left?
As I pointed out in my blog about the Fitzgerald, these expensive new destroyers are constructed so that they have a very very small radar return. They can be almost invisible or appear to the tanker as a small fishing boat. From what happened to the Fitzgerald you would think that all the other Captains of our expensive destroyers would take a lesson and deploy a radar reflector when they are in tight quarters like the Malaccan Straits. I had a radar reflector up all the time on my Passport sailboat when I was off shore.
I know that our Navy wants to keep quiet about the location of our guided missile destroyers, but they have to realize that there are bigger boats out there that can run into them if they can't see them on radar. When I went aboard a couple of modern destroyers while they were in dry dock, it was clear that they did not have armor like a battle ship. I think that the steel on the sides was no thicker than 1/2". I think that "Hum-v's have thicker armor than that.
The bottom line is that whoever is in charge of our Navy needs to wake up. The top guy is responsible for those below them. He can't just keep firing Captain's of destroyers without someone considering firing him! We need someone who is a little more concerned about taking better care of our tax money!
PS--Remember that McCain did not get into Annapolis on merit. He got in over more qualified candidates because of nepotism. Both his father and his grandfather were Admirals. Did McCain get into Annapolis over one of your kids? We need more honesty in our military.
PS--It finally happened, the 7th Fleet Admiral was fired! Notice that none of the talking head experts mentioned that our destroyers are almost invisible on radar. What has our Navy done to deal with this? Few want to say that Affirmative action was a major part of the cause too.
I have never sailed thru the Malaccan Straits, but my Passport sailboat has. The old owner after sailing around the world in the sailboat, he left all his charts on the boat. One chart showed a red line where he had sailed thru the Malaccan Straits. It is a very narrow area with a lot of pirates. Every Captain of every boat that sails thru that area knows that they have to keep careful watch all the time. It is no different for the Captain of one of our expensive state of the art destroyers. In this case, we are going to have another Navy Captain "fired". How many do we have left?
As I pointed out in my blog about the Fitzgerald, these expensive new destroyers are constructed so that they have a very very small radar return. They can be almost invisible or appear to the tanker as a small fishing boat. From what happened to the Fitzgerald you would think that all the other Captains of our expensive destroyers would take a lesson and deploy a radar reflector when they are in tight quarters like the Malaccan Straits. I had a radar reflector up all the time on my Passport sailboat when I was off shore.
I know that our Navy wants to keep quiet about the location of our guided missile destroyers, but they have to realize that there are bigger boats out there that can run into them if they can't see them on radar. When I went aboard a couple of modern destroyers while they were in dry dock, it was clear that they did not have armor like a battle ship. I think that the steel on the sides was no thicker than 1/2". I think that "Hum-v's have thicker armor than that.
The bottom line is that whoever is in charge of our Navy needs to wake up. The top guy is responsible for those below them. He can't just keep firing Captain's of destroyers without someone considering firing him! We need someone who is a little more concerned about taking better care of our tax money!
PS--Remember that McCain did not get into Annapolis on merit. He got in over more qualified candidates because of nepotism. Both his father and his grandfather were Admirals. Did McCain get into Annapolis over one of your kids? We need more honesty in our military.
PS--It finally happened, the 7th Fleet Admiral was fired! Notice that none of the talking head experts mentioned that our destroyers are almost invisible on radar. What has our Navy done to deal with this? Few want to say that Affirmative action was a major part of the cause too.
