The Navy has always operated
under the principle that the commanding officer is always responsible for
whatever happens regardless of whether he had any direct involvement or
not. The Navy has been hair-trigger quick
to relieve commanders for “loss of confidence in their ability to command”.
Isn’t it about time that the
ultimate commander, CNO Richardson, be held accountable for the tragedies that
are occurring under his command? Isn’t
it about time that he was relieved for loss of confidence in his ability to
command?
I doubt they will punish him severely, probably reassignment. Even if he loses his position he will no doubt have an illustrious career in the defense industry. Probably pitching the navy a new piece of equipment to avoid collisions. It costs 3x radar and they have to pay all development costs but it could work*.
ReplyDeleteNot much for firing people but we fire football or basketball coaches for heck of a lot less! A couple of people need to be fired for sure and the first order of business for new team in place should be an IMMEDIATE FLEET INSPECTION, I have a hard time believing ships are in top shape, crews up to date in training and mission ready, all weapons systems ready to go BUT crews are FAILING sea navigation 101!?!?!
ReplyDeleteThe rot is deep and wide, USN is NOT ready for war.
An excellent observation.
DeleteJust 2 more observations, not sure if it was brought up in the other threads:
ReplyDeleteWith now 2 DDGs effectively "mission killed", how many are left in the Pacific? With both McCain and Fitzgerald out for months, probably years, as far as I could tell, Destroyer Squadron 15 had 7 DDGs, now only 5. I don't believe this was intentional BUT this will give somebody some ideas!!! USN lost 2 of 7 DDGs without even putting up a fight! If this was 24 hours before the start of an attack, that's not bad at all, that's a third of the squadron. If you hit one more "accidentally" and have one in some maintenance not deploy-able right away, USN would only have 3 DDGs left for the squadron. Not bad at all for the bad guys...China, Russia, Iran, NKorea,etc would take that any day of the week,especially without having to fire a shot!!!
-How fast can USN bring up 2 DDGs now to replace them?
Next, CNO likes a lot to talk about industrial base and damage repairs, combat losses, effectiveness,etc...well, this is about as close as USN and CNO will get to finding out!!!
- How long will the repairs last?
- Can USN effectively repair at the same time 2 DDGs?
- How much has to be replaced? Is it quick patch work or almost a complete rebuild?
- How well did the weapon system (AEGIS) and missiles survive? Are they still operable or they were put out of commission too?
- Will there be a debrief of the crews and investigation to find out if the crews were able to still operate if this was wartime or were they pretty much "mission killed"? If yes, to second response, the USN needs to up the training and put more stress on the crews to still be able to fight even after taking some damage.....
Great point about Aegis and continuing to be able to fight after taking a hit. We'll probably never know.
DeleteI wonder if the cost of the LCS and F-35 programs has cut into routine maintenance and training.
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly, but the Navy was cutting maintenance and training before the LCS/F-35. The blame lies squarely on idiotic decisions by Navy leadership not on one or two expensive programs. Read "Sequestration Is NOT The Problem" in the June archive from this year.
DeleteComNavOps, The reason these programs are so expensive is because the Military made poor choices resulting in the programs becoming "inefficient".
DeleteThere is a new job opening in the Pacific, relocation paid.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/22/head-navys-7th-fleet-to-be-relieved-duty-after-second-deadly-mishap-in-pacific.html
That really is kind of funny. you'd think DESRON 15 would the next logical victim of exploding command at sea pin.
DeleteBut sayonara Aucoin-san.
Not funny at all. This sacrificial lamb was due to retire in 2 months and the Deputy Cmdr PacFleet moved up. Where is the accountability in this? Desron, PacFleet, and CNO should all be fired, instead the Navy looks decisive but didn't hurt anyone's career.
DeleteThis thinking is probably what is leading to this kinds of mishaps.
It hurts to see my Navy in this condition, but error chain for these disasters reside in DC. While Mabus is gone I think much of this can be laid at his feet along with the Flag Staff that followed loyally behind him.
ReplyDeleteIn the broadest sense, all responsibility lies with the DC leadership, both uniformed and civilian, who set (or fail to set) the standards for equipment, maintenance, training, etc.
DeleteTo be fair, we don't know how either of the last two collisions occurred so laying blame, other than generically, is premature.
In both cases the CO/XO wasn't on the Bridge or CIC and the Collision Alarm hadn't been sounded. So the OOD and TAO felt they had the situation under control prior to both incidents.
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