A child
wants to build a birdhouse but instead of starting with hand saws, files, and
sandpaper, he wants to start with a power saw, router, and power sander. Instead of doing the hard work of mastering
the fundamentals of woodworking and acquiring an appreciation for the craft, he
wants to bypass all that and leap into the “easy” approach.
Now
consider this,
“For the Navy in particular, with
leadership looking for an exponential increase in fleet capability that comes
faster and cheaper than the traditional approach of building more ships and
planes, accelerated acquisition and innovative solutions to operational
problems are an attractive approach.” (1)
Does that
sound a lot like the birdhouse story?
Instead of doing the hard work of mastering the fundamentals of
seamanship, discipline, maintenance, and readiness to increase capability, the
Navy wants to bypass all that and leap into the “easy” approach of magical
“innovation” and technology.
“Faster and
cheaper” - Well,
we’ve seen repeatedly that nothing is “faster and cheaper”. The F-35 that was the cheap alternative to
the F-22 wasn’t really cheaper, was it?
The promise of computer designed ships didn’t make the LCS construction
time faster, did it (it takes longer to build a LCS than a Burke – we posted
this!)? Faster and cheaper didn’t work
for the Ford or Zumwalt, did it?
So, have we
learned a lesson? Nope. The Navy is determined to repeat their
mistakes in pursuit of the illusory “faster and cheaper”.
Unlike the
child who, hopefully, has a father who will force them to learn the
fundamentals, the Navy is unrestrained and darts off on any attractive path
that glitters.
There is no
short cut for the hard work of mastering the fundamentals.
_________________________________________
(1)USNI
News website, “Navy Prioritizes Boosting Capability Above Growing Fleet
Capacity; Stresses Innovation”, Megan Eckstein, 11-Apr-2018 ,
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