Well...this has been an interesting read.
308pirate things have changed a bit since the Clinton days. C4ISR has (finally) begun to move down to the CRUDES level, increasing SA for the TAO and crew. Largely this has been a function of need and practicality (let's face it, the minute the balloon goes up, every CVN becomes a big, fat target with limited survivability; the CRUSDES will have to fill that gap). IMHO we are coming full circle to the early 1900's where the "tincan sailors" are becoming the back bone (and relevant, survivable naval platforms...along with subs) of the surface navy's future warfare capability. My experience in all this was being the PI on the R&D that led to the C4ISR system for the CRUDES platform...so yes, I've seen and am familiar with CIC (and SESS) on the CRUSDES platforms.
A couple of points/observations to folks on this thread.
1. Bar none, the CRUDES sailors are quickly becoming the cream of the crop in the Navy. I've spent a lot of time on many ships across the fleet, (CVN's, large deck amphibs, CRUDES, JHSV's, AFSB's) I and I have to say; the CRUDES sailors have typically been the ones that always impressed me (as a Marine, that's saying a lot
). Today, they're out there getting shit done. Period. A lot of hard charger, pragmatic and practical petty officers and officers are making shit work...and well. On the carriers? Not so much. They tend to be more worried about what noon chow is, and what flavor of ice cream will be available on the mess decks.
2. The south china sea is a pretty busy place today, and I'm not talking traffic. A lot of cat and mouse shit is happening, ironically similar to the cold war and what we use to do with the ruskies all the time.
3. If the Fitzgerald incident was a fluke, and the McCain was a coincidence, training/leadership issues might be plausible. But I ain't buying it, the sailors I've met and trained are too on-the-ball for it to just be casual error.
If we want a viable naval combat force for future conflicts, ship captains will need to be aggressive. Aggressive ship tactics toe the line at the edge of the envelope...and some times, exceed it. It is the cost of being prepared, and "training" hard against a peer adversary. Say what you will about culpability and who's responsible, but as the saying goes, sometimes you bleed in training to reduce hemorrhaging in combat.
I have no insight to the details of either incident (save being on board the Fitzgerald, preping her and her crew for her COMPTUEX before deployment), and as 308pirate mentioned, even if I did, I would not post it on an open forum. What I
am saying is this; do some critical thinking without a tin foil hat. Lots of ships in the area, warships of two nations playing cat and mouse within the shipping traffic lanes...it becomes fairly easy to see how war ships might be skirting around white shipping (extremely closely) as part of that game.
Just a hunch on my part with no information to back up the theory. As I mentioned the other day to a co-worker, my theory is nothing more than a tactical perspective of Occam's Razor...
