Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Saturday, January 15, 2011

You've Got to Have People on Warships

The Navy's experiment to reduce manpower on surface ships has been terminated for failure.

It was a bad idea to begin with. It takes people to keep a ship maintained and clean. Which is why I have been skeptical of the real-world ability of a 40-man crew to sail and maintain a LCS. Oh, it's one thing to maintain a brand-new ship, when the gear mostly works. It's quite another thing to maintain a ship that is over ten years old, when the gear needs more maintenance.

1 comment:

Frank Van Haste said...

Dear Miss Fit:

The other aspect of reduced manning that's scary is the impact on damage control. I've long contended that one of the U.S.N.'s most notable strengths is superior damage control. But it takes a lot of troops to (a) keep operating the ship, (b) keep fighting the ship, and (c) put the fire out and stop the flooding.

I suspect that there are technical work-arounds to ameliorate the maintainability issues inherent in reduced manning, but the damage control issues seem to me to be less tractable.

Regards,

Frank