Aristotle Peripatetic

My interview with @StrongerNavy. Please watch and share. Make Maritime Great Again!

Top Naval Architects tell @nytimes it’s unnecessarily big, too lethal.

Wow, just wow The most absolutely bonkers and TDS infused podcast on national security I have heard ever I am so absolutely fed up with the war on the rocks crowd that I cannot even begin to explain it This episode literally ends with zach claiming that the Trump class battleship is not a lethal platform. 🤯 Then he somehow twisted that to say he’s tired of being called an academic who doesn’t focus on lethality. These people, and I’m not just talking about Zach, but the entire war on the rocks establishment, are the living epitome of Rumsfeld saying “we don’t know what we don’t know” Every marine I’ve talked to wants gunfire support, but they don’t even talk about the absolute massive amount of lethal steel that could be put on shore by this battleship But that’s not even what made me pull off to the side of the road on a 6 Hour Drive back from DC to write this. Nor is the fact that Chris Prebble says we can’t put 70,000 people in a shipyard but completely neglect the fact we have well over TWICE the population in this nation we had when we last built battleships Nor is the fact that they have not talked to one person who has actually built a more techologically advanced ship this size or bigger on time and on budget. (E.g. me) What drives me absolutely batshit is that war on the rocks either get the logistical considerations completely wrong or, more often than not like here, just wave them off and pretend they do not exist Dear Zack WE DO NOT HAVE OILERS WE DO NOT HAVE AMMO SHIPS We can’t even steal tankers and use them because the entire world has a shortage of oil tankers right now. WE NEED HULL SPACE TO CARRY MAGAZINE DEPTH AND FUEL why is this so motherfucking difficult for the think tank crowd to wrap their heads around? And Preble is yelling at the Admirals for not speaking up against BBs???? How dislocated from what goes on in the Pentagon do you have to be to make that assessment Chris? I am really trying hard to think of a single admiral who did not kick and scream about this idea when it first started circulating around the Pentagon two years ago @JerryHendrixII can give you a list of admirals, active & retired, who spoke in direct opposition to this. What changed? THE FACT WE CANNOT RELOAD VLS CELLS OR REFUEL ENOUGH CARRIER STRIKE GROUPS AT SEA And I know this podcast is aware of the problem because Melanie mentions following @mercoglianos who has done more than any single person on the entire planet to highlight the oiler problem Not to mention the fact that choke points are lighting up around the world, and it wasn’t a carrier strike group that was able to protect ships going through the Red Sea It was destroyers and frigates with missiles and deck guns that ran out of ammo and fuel so they had to retreat In his defense, Zach does make an attempt to defend the arsenal ship aspect of this, but makes zero mention of that French frigate shot down $20,000 drones with deck guns No mention of the fact that a ship of any size can carry a lot more artillery projectiles than you can ever put in VLS cells for. Zero mention of the fact that even if you had 300 VSL cells on an arsenal ship it it’s still not enough artillery for a Marine Corps beach landing….. something you are going to have to do to secure a choke point in a a real war Combing VLS with deck guns solves that problem and MUCH BIGGER FUEL TANKS gives you more energy density OVER TIME Guys, please for the love of God stop making assumptions. The assumption that admirals did not push back on this is the craziest assumption I have heard in a long line of bad assumptions this past year. They fought it tooth and nail They fought untill really smart logistics people briefed them on why this is the only solution to secure these choke points And until people with real experience building ships more complicated than an aircraft carrier explained how this can be done “Admirals rolled over for trump” GMAFB