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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFact check: Did Ryan really say the U.S. Navy is close to being smaller than in 1913?
Where did he get that, here? http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread825952/pg1
Pretty sure our Navy is a bit stronger now.
msongs
(67,459 posts)ArcticFox
(1,249 posts)XemaSab
(60,212 posts)My immediate thought was that before WWI, naval power was the only way of controlling the world. We didn't even have airplanes then.
There are parts of the world where a good naval force is essential for regional control, but most of the world today is controlled with aircraft, missiles, and satellites.
The idea that we need enough little boats for a beach landing like at Normandy is laughable.
And he proves again that he's a fish out of water (so to speak). He doesn't have a clue about national security.
ArcticFox
(1,249 posts)Now we're ahead of the next 13 powers or something crazy like that.
Kind of a ridiculous comparison.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30F10F7385512738DDDAD0A94DA415B888CF1D3
bhikkhu
(10,725 posts)which you can look at here: http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org9-4c.htm
But, needless to say, the navy we have today would make short work of the navy we had then - there's much more to defence than the number of ships!
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)Navy wouldn't be the smallest it's been since 1917
The line that the Navy would be the smallest its been since 1917 is just not accurate. Politifact judged it pants on fire.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/18/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-us-navy-smallest-1917-air-force-s/
gordianot
(15,246 posts)Remember Teddy Roosevelt and his big stick the Great White Fleet? Other than Japan the United States was one of the few Naval powers that fought and won a protracted Naval War. The United States Navy had an excellent reputation.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)Battleships were the name of the game back then. The Atlantic Fleet of the US Navy in 1913 had more battleships in it than the Germans brought to Jutland in 1916.
There were two other USN fleets afloat at the same time. Many of the battleships in the US line were pre-Dreadnoughts which would prove to be of dubious use in the coming war, but the US Navy was already large enough to match any potential enemy (except the British) on any ocean.
The US Navy also had the rare luxury of actual combat experience, having trounced the Spanish fleets in 1898. That meant that in 1913 the upper leadership of the US Navy was fairly well prepared to expand and reorganize to meet the demands of the war when they finally entered it in 1917, with many ship captains having started their careers with the battles of Manilla Bay and Santiago.
We attached one battleship division (comprised of our oldest, slowest, coal-burning battleships because the British were short of fuel oil) to the British Grand Fleet in 1917, which effectively ended any chances of the Germans challenging allied naval supremacy for the remainder of the war. Aside from a few feints, they never even tried after that.
So four or five battleships of the US Navy of 1913 were powerful enough to give the allies of World War I total supremacy in naval surface warfare. Behind it were three US fleets that were never needed. Most of those ships never fired a shot in anger.
One of them, the USS Utah, saw more action after it was converted to a target ship and then mistaken for an aircraft carrier by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
(Edit: I should add that one USN task force of today built around a single aircraft carrier, properly supplied, could destroy every major warship afloat in 1913, likely without sustaining damage or even casualties. So there's that, too.)
justice1
(795 posts)Rincewind
(1,206 posts)how many nuclear aircraft carriers, and ballistic missile submarines did we have in 1913?
The Magistrate
(95,257 posts)And I, for one, am shocked by the dearth of 'protected cruisers' and 'torpedo boat destroyers' in our navy today....
uncle ray
(3,157 posts)dems_rightnow
(1,956 posts)Though I believe he does like Led.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Even for Republicans.
NuttyFluffers
(6,811 posts)1000 tugboats is not superior to 1 aircraft carrier, but that's the snake oil they're selling.