This just in from Brit Hume of Fox News Channel, as quoted by this morning’s Early Bird:
Shipping officials are calling for a military blockade along Somalia’s coast to intercept pirate ships going out to sea. But NATO is rejecting the idea, and the U.S. Navy says such a blockade would require a ship every 5-10 miles along the 2,400-mile coastline. That would require more than 240 ships, and the U.S. Navy is only 283-ships strong—it's not the 600-ship Navy of the mid-'80s.
I couldn’t devise a better argument for the Freedom or Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships, the Visby- and Braunschweig-class corvettes, and any other hardy little blockade enforcer for any other fleet. This is the whole point of what Elmo Zumwalt called the high-low mix: cruisers aren’t available in the same numbers as corvettes, and there are roles for large flotillas of smaller ships. Like securing the sea lanes for petroleum tankers—which seems today a rather pressing need.
For more on the situation, see my immediately preceding commentary. In general, it’s well worth considering how needs like this will affect the naval shipbuilding market in the next few years.
Comments