Word: fleetly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...were fighting for its life. In a sense it may be, for the eventual resolution of this bitter dispute could determine not only what the U.S. Navy will look like as the nation steams into the 21st century, but whether there will be much of a surface fleet...
...since the end of World War II. They are: ? Projecting power abroad. This primarily means using the warplanes and Marine Corps detachments aboard aircraft carriers stationed in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic to help repel any Soviet attack against the relatively poorly defended flanks of NATO. The Sixth Fleet's two carriers, for instance, can rapidly commit more than 100 fighter-bombers, about half a dozen early-warning command-and-control aircraft and 1,800 Marines to battle on eastern Mediterranean shores in support of Greece and Turkey. From the North Atlantic's Second Fleet, planes could strike...
...think that a balanced, 600-ship fleet, with 14 or 15 battle groups, would give us substantial assurance of being able to carry out our strategy with confidence of victory. With a twelve-carrier force [in a 525-ship fleet], it is worrisome." And a fleet smaller than this, according to some admirals, could mean a tacit wartime "abandonment" of some key allies, including Japan, Norway, Greece and Turkey. Declared Navy Secretary Claytor in a confidential memo to Defense Secretary Brown: A reduced fleet would "concede the Norwegian Sea 9 to the Soviets" and restrict us to "the defense...
What makes the question of carrier vulnerability extremely pressing is the growing strength of the Soviet fleet. Today it officially numbers 2,410 ships. About 1,500 of these are small and auxiliary craft, but the rest form a powerful armada: 233 surface warships, including 37 cruisers, 90 destroyers and 105 frigates, plus 260 attack submarines. In addition, some 400 long-range bombers, including the new Backfire, are based around the rim of the U.S.S.R., from where they can strike targets...
This is a vast increase in naval power since World War II, when the Red fleet hardly existed; even as recently as the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the Kremlin had to back down in the face of U.S. naval supremacy. That, presumably, was a humiliation the Russians decided would never happen again. Since then Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, commander of the Soviet navy for the past 22 years, has modernized his fleet, increased its firepower and greatly extended its range. At one time his ships rarely ventured far from Russia's shores. But as he has commissioned new vessels that...