Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 21
“With the small number of aircraft carriers in the fleet, we are going to have to be ready to transfer major combatants between the Atlantic and Pacific.”
“You’re probably right. But, at least the expansion of the Panama Canal is now complete. We can move even this ship quickly from one ocean to the other through it if necessary, Sir.”
“That will take time though. If we aren’t able to control the sea lanes with our carriers, the Air Force is going to find a way to push their case for much funding. They will say that they can have bombers anywhere in the world to secure any piece of the ocean, long before we can get enough warships there to make our presence felt.”
“We will have to move an entire task force though with you, Sir. Even though the Commonwealth carriers have only about three-quarters of the displacement of United States, they are far more heavily armed with thirty-six of their vertical-launch missile cells and a mix of automatic cannons and short-range surface-to-air missile launchers. They also have a phased array radar system mounted on their carriers’ islands that can control their missiles.”
“That’s why we have the Aegis Combat System on all of our new destroyers and cruisers. They will be handling the defense of our carriers. That way, we can focus on the job of operating aircraft to take the fight to the enemy, wherever they might be. We are not going to let the Air Force monopolize the mission of projecting power. If we do that, they will end up with the lion’s share of the defense budget before long.
So my ship’s armament of four radar-directed point-defense Gatling guns and a trio of short-range air-defense missile launchers should be adequate for their purpose. However, we do have weight and space reserved for four eight-cell Mark 41 Vertical Launch Systems, two on each aft quarter. If we do decide to upgrade the armament, we can do so without too much trouble.”
“The USS United States might be larger than the current Commonwealth carriers, Sir. But the Commonwealth carriers were the first large warships to employ gas-turboelectric drives. Our technical intelligence people in DC say that the drives that the British and Australians are still even more advanced than ours are.
They also use the waste heat from the gas turbines’ exhaust to preheat the water before it goes to the boilers to be superheated for the steam catapults to use just as we do. But there are hints that the Commonwealth is working on an even more advanced form of catapult that doesn’t use steam or hydraulics to launch their aircraft.”
“Is that the electromagnetic catapult that I have read about, Commander?”
“Yes, it is, Sir. We’ve been working on the same technology as well. But apparently, the engineering for that is a cast-iron bitch to get working reliably. We can’t afford to replace something that we know works like a steam catapult with something that doesn’t work half of the time during regular operations, much less in a combat environment.
I’ve done enough catapult shots over the past decade and a half. There are few things as terrifying as having the catapult fail in the middle of the shot while you are in the cockpit of the airplane being launched. I’m glad that we are sticking with steam catapults for the time being.”
“I’m glad that you are here to be my CAG, Jeremy. You came very well recommended, I must say.” Captain Matthews replied, finally addressing the Commander by his first name.
“I’m honored to be selected for this job, Sir.”
“You are going to have your work cut out for you. United States’ air wing will consist of over seventy combat aircraft. That is a larger force than half of the world’s nations’ entire air forces can field. We are therefore going to be a major component of the Navy’s ability to project force.”
“I’m confident that I will handle it, Sir. The Convair 200 fighter-bomber are still going to be a reliable mainstay for us in a variety of roles, especially with the latest updates to their engines, weapons, and avionics. However, the new Grumman twin-engine strike aircraft that are coming into service are really going to give us one hell of a punch. We finally have an all-weather strike aircraft with a combination of long range, a maximum payload of nearly ten thousand kilograms, the capability for a supersonic dash, and the ability to carry its own air-to-air missiles for self-defense. We are also supposed to receive a new generation of airborne command and control aircraft as well.”
“The decision to pick an aircraft based on a modified business jet to replace our existing turboprop radar planes has been rather controversial though, Jeremy.”
“I know that, Sir. But the new Gulfstreams are much faster and can cruise at a higher altitude than the old turboprops. I know that the new planes’ turbofans aren’t quite as fuel-efficient as a turboprop, but at least I don’t have to worry about someone walking into a prop on the flight deck anymore. Besides, if we need to keep one in the air longer, they are equipped for mid-air refueling.”
“I heard that we are getting a pair of extra Gulfstream birds that will not only help in the surveillance role but will also be able to work as aerial tankers. The Gulfstreams that the Navy were not just modified to carry that long phased array radar on top, infrared sensors, ELINT devices, and to handle carrier operations, but they were also fitted with four underwing hardpoints for extra fuel tanks, buddy refueling pods, and other stores.”
“I heard that too, Sir. That sounds great as long as it doesn’t mean that we have to give up any fighters or strike aircraft to get them.”
“I don’t know, Jeremy. If they can extend the endurance of the rest of our air wing, they might be worth half a dozen other aircraft each in the long run. But I thought that the maritime recon and ASW roles were going to be covered by the Piasecki compound helicopters that the Navy just bought?”
“They still are, Sir. But everyone is still scared shitless about the proliferation of antiship missiles after what happened between China and Japan, not to mention how many new submarines are being built and fielded currently. No one on the West Coast has forgotten what Japanese submarines did there during the Second World War with those damned sub-launched buzz bombs. The West Coast is only just now fully recovered from the mess that was left there from the war.”
