Free Up Ships for More Important Duties

We constantly hear the justification, [it (whatever it is)] will free up [something else] for other, more important duties.    For example, the LCS will free up Burkes for more important duties.  Or, the Constellation will free up Burkes for more important duties.  That sounds fine on paper but, in reality, it’s just buzzword garbage.  What are these other ‘more important duties’?  I’m looking around and I don’t see Burkes conducting other ‘more important duties’, do you?
 
We have 86 Burkes/Ticos.  Are they really all tied up on unimportant duties and need freeing up?  Are there really ‘more important duties’ that are going unattended because Burkes are being wasted on less important duties?  Most of our Burkes sit pier side most of the year.  Are we really short of Burkes for ‘more important duties’?
 
Many use this justification to promote smaller carriers;  if we had smaller carriers we could free up the supercarriers for ‘more important duties’.  Again, what are these ‘more important duties’ that our carriers are currently foregoing in favor of less important duties?  Remember, we have 11 carriers and most of the time only one or two are deployed.  Do we really lack sufficient carriers for ‘more important duties’?
 
Now some – myself foremost among them - might suggest that all of our Burkes and carriers are, actually, engaged in less important duties but that’s because there are no important duties that we’re willing to take on. 
 
What might be examples of these ‘more important duties’?
 

We don’t forcefully confront China, Iran, Russia, or NKorea, which would be more important duties, so that’s not it.

 

We don’t use our high tech, high firepower Burkes to rein in Iran’s antics in the Middle East or prevent them from attacking and seizing merchant ships.  In fact, our policy is to stand by and watch.  So, that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We don’t shoot down NKorea’s rogue, out of control ballistic missiles during their tests so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not aggressively trailing and harassing Chinese subs so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not conducting Innocent Passage exercises through China’s territorial waters as they’ve done to us so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not conducting regular and frequent live fire training exercises so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not providing large escorts for our carriers (typically around three Burkes per carrier) so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not developing and exercising combat tactics such as squadron destroyer operations so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not cruising just off African nations and conducting surveillance and attacks on terrorist grounds so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

We’re not conducting relentless training exercises against diesel subs, the most common type of enemy sub, so that’s not the ‘more important duty’.

 

 
Now, let’s talk about priorities.  Are we really choosing to assign Burkes and carriers to less important, lower priority duties instead of ‘more important duties’ that, presumably, have higher priority?  If so, that’s incompetence on a treasonous level.  I’ll give the Navy the benefit of the doubt on this one and assume that they’re assigning ships to tasks in order of importance and priority.  That being the case, by definition, there can’t be any ‘more important duties’ because we’ve already assigned ships to them.
 
To be fair, people attempt to use this justification for other platforms, too.  For example, I’ve heard people call for a new F-16-ish fighter in order to free up F-22s for ‘more important duty’.  What ‘more important duty’ are F-22s ignoring in favor of less important ones?
 
 
In short, ‘more important duties’ is a specious justification wholly unsupported by facts, logic, or reality.  It is a fraudulent attempt to justify something that cannot be justified on its own merits.