The Mess

[SuburbanFarmer]

Naval power isn't obsolete yet. It's isn't useless.

Ok. What can that thing do that I couldn't accomplish with the Army, Marines, and Air Force?

[StCapps]

Naval power isn't obsolete yet. It's isn't useless.

You'd figure that one wouldn't have to argue that, but after that Submarines Are Obsolete thread on the DCF, I realize I merely under-estimated people's ignorance.

[Okeefenokee]

Naval power isn't obsolete yet. It's isn't useless.

Ok. What can that thing do that I couldn't accomplish with the Army, Marines, and Air Force?

It can float.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Naval power isn't obsolete yet. It's isn't useless.

You'd figure that one wouldn't have to argue that, but after that Submarines Are Obsolete thread on the DCF, I realize I merely under-estimated people's ignorance.

Submarines, I understand. Nuke deterrence and stuff.

I guess that my beef is with surface vessels only.

Ok. What can that thing do that I couldn't accomplish with the Army, Marines, and Air Force?

It can float.

I stand corrected.

[Okeefenokee]

It's a whole lot easier to move a carrier off the coast somewhere than to try to secure hostile ground and defend it while engineers take a week to build an airstrip. There is still plenty of use for surface vessels.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Dude. 800 military bases across the globe. Where can we not launch a jet from, at this point?

[StCapps]

Submarines, I understand. Nuke deterrence and stuff.

I guess that my beef is with surface vessels only..

Aircraft Carriers are surface vessels you know. Mobile air bases that can float aren't obsolete either, not by a long shot, they just aren't as important to modern warfare as they were during WWII, but they are hardly obsolete. Not all of American military bases around the world are as close to their targets as Aircraft Carriers can get to theirs, hence 800 military bases around the world hasn't rendered them obsolete.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Submarines, I understand. Nuke deterrence and stuff.

I guess that my beef is with surface vessels only..

Aircraft Carriers are surface vessels you know. Mobile air bases that can float aren't obsolete either, not by a long shot, they just aren't as important to modern warfare as they were during WWII, but they are hardly obsolete.

They seem extraneous, to say the least. The entire planet is within land-based range - especially for bombers. We were flying from Georgia to Iraq in a single mission in the 90s.

[Okeefenokee]

Dude. 800 military bases across the globe. Where can we not launch a jet from, at this point?

You understand that you can throw a fence around a couple of cargo containers, leave two guys there to guard it, and call it an installation, right?

Fort Gillem and For MacPherson were "bases" in Atlanta. They were logistical installations. Supply dumps. You weren't launching any offensives from Gillem or Mac. "800 bases," doesn't mean a whole lot if you look with any scrutiny.

[StCapps]

They seem extraneous, to say the least. The entire planet is within land-based range - especially for bombers. We were flying from Georgia to Iraq in a single mission in the 90s.

Yeah but if the planes are launched from further away the enemy has more warning and it is harder to return safely to base. Mobile air bases that float can come in handy in such scenarios, don't front like they don't because they aren't as useful now that US has more ground based air bases worldwide, they still have their uses. Naval surface vessels being less useful than in their heyday hardly renders them obsolete.