PLANNED US MILITARY FORCE CUTS

Submitted by: Terry Payne

PLANNED US MILITARY FORCE CUTS

Friends, 

This is not an April fools note although I did start it on 1 April. 

In the unlikely event you missed it, in this era of increased threats from a number of avowedly and openly aggressive or hostile countries or groups, here are some of the planned FY 2023 Navy and Air Force CUTS to our forces. 

The Navy plans to decommission 24 ships from the current force of 298, and the Air Force plans to remove 150 Aircraft. 

To be fair, the Navy hopes to start building 8 ships including 2 Tugboats, an ocean surveillance ship, and a replenishment ship (both of which will be in the Military Sea Lift Command and operated by civilians), one DDG, two SSN and one of a new, not yet fully developed, Constellation Class Frigate. This is what is asked for in the budget request but of course no new budget has been passed.

For those who don't know, the CGs being retired are guided missile cruisers, used to protect Aircraft Carriers and as ICBM missile defense assets. We have failed to update many of them with the latest electronics, missiles, communications and even failed to do basic maintenance on some. 

The LSDs are large landing ships for amphibious operations such as island warfare. Issues in the South China Sea, Westpac and the Philippines come to mind. They can launch afloat assets such as landing craft and the LCAC (air cushion vehicles) as well as amphibious vehicles from their well deck. The have a large flight deck for helicopter or V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft.

The almost new LCS were supposed to become ASW ships with the addition of an "add on" module. That module never could be made to work. Also, these ships had major engineering issues which would have required major reworking of the engineering plant, only to have a small, almost useless ship.

One idea for the old cruisers is to permanently moor them at places like Guam to provide defense against ICBMs from NoKo or China, an unlikely proposal. 

The Chinese Navy, by comparison, fields a fleet of about 360 combatants, with a huge number of "auxiliaries"(235) plus 19 "replenishment" ships and a massive coast guard with some of their ships larger than our Burke class destroyers. The average age of their fleet is about half of ours and they are adding ships rapidly. For example, in 2021, China added at least eight Guided Missile Destroyers (DDG), two amphibious assault ships (LHD) and one nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) to the PLAN fleet along with a large number of "auxiliaries" and Coast Guard "cutters", all heavily armed.

Of course, their major focus can be the S China sea and perhaps the Western Pacific, while we are spread all over the world, trying to cover many of the world's troubled areas from the Persian Gulf and Med (Ukraine and major Russian bases now in Syria), the Atlantic as well as WestPac, the S. China Sea and major choke points. 

The U.S. army and marines are also planning cuts.

The proposed Presidential budget doesn't even cover inflation, let alone growth. We shall see what Congress does and whether or not the President will sign whatever they pass, if anything. Continuing resolutions continue at the moment.

2022 Fri 1 Apr USNI -  Navy’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2023 Battle Force Ship Decommissionings

March 31, 2022 6:31 PM

 

The following is the list of 24 ships the Navy has proposed to decommission as part of its Fiscal Year 2023 budget request.

Ship                                              Homeport        Commissioning Date     
USS Bunker Hill (CG-52)            San Diego, Calif.       Sept. 20, 1986 
USS Mobile Bay (CG-53)            San Diego, Calif.       Feb. 21, 1987  
USS San Jacinto (CG-56)            Norfolk, Va.               Jan. 23, 1988  
USS Lake Champlain (CG-57)   San Diego, Calif.       Aug. 12, 1988  
USS Vicksburg(CG-69)               Mayport, Fla.   Nov. 14, 1992  
USS Germantown (LSD-42)        San Diego, Calif.       Feb. 8, 1986   
USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44)       Norfolk, Va.    April 22, 1989 
USS Tortuga (LSD-46)                 Norfolk, Va.    Nov. 17, 1990  
USS Ashland (LSD-48)                Sasebo, Japan   May 9, 1992    
USS Fort Worth (LCS-3)            San Diego, Calif.       Sept. 22, 2012 
USS Milwaukee (LCS-5)             Mayport, Fla.   Nov. 21, 2015  
USS Detroit (LCS-7)                    Mayport, Fla.   Oct. 22, 2016  
USS Little Rock (LCS-9)             Mayport, Fla.   Dec. 16, 2017  
USS Sioux City (LCS-11)            Mayport, Fla.   Nov. 17, 2018  
USS Wichita (LCS-13)                Mayport, Fla.   Jan. 12, 2019  
USS Billings (LCS-15)                 Mayport, Fla.   Aug. 3, 2019   
USS Indianapolis (LCS-17)       Mayport, Fla.   Oct. 26, 2019  
USS St. Louis (LCS-19)               Mayport, Fla.   Aug. 8, 2020   
USS Chicago (SSN-721)               Pearl Harbor, Hawaii    Sept. 27, 1986 
USS Key West (SSN-722)            Guam    Sept. 12, 1987 
USNS John Lenthall (TAO-189)    Atlantic Fleet  June 25, 1987  
USNS Diehl (TAO-193)               Pacific Fleet   Sept. 13, 1988 
USNS Montford Point (ESD-1)     N/A     May 14, 2013   
USNS John Glenn (ESD-2) N/A     March 12, 2014 
2021 Fri 1 Apr, AW&ST

Aircraft the U.S. Air Force Is Asking To Divest in Fiscal 2023