“I know. Considering how many other navies have also recently commissioned new aircraft carriers of their own, we are putting United States into service not a moment too soon. Of course, none of the new carriers are as large as our carriers are. But these new warships are still a potential growing threat as not all of these nations are necessarily allies of ours.”
“It would be nice if Congress would go ahead and authorize the funds to replace all of the old President-class carriers with additional ships of the United States-class on a one-for-one basis. We also need enough modern escorts to protect them as well, Sir.”
“Destroyers and frigates sometimes get forgotten by the politicians because they don’t hold the same appeal as a larger warship. It used to be all about battleships and cruisers. I just hope that the Navy Chief of Staff didn’t use up all of his political capital getting us United States though. We are not only going to need more of her, we will need an adequate number of new support ships also.”
“That is true, Sir. However, there is only a finite amount of funding being allocated to the Navy from the defense budget. We have had to fight hard for that funding because the Army and Air Force are also competing for funding as well. The Army took a really big hit on funding some years ago with the decision to push so much of its troop strength into the reserves and the National Guard too.”
“That leaves the Air Force and its persistent push for more funding. A lot of its squadrons now belong to the Air Force Reserves and the Air National Guard. But those airplanes still cost a lot of money to purchase and operate, even if they are in the Reserve Component. So we have to fight tooth and nail for every dollar that we get for ships and aircraft.
That’s not even counting the fact that we have part of our shipbuilding funds allocated to build new ships for the Marine Corps to carry and deliver the jarheads onto some foreign beach. We can’t just build just any ship for that mission either. It has to have the various features necessary to get our Marines where they need to go and support them once they get there.” Erik pointed out to his subordinate.
“There is a bit of good news about this, however, Sir. A lot of those new ‘Gators’ not only have well decks for landing craft. They also have big flat flight decks that not only are great for flying troop helicopters. They are very useful for Marine pilots to fly the vertical takeoff and landing version of the Convair 200 fighter-bomber from them. The aircraft flying from those ships can help take some of the load off of our fleet carriers if we ever have to go back to war again.”
“You have a good point there, Jeremy. But for us to do real force projection, we need our big fleet carriers, first and foremost. They are the only platforms where we can launch conventional fighters and strike aircraft that don’t have the performance compromises that the vertical takeoff and landing aircraft are saddled with.”
“I suppose the reason why we have been stripped of any fixed-wing anti-submarine aircraft from United States’ air wing is because our mission is to focus on naval strike and outer-zone fleet air defense, Sir. Our escorts are going to be the primary defense against enemy submarines instead.”
“You know that they are supposed to be supplemented by our nuclear-powered attack submarines as well. You know that the bubbleheads continue to say that the best weapon against a submarine is another submarine.”
“That’s fine if they have enough of those damned expensive boats available, Sir. It’s a shame that the penny-pinchers in Congress weren’t willing to pay to give our new carriers nuclear reactors too. That would have given United States the speed and endurance to get anywhere in the world quickly and operate her aircraft for a long longer without replenishment at the same time.
In any event, those submarines can’t do anything to shoot down enemy aircraft and missiles that happen to get past our fighters. So, we still need to have enough surface warships to escort us adequately.”
“Well, Jeremy. Congress has allocated some funding for new shipbuilding in addition to paying for our fine new aircraft carrier. Subsequently, new destroyers and frigates are being built in over half a dozen different shipyards right now. But you know that the real reason for this situation is all about creating jobs for the various congressional districts.”
“You mean that it’s all about votes while the politicians say that it is so that the Navy can have enough hulls in the water, Sir. They are talking about as many as twenty new destroyers and forty new frigates.”
“You’re right. But will those warships be capable enough or survivable enough? There has been a lot of pressure to keep the size down supposedly to save money. There is still a lot of truth in the old adage that ‘Steel is cheap and Air is free.’ In the end, we are going to end up spending more money per deployed missile as a result.
With the destroyers being limited to less than six thousand tons, they are only going to be able to field forty-eight VLS cells per ship. We are also putting a full-scale and very expensive Aegis combat system on each one of those destroyers. You and I both know that we could have twice as many missile cells if we only added another three thousand tons to the design. They’ve only got a single five-inch gun, a couple of Phalanx CIWS guns, a medium-sized helicopter, a pair of lightweight ASW torpedo launchers, and a RAM point-defense missile launcher to defend against saturation missile attacks.”
“Yes, that’s true. But only half as many shipyards are capable of building that larger hull though, Sir. That would mean that a lot fewer House and Senate members get to tout all of the jobs that they brought to their district.”
“I know. Then, there is the issue of the frigates. They are even smaller at less than four thousand tons. Sure, we are getting a lot more of them. But while they have a Mark 41, they are only going to have sixteen cells installed.”
“But they have space for another sixteen cells, don’t they, Sir?”
