Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world.
This Week…As the Arctic continues to warm more and more of the polar region is becoming navigable and open to shipping for longer periods. Russia is actively developing its 15,000-mile Arctic coastline with a major new port, powerful new icebreakers and ice-breaking merchant ships. The United States by comparison has only just over a thousand miles of Arctic coast. Is Russian polar development a threat? Should the US send more military forces to the far north? We’ll take a look.
In this Week’s Squawk Chris Servello discusses getting ready for battle vs battling for the budget.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavsShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com .
This Week’s Naval Round Up:
The British nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS ASTUTE arrived at Fleet Base West near Perth, Australia October 29 after operating with the HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH Carrier Strike Group. The visit is the first since the mid-September announcement of the AUKUS — Australia–UK-US — submarine cooperation deal. Meanwhile in Rome on the same day, US president Joe Biden met with French president Emmanual Macron. Biden publicly admitted the AUKUS announcement, quote, “was not done with a lot of grace” and that the U.S. was clumsy in the way it handled the rollout. Until the AUKUS announcement, Australia had a major deal with France to build non-nuclear submarines, but the Aussies provided the French with no warning of the cancellation ahead of the public unveiling of the AUKUS deal.
India’s new aircraft carrier VIKRANT was back at sea October 24 for a second round of sea trials. Known as the Indigenous aircraft carrier, India’s first home-built carrier has been under construction since 2009.
The US aircraft carrier CARL VINSON is back operating in the South China Sea after carrying out a series of exercises in the Bay of Bengal with Indian, British, Australian and Japanese warships. VINSON, with Carrier Air Wing Two, is the first carrier to deploy with the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and the new CMV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in the carrier onboard delivery role.
US 6th Fleet flagship USS MOUNT WHITNEY left her homeport of Gaeta, Italy October 29 embarking 6th Fleet and NATO Naval Striking and Support Forces staff for a series of exercises in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The Spain-based US destroyer USS PORTER entered the Black Sea October 30 on what the US Navy called “a routine patrol.” US ships have operated in the inland sea on several occasions in 2021, the last being in July.
The amphibious transport dock FORT LAUDERDALE completed a week of builders’ sea trials Oct. 26 at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ship is the first Flight I-plus variant of the LPD 17 San Antonio class, the most visible difference being the absence of the large composite-structure enclosed masts of the first ten ships. The follow-on Flight II ships will be similar.
British supply ships FORT ROSALIE and FORT AUSTIN are being sold to Egypt, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said October 29. The ships, built in the 1970s, will be refurbished in Britain before being handed over. These still very capable ships will mark a major blue-water capability upgrade for Egypt, which operates a relatively modern, large and growing Navy – although one with ships from a variety of nations and suppliers.
The Battleship Texas Foundation announced on October 27 their choice of Gulf Copper and Manufacturing Corporation in Galveston to carry out the ship’s $35 million state-supported drydocking overhaul. Valkor Energy Services is handling the project management and engineering part of the refurbishment, meant to restore the hull and structure of the ship, launched in 1912. Retired in 1948, the world’s oldest dreadnought has been berthed at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site since then but is now actively searching for a new home. While Galveston and Beaumont are in the mix, no new site has yet been chosen.
SERVELLO SQUAWK — Whether it’s learning from the collisions of 2017, the events of the Bonhome Richard or deciding how we intend to compete against China and Russia…a critical learning point is clear…you get the Navy you pay for. And the easiest way to measure that hypothesis is to look at the current balance of resourcing to operations.
Earlier this week friend of the pod Cdr Salamander in a USNI blog referenced the 2015 US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute Monograph, Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession.
Drawing on the same rubric and lessons used in the Army case study, Sal argued that in fitness reports, casreps and other professional dealings we have lost our ability to be candid and honest with each other, our chain of command and perhaps even ourselves.
This doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen by accident…in my experience this phenomenon is a direct result of the resourcing and operations equation being out of balance.This imbalance drives unreasonable expectations and misplaced accountability on the wrong people in the chain of command….it drives dishonesty, mistakes and takes a toll on culture and morale.
My fear is that unless we get the resourcing, maintenance and operations variables right, the high profile anomalies in seamanship, in port watch standing and maintenance practices will become the norm of our naval culture and not the exception.
Despite some of my rants and complaints on this podcast, I believe we have a very good Navy…one with technological superiority and a talented workforce.
The challenge ahead is making the right choices in funding, employment and culture…to maintain our advantage.
