Quote:
Originally Posted by JA Boomer
It's hard to imagine the US Navy stripping it's ship's like that. What if a OHP gets hit with a missile, how will the Navy explain the decision to degrade the combat capability of the Frigates after it has cost lives?
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Have you forgotten, an FFG-7 has already been hit by a missile - two in fact - even though it was armed with Standard. Didn't seem to make much difference.
Not every ship can have all the bells and whistles. That is why the USN has for decades relied on a certain number of 2nd rate ships. Let's not forget the Knox, Garcia, Dealey and other classes of the past. That is exactly what FFG-7 is.
Standard SM-1 is obsolescent. None have been procured in 21 years which means the existing inventory is beyond its expire date. That leaves few options, none of them good.
1. Spend significant sums to overhaul the existing inventory of obsolescent weapons.
2. Spend significant sums to modernize the ships to fire current weapons (SM-2), then spend further additional significant sums to procure said weapons, all in an enviroment where the USN is grossly overstocked in orders-of-magnitude more capable AAW platforms and the air/missile threat is a fraction of what it was.
Where is all this money going to come from? What program would you like to cut to provide this capability?
Or they can scrap a system that isn't needed and save a lot of money that can be put to more effective use elsewhere.
The decision was the correct one.