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From: sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Fleet and Budget
Message-ID: <1990Jul3.031946.7070@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 3 Jul 90 03:19:46 GMT
References: <1990Jun30.053848.4400@cbnews.att.com>,<1990Jul2.031011.8780@cbnews.att.com>
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From: sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney)
In article <1990Jul2.031011.8780@cbnews.att.com>, apctrc!crx34!zrra07@uunet.UU.NET (Randall R. Appleton) writes:
>>In FY90 and FY91, 54 ships will be retired including these ships:
>>14 SSNs in Skipjack, Permit, Sturgeon and Glenard P. Lipscomb classes 
>>
>This seems pretty odd to me.  I understand that the Seawolf SSN is a better
>ship than the SkipJack or Lipscomb class SSN's, yet if I were in a money-
>saving mood I would wonder if this were a good deal.
>
>I guess my thinking is something like the following.  Assuming I have
>a fixed amount of money, I could either....
>1) Scrap many older ships; buy a few newer ships
>2) Keep many older ships.

I'm confused. Are you advocating #2? If so, let me give you a few reasons
why policy #1 makes sense:

A) Ship age: Older ships are harder to keep on-line, between repair times and
major overhauls. Spare parts are more difficult to keep around, and I'm not
sure if you'd want to keep 20+ year reactors running around the deep blue
sea. 

B) Weapons systems: The Seawolf carries around more tubes, and has better 
electronics. MUCH better electronics than you'll get through an upgrade, due
to the way the ship is designed. 

C) Crewing: Fewer subs means fewer personnel to keep around. Each sailor on
the Navy's payroll will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course
of his enlistment, including such mundane things as PX privs and health care.
And the longer they're in, the more money you'll have to pay out in pensions
in future years.