I have to admit to being just a little curious but lazy. Back when I was a 22 year old Naval officer I used to take the existing Order of Battle as we knew it just from Janes Fighting Ships and the Soviet Navy and we would wargame the clash of fleets and strategies to see what winning would take and what losing would look like. I found the results somewhat grim because while we didn't really expect anything like 100% of the Soviet stuff to work or even come close, they had a millions of tons of it and it was all pointed at us and by us I mean the USN, not so much NATO. As a young Fire Control Officer on a Destroyer I found Red Storm Rising to be a fascinating book.
I wonder if anyone has actually done that sort of thing today and used open sources on what is known about the USN and its current state and its logistic support infrastructure both in NATO and in the Pacific and wargamed the strategy and the tactics of us whipping the Chinese fully armed by the complete wholesale transfer of every single Russian weapon to China?
I look at the bean counters and 'cutbacks' that have eliminated 100% of the fuel oil storage in Hawaii and also 100% of the old Ammo ships, Oilers, Combat Stores, Food ships and the hundreds of other logistic ships, bases and supplies we laid in to fight a long heady war in the Pacific and wonder what the war looks like going up against a China armed with the highest and most dangerous tier of Russian weapons and targeting systems because, let's be honest, fair is fair and the Soviets Russians are going to trip over themselves sending hypersonic missiles and relaying targeting data to China the instant hostilities commence.
I'm also kind of curious what the strategy looks like for defeating China and ending the war there. We have not, after all, concluded the current 75 year old War between our two countries with a peace treaty. It is the kind of thing any sane person would have thought as using as leverage before simply deciding to unilaterally admit China to the World Trade Organization without any conditions or, tradesies. Honestly, even 7 year olds are better negotiators than that.
3 comments:
Odds are very high that any direct conflict between the US and either China or Russia won't last long enough for logistical shortcomings to be a factor. Things will probably go fully kinetic with nukes in short order. Then nobody wins . Nobody on Earth.
I would imagine that Red Storm Rising, in that time and position, would lead to a lot of reflection, and more than a few questions. I joined the USN in 1988 and read it (from the ship's library) while afloat on CV 67. I thought awhile about certain aspects, even as a junior enlisted sailor.
--Tennessee Budd
At the time, that was a very scary book.
Post a Comment