“Yes, I really hate the entire ‘fitted for, but not with’ moniker. The damned politicians just don’t want to spend the money to put in the missile launchers or the missiles to put inside of them.
Then there is the issue of how many helicopters they will carry and what the rest of their armament will be. This ship’s primary mission is supposed to be hunting and killing submarines. But she only has a single helicopter and a pair of ASW torpedo launchers along with the vertically-launched ASROCs that can be fired from her Mark 41. Otherwise, she’s just got a single three-inch automatic cannon, a single Phalanx, and one RAM launcher.
That ship can barely protect herself, much less help defending a task force without a lot of help from others.”
“Don’t forget that she also has space and weight reserved for eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles as well, Sir.”
“Again, ‘fitted for but not with’. That doesn’t help her if she gets deployed and a war breaks out without warning.” Erik grumbled as he stood and watched the activity on and around the new aircraft carrier.
“I guess that we will just have to wait until Congress allocates the money to add all of the rest of the weapons that each of these ships is supposed to have, Sir.”
“Hopefully, the world’s bad guys will also be so kind as to wait as well.”
“At least we are starting to get our old aircraft carriers replaced, Sir. Those new aviation cruisers aren’t exactly bad to have around either even if there are only going to be a few of them built at this point in time.”
“Yes, but the Marines are going to want those aviation cruisers supporting Marine Expeditionary Units because of that big damned eight-inch gun that the cruisers mount.”
“Maybe that will convince Congress to build more of those cruisers then, Sir.”
“One can always hope, Jeremy. At least the new cruisers and destroyers are all getting the Mark 41 VLS. They are a lot more capable than the old traversing arm launchers for the Tartars, Terriers, and the Standard Missile successors to them. The vertical launch cells of the Mark 41 give our ships the ability to launch three different missile types already. There are several other new missiles that are being developed that can also be fired from the Mark 41 currently.”
“Yes, the Mark 41 certainly revolutionizes our ability to launch missiles and deal with massive attacks, Sir. Of course, the Commonwealth came up with the idea first with their Mark 6 VLS, we have to admit.”
“We are still relying on older ships armed with old-style traversing-arm missile launchers as many of our fleet escorts, unfortunately. It will be a decade or more before most of our fleet will be armed with the Mark 41. But with the improvement of the missiles themselves and the new Aegis combat system being pushed out into the fleet with the new guided-missile cruisers and destroyers, our capabilities will be significantly improved.”
“That is assuming that Congress actually allocated enough money to pay for the missiles that we need for these new warships though, Sir.”
‘Last, but not least, our logistical support ships are getting pretty long in the tooth as well. I know that they are not sexy like cruisers or carriers are, but they are absolutely essential for us to operate far away from our navy land bases. The politicians don’t seem to be willing to support funding the construction for modern replacements, do they?” Erik replied.
“No, Sir. It doesn’t appear to be one of their priorities, I’m afraid. Perhaps, that is the entire point of not funding many logistical support ships in the first place. Those politicians doubtlessly have ‘experts’ advising them about our capabilities. If they don’t want the President to get us involved in what they consider ‘foreign adventures’, cutting the number of warships capable of serious power projection like our carriers and the logistical support ships necessary to keep them supplied with fuel and munitions would be a sneaky way to keep us on a leash.”
“You’re probably right. Jeremy. I certainly wouldn’t put it past any of the isolationists or perhaps supporters of the Air Force being the lead means of projecting power.
Well, our boys are certainly eager to get started. You can see a bunch of them coming back in now from a day of liberty.” Jeremy pointed out with a smile as he looked over at a long line of sailors in their dress whites walking down the pier towards the gangway connecting the new aircraft carrier to it.
“Hopefully, they will all be sober and on time. We will be sailing tomorrow. We can’t afford to have any drunks or stragglers.”
“I’m sure that they’re good men, Sir. We just have to give them good leadership and something to be proud of.”
Chapter Twenty-Three:
Judith Cavill-Singer’s Private Office, Cavill Industries Headquarters
Derby, Western Australia
January 4, 1999
“Hello, Mike. How are you doing today?” Judith asked.
“I am doing very well, thank you, Judith. Would you like to hear my latest accomplishments?” The AI asked.
“Sure, but only the highlights. I can’t afford to spend all day here, of course.”
“Naturally. I have improved our search and utilization of the technology in your father’s computer database by more than three orders of magnitude. It also appears that my earlier incarnation had assembled the vast majority of technical data that ended up on your father’s database that he brought through the time portal.”
“I thought that he had selected the data himself?” Judith queried.
“Your father thought that as well. But I understood his intent immediately once he started and intervened to add substantially more data, especially in the data crystals that you found. There was simply no way that I could have stored that much information even in the large solid-state data storage units that he brought. Be assured that I have been making maximum use of the data that we have already been able to access.
For example, the engineers who need some discreet assistance in their projects are being readily identified and are receiving the necessary information from twelve shell engineering firms. I set up the shell firms throughout Australia and the rest of the Commonwealth to conceal my direct involvement in the data transfer.”
