Russia's Naval Flex Debunked
The media is failing us in general, CNN finally gets it right.
The Russians sent a frigate AND an attack boat to the U.S. Atlantic coast, then claimed they conducted a SIMULATED exercise of firing hypersonic missiles.
Are you scared yet? I skipped right to injured - because my sides hurt from laughing at Russia’s pitiful display. CNN got through this with a straight face.
Putting this in perspective …
Russian has ONE aircraft carrier and it’s been in drydock for years, perhaps never to emerge. We’ve kept ten to twelve active supercarriers for the last forty five years, now the Nimitz class is finally starting to give way to the Ford class.
The Russians have two guided missile cruisers left, one in the Northern Fleet, one in the Pacific fleet, since the Ukrainians promoted the Moskva to submarine duty. We have thirteen of the now elderly Ticonderoga class cruisers still in service out of the original twenty two we built, but they’re being replaced by newer, more capable Arleigh Burke class destroyers. These two classes are both equipped with the AEGIS combat system, and the most recent Arleigh Burke ships can take prey ranging from deep diving Russian fast attack boats to satellites in low Earth orbit.
We made an expensive mistake in the form of the Zumwalt class, whose run ended with just three of the planned thirty two stealth destroyers, similar to the trio of Seawolf submarines, the planned successor of our Los Angeles class attack boats.
Today we continue to build the Arleigh Burkes, twenty two of the planned sixty six Virginia class attack boats have replaced the older Los Angeles class, and we’re finally replacing our long retired prior generation of frigates with twenty Constellation class ships. Frigate is a malleable word - the 4,500 ton Russian ship in Havana is the size of our prior frigates, the 7,000 ton Constellation is nipping at the heels of the 8,300 ton first generation Arleigh Burke.
I have a bad feeling that we’re going to end with three to five Constellations and then a dozen more of the proven Arleigh Burkes as a consolation prize. The FREMM ship we picked as a foundation is acceptable, but the program is making the same noises that came from the Seawolf and Zumwalt classes, right before they were cancelled.
And about that simulated exercise … every even numbered year two dozen countries send a total of two to three dozen ships for the RIMPAC exercises.
And every RIMPAC includes a SINKEX - in which one unlucky retired ship gets used for target practice.
Conclusion:
I think we spend too much on our military.
Well, I used to …
But in 2024 now our Navy is a great big security blanket …
And I’m delighted to see Poland steadily preparing to teach Putin some manners …
And France has stepped it up in both words and deeds.
The Russian military is like that little noisy dog that’s gonna chase you away from his patch of sidewalk … but they’ll scamper back quickly if someone starts walking towards them while sizing them up for a swift kick.