USA says bye bye to Under Water saftey net....

Navy Bids Farewell to Minneapolis-St. Paul:
After more than 23 years of service, the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine USS Minneapolis-St. Paul (SSN 708) inactivated in a ceremony June 22 at Pier 3 at Naval Station Norfolk.

Concerns remain that our shrinking fleet is going to leave us with our pants down in the very near future, and that our anti-sub warfare capabilities (or, rather, our lack thereof) could leave very serious gaps waiting to be exploited. Two world wars showed that submarine fleets were able to have a drastic effect on the wider military and economic efforts of the combatants.
While no one is going to challenge our supremacy in the realm of carrier-centered naval power, even just the threat of submarines could potentially keep those carriers from operating when and where we need them to. We've seen anti-mine capabilities whither over time. Are ASW capabilities going to suffer the same fate?

The attack sub fleet is part of the ASW effort, and when you couple the shrinking hunter fleet with the retirement of the S-3 Vikings, the delays in the P-3 Orion's follow-on (the P-8A Poseidon MMA), and questions about the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, I suspect that we've got reason to be concerned about our ability to combat enemy submarines that could threaten our surface forces and logistics fleet, let alone commercial ships.

The USS Hawaii (SSN 776) was just commissioned last month, so it's not like the fleet just shrank the other day. USS North Carolina (SSN 777) will join the fleet next year. But the long-term plan is to reduce the number of attack boats in the fleet by a significant number. Not every boat retired in the coming years will be replaced by a new one. We currently have 53 operational attack subs in the fleet.

A 2005 study by the Navy itself said that 48 is the "minimum number of attack submarines needed to maintain an acceptable level of risk at an acceptable cost." But the current plan to acquire Virginia-class subs like the Hawaii and North Carolina will put us under the 48-boat level for sixteen of the twenty-seven years between 2007 and 2034, bottoming out at 40 boats in 2028 and 2029.

For more, see the Heritage Foundation articles The Navy Needs to Close the Projected Gap in the Attack Submarine Fleet and Congress Should Accelerate Submarine Procurement.
--Murdoc

Bobby Anding

100,000 Kalashnikov rifles for Whom Exactly?

Chavez to head to Russia, Belarus, Iran, then China in latest bid to oppose USA.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez travels this week to Iran, Russia andBelarus, then China -- all countries which have found themselves at loggerheads recently with the United States. Chavez departs Tuesday for his week-long tour, from June 26 to July3, defiantly insisting that he will purchase Russian submarines and possibly an air defense system from Belarus, despite vocal objections from Washington. Chavez, who views himself as Bush's arch-enemy, will be cultivating relations with each of the regimes, in an apparent bid to drive aneven deeper wedge with between the United States and its adversaries.

"The war of resistance is the weapon with which we are defeating andwill defeat the threat of US imperial war," Chavez said Sunday presiding over a military parade, dressed in full military uniform. "We've launched into a new type of global war with the US on one side and the rest of the world on the other side. “Each of the countries on Chavez's itinerary has locked horns withWashington in recent weeks over conflicts that have yet to beresolved. Chavez has said he hopes to put the "finishing touches" on an agreement to purchase from Belarus an integrated air defense systemwith a 200-300-kilometer range (125-200 miles).

Earlier this month, US President George W. Bush renewed sanctions against hard-line Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and nine others deemed obstacles to democracy in Belarus. Bush accused the regime of human rights abuses, undermining democracy, illegally detaining and secretly holding dissidents andengaging in public corruption. Relations between Russia, China, and the United States, meanwhile,are at a dangerous post-Cold War low due to political, energy, andsecurity differences. Flush with petrodollars, Chavez said last week he might purchase someRussian submarines when he meets with Putin -- a deal observers saidcould chill the planned Putin-Bush summit.

Media reports in Moscow this month said Chavez wanted to buy as manyas nine submarines to protect shipping lanes for key oil exports. In 2006 Venezuela signed more than three billion dollars in contractswith Russia to buy 53 Mi-24 armored helicopter gunships, Sukhoi 30fighter planes and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles. Meanwhile Washington's already frosty relations with Tehran also hita new low, as the international community campaigned to pressure Iran to dismantle its controversial nuclear program. The United States, which broke diplomatic ties with Iran in 1979,also is demanding the safe return of four Iranian-American citizens whom Tehran has charged with spying.

It is not yet known what Chavez plans to do in Iran, which is acharter member of Bush's "axis of evil" troika of alleged globaltrouble-makers that included North Korea and Iraq under the late Saddam Hussein. Tehran in recent weeks has implemented a crackdown on its nationals deemed too close to the West. In an address to some 15,000 young members of his new party now beingset up, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Chavez last weeksaid some had the idea his trip to Russia and then China wouldcomplicate US-Russian Chinese relations.

"In the United States, they say my trip to Moscow and Beijing is a concern," Chavez said Saturday, accusing Washington of meddling where it doesn't belong. "These relations are highly strategic, and are tied up with our security, defense, and overall development," he said.

During Sunday's military parade, Chavez brandished a Russian-designedAK-47 assault rifle proclaiming: "If it weren't for Russia and China we'd be almost weaponless today. "We must recognize the Russian and Chinese governments bravery for not caving in to the pressures of the dying US empire that intended to disarm us all."