Re:Navy Returns to Compasses and Pencils to Help Avoid Colli...
by euyyn on Thursday October 05, 2017 @12:27AM
(#15406684)
What if it's a long war and the whole Navy is just shorter in personnel?
Re:Navy Returns to Compasses and Pencils to Help Avoid Colli...
by PeterisP on Thursday October 05, 2017 @07:22AM
(#15408262)
It's not a realistic scenario.
US navy is much stronger than any navy in the world. A long war with a minor power, or a limited war with a major power is not going to cause meaningful casualties to US navy and it's not going to result in a Navy that's significantly shorter in personnel.
A significant war capable of significant damage to the navy as a whole (as opposed to a lucky strike on some ship) essentially requires an open, high stakes war with a nuclear power; and due to MAD such a war can't really be long - if the problem is so irreconilable that it escalates to large scale open hostilities with significant casualties, then that also escalates to nukes, and then it'll be over in a single day.
Driving the ship around is the exact same activity that takes the same amount of work. Keeping all the gear running takes the same effort. If you've not been hit, you have the same people doing the same things; and if you've been hit, you're either dead or swimming towards the shore in a much smaller boat.