PISSING AWAY CREDIBILITY

Whenever an Admiral wonders why people don't take them seriously anymore he really doesn't need to look much further than here, whereVice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the Commander of the US Seventh Fleet, had this to say about the Littoral Combat Ship currently broken down in Singapore:

"I think this is an ideal ship for this area. I like the size, the capability, multi-mission [features], there's also room for growth. And it complements so many navies in this region." 

The ship's cruise had been a great success, Aucoin noted.

"Up until this incident, Fort Worth did very well," he said. "It made all its scheduled events."

The admiral is quite an accomplished fibber. He might almost be a native; his grasp of fibbery is so well developed, comprehensive and steeped with subtle nuances that the layman hardly notices as the Admiral coins new words to describe a warship that, at best, can't do anything but leak oil into the ocean.

The ship the admiral is describing is one of "a" class (this "class" is uniquely made up of two completely different hull types each so foul and awful that when it came time for the Navy to actually select the one to move ahead with and procure for the fleet to use as a warship, the Navy couldn't bring itself to say anything not good about the other which forced them to buy both), of ships that have one very small gun (the smallest gun any escort ship ever put to sea with, no missiles, no air defenses, no sonar, no anti-submarine sensors, almost no crew, no technical expertise or warfighting expertise, no boarding parties and no class.

How can an actual fleet commander gloss over those little problems of the, not-nearly a warship, that is currently on another extended breakdown in Singapore with a crew unable to repair it? Admiral, what is it about its size, capabilities, and current mission configuration that have you miss it so much? If there is room for growth in the 8 years since the first ship was commissioned, when will it be exploited by adding some sailors, sensors and weapons that would give it some tooth and more than a yip of a bark?

I was amused by the Admiral's concern for at-sea confrontations between ships like his broken down ship and Chinese warships. He failed to note the benefits that accrue to us in this realm from having warships that cannot actually get underway, which is a surprising failing given his ability to put a good spin on nearly everything else about these ships.