Saturday, March 3, 2012

THE FUTURE OF THE NAVY

The Navy will always employ new weapons, new techniques, and greater power to protect and defend the United States on the sea, under the sea, and in the air.

Now and in the future, control of the sea gives the United States her greatest advantage for the maintenance of peace and for victory in war. 

Mobility, surprise. dispersal, and offensive power are the keynotes of the new Navy. The roots of the Navy lie in a strong belief in the future, in continued dedication to our tasks, and in reflection on our heritage from the past.

Never have our opportunities and our responsibilities been greater.

Navy Training Manual
Circa 1975

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Captain Lambert,

Having been a weaponeer for a Navy career and been fortunate enough to witness the new weapons, and new techniques of those times; the first SAM missile launch from a Navy ship (1956). The operation was not a full success at that time, and was later determined to be a very effective weapons system, and a Navy Cruiser the Lake Erie destroyed an errant satellite as it reentered earth’s atmosphere from space in 2007 with the advanced standard missile that was used in 1956. I observed the first submarine launched Polaris missile from the USS George Washington (SSBN 598) in 1960, (and most of you thought the George Washington had always been an Aircraft Carrier), from the Destroyer USS Turner, the first attempted launch was not successful but the next day a launch was successful, as that launch took place the Cold War became a stalemate between the Soviet Union and the United States and finally ended about 30 years later as the United States was willing to continue weapons systems technology advancement (which is very costly), and the Soviet Union could no longer afford the continued technology costs and gave up the battle.

I am at this time not convinced that our present government has any real idea of what it takes to keep our enemies at bay, or even cares as far as that goes, but if we fail to continue to advance our weapons technology and new techniques of warfare we will be in a very precarious position. As far as I am aware all new weapons technology has been suspended and such things as NASA’s space program (which by the way allowed the technology to be driven for the first personal computer to be developed) has also been curtailed. Instead of these advancements our government will provide all qualified individuals to have a cell phone at taxpayers’ expense (to be qualified you contribute nothing and only consume the taxpayers money).

Very Respectfully,
Navyman834

Justin Rogers ENS, USN (1170) said...

Considering things like the new Virginia class submarine, the new MUOS satellite, all the UUV/UAV stuff, the new railgun...I think we're doing just fine. We don't need a Cold war posture anymore. This posts to me was speaking more to a mindset/leadership state of mind rather than a critique of pace/capability of our technology.

Anonymous said...

Ens. Rogers,

I respect your stated position but I am not certain that you are totally aware of what you say. The post did not speak as you prescribed in your input, “This posts to me was speaking more to a mindset/leadership state of mind rather than a critique of pace/capability of our technology”. I copied your exact statement to post it here, and having read it at least 10 times I find that it is still incoherent, this post from Navy Training Manual, Circa 1975 was, Sir, written during the Cold War even if that war is not mentioned, that is when the United States strove for the capabilities needed to defend that posts position.

Even with the things you mentioned as being grand examples of our superior technology, we as a nation can no longer send a man to the moon, or even place him/her in earth orbit, with our own resources. The most formidable jet fighter ever produced by the United States, the F-22 has been halted in its production, as it stands now, I have no idea which R and D weapons systems have been cancelled, but it matters not what they are, they have been cancelled. We are not doing fine as you state. We have as a nation over a number of years been too tolerant to the countries that do not share our philosophy and will do their utmost to oppose us and wage war against us when they think they have the advantage, if we do not alter our course as a country we will allow that to happen.

Very Respectfully,
Navyman834