The Mess

[SuburbanFarmer]

The surface combatant is the constable of the seas, their role is patrol and escort, they deter and influence by patrolling, they escort against submarine and air attack.

Alongside the noble tank, patrolling and deterring invasion, by sheer presence. Guarding against missile and orbital bombardment?

Get serious, man. I love your rhetoric sometimes, but if all you've got is 'they deter stuff', then I'd say that this case is closed.
There's nothing (that I'm aware of) in the modern tier of jet fighter or bomber that could be hit by a ship, unless caught completely off-guard. Submariners would probably laugh their asses off at this as they listen to a destroyer attempting to apply WW2 tactics against them.

[Smitty-48]

90% of what a navy does, is in peacetime, a navy is largely a constabulary force on the high seas, and always has been, the amount of time navies have spent fighting Battle's of Trafalgar, is miniscule.

[SuburbanFarmer]

90% of what a navy does, is in peacetime, a navy is largely a constabulary force on the high seas, and always has been, the amount of time navies have spent fighting Battle's of Trafalgar, is miniscule.

Of course, but picturing non-peacetime is no different. We've launched a couple of missiles at Baghdad, which accomplished nothing, and scared off some pirates in speedboats.

Be honest. you can't justify this absurd level of spending for nothing.

[Smitty-48]

The primary role of the United States Navy, is to assert Freedom of Navigation for the American global commercial trading empire, just as the role of the Royal Navy was for the British, as your commercial trading empire is entirely reliant on the seas, and as it requires more than simply sinking enemy ships to maintain it, the costs are reasonable, and it could not be done by submarine and aircraft alone neither.

How do you assert maritime freedom of navigation with a submarine, without starting a war in the process? Can't. Only the surface fleet can assert freedom of navigation, short of all out war, all out war of course, not being in your interests.

[Montegriffo]

90% of what a navy does, is in peacetime, a navy is largely a constabulary force on the high seas, and always has been, the amount of time navies have spent fighting Battle's of Trafalgar, is miniscule.

Of course, but picturing non-peacetime is no different. We've launched a couple of missiles at Baghdad, which accomplished nothing, and scared off some pirates in speedboats.

Be honest. you can't justify this absurd level of spending for nothing.

There is the fact that you have all the facilities to maintain,repair and rearm your planes in a top of the range workshop. How many of your 900 airbases around the world can do that? Not many in the out of the reach places where nobody is expecting anything to happen in the near future.

[TheReal_ND]

Last I checked it was 1,000 bases.

[Smitty-48]

Should also note, strategic aircraft are not less expensive than warships, a B-2 bomber costs more than a Aegis destroyer, and the only real use for a B-2 bomber is fighting a nuclear war, it's a single role platform, whereas the less expensive destroyer is an exponentially useful jack of all trades.

[Smitty-48]

Also bear in mind, the Royal Navy did win the First World War, but it wasn't by the Battle of Jutland, Jutland was a stalemate, not a decisive action, it was merely by presence, the presence of a persistent yet low intensity blockade, by which the Germans were brought to their knees. Oh, and the British found lightly armed Q-ships to be far more effective against German U-boats than Dreadnoughts, so in the end, it was patrol and escort which won the day.

So this is nothing new, it's not some new age hippie dippie peacenik shit, that navies are the constables of the sea, and have in fact ruled the waves therein.

[Montegriffo]

Last I checked it was 1,000 bases.

Probably built another dozen while we have been talking about it. Let's call it 1050 for accuracy.

[Okeefenokee]

Be honest. you can't justify this absurd level of spending for nothing.

Compare 16% of the total U.S. budget (only a portion of that is the Navy) that goes to the military with the gross global product that is shipped around the world, and then get back to us on how it isn't justified. Part of the reason your electronics are cheap is that they are made by children in Taiwan, but the other part is that the shipping lanes are secure from threat.