The best fleet. Will not let you down?
Oh, tell me, you see in the first rays of the sun that in the middle of the battle we were walking in the evening lightning. Blue with a scattering of stars striped our flag, red and white fire from the barricades will reappear! Like a thunderclap, thrashing the sky into thousands of mirror fragments. Like a hammer hitting a red-hot nail, the American fleet is powerful and beautiful. Its annual budget is 155 billion dollars, and the number of large combat ships of the first rank (aircraft carriers, missile destroyers, nuclear submarines) is more than in the composition of all the other fleets of the world combined!
Invincible AUG, Aegis Patrol ABM and a multifunctional amphibious group. Pick up successful views - in a two-minute commercial, the maximum information about the US Navy should be reflected. The latest technical innovations should be included in the video series - littoral warships, a plot about the work of special operations forces and a submarine pop-up in the ice ... Don't forget to insert a sentimental fragment about saving a black baby in a disaster zone. At the end - a few static frames. All under the disturbing and exciting music.
Stop! Taken off!
But what remains behind the shots of “The Best in the World” fleet"?
The US Navy is the funniest fleet in the world. The largest and most expensive. But at the same time it is the most stupid and ineffective (cost / benefit) among the naval forces of other developed countries. The fact that the Yankees have a rare gift to allow terrible, inexplicable logic in terms of miscalculations, it turned out during the Second World War. They did not notice the flashes and thunders of 203-mm guns from a distance of 20 miles (a pogrom near Savo Island, better known as the “Second Pearl Harbor”) - the Japanese walked around the island counter-clockwise, shooting the US Navy sleeping cruisers one by one. Or they allowed the surrender of the “concrete armadillo” Correidore before the 10-fold inferior enemy. They missed a squadron of Japanese battleships and TKR in the landing zone in the Philippines - at that time only a miracle saved the Yankees from an imminent disaster. With such fantastic leadership skills, only innate prudence, cutting-edge scientific innovations and multiple numerical superiority could ensure America’s victory in the Pacific.
Norfolk. The world's largest naval base.
17 kilometers of moorings crammed with ships
17 kilometers of moorings crammed with ships
During the Cold War, the situation became more complicated - the lack of a clear front line and the rapidly changing situation led to a series of comical and tragic incidents that occurred with the US Navy ships.
American sailors fell under shelling of Israeli and Iraqi aviation, their ships were boarded by North Korean special forces, were blown up on Iranian mines and pushed out with rude kicks from the territorial waters of the USSR. They were fired upon by their own allies and Arab tattered raiders on holey boats with bags of improvised explosives.
To fall in an unequal battle is not a shame. It is a shame when, after a long chase, the North Korean assault group that landed on the Pueblo board found a teletype in the radio room that continued to knock out secret radiograms. The Yankees not only did not destroy the secret equipment, but did not even try to turn it off! Not to mention such an obvious decision as to sink your ship in the face of superior enemy forces — the idea of being in the cold January water turned out to be alien to the American consciousness. Why risk your own life for the sake of some kind of national security? Let the Koreans look at the encryption machines - what's the big deal?
USS Pueblo (AGER-2) at the embankment in Pyongyang. Our days
Here such a ship, the valiant American sailors "gave" the enemy!
Upon arrival in North Korean Wonsan, the KW-7 encryption machines were immediately dismantled and transported to Moscow. By using the secret Pueblo legacy, Soviet cryptographers have been able to decipher more than 1 million messages from the US Navy.
Special thanks should be expressed to the aircraft carrier Enterprise - it was located 500 miles to the south and received an order to immediately raise the aircraft and smash all North Korean pelvis trying to get close to the American intelligence officer. The Yankees had more than an hour left before the boarding party landed on the Pueblo - the Enterprise had every chance to save the US Navy from shame. Alas, commander Kent L. Lee spread his hands and said that after a heavy transoceanic transition, half of his planes are not capable - and it would take at least an hour and a half to form an attack force. So do it yourself ...
Do not be ashamed to get under the "friendly fire" - in the confusion of battle, this happens often. It is a shame when the Ajis military information supersystem, on the development of which billions were spent, classifies the huge slow Airbus as a “fighter” and boldly directs missiles at it. 290 passengers of the flight IranAir 655 went to feed the fish. After that, the officers of the cruiser "Vincennes" were awarded for "courage and composure, shown in combat conditions."
It is not a shame when the flagship of the mine-sweeping forces in the Persian Gulf — the Tripoli helicopter carrier with a squadron of modern MH-53E helicopter-mine sweepers — is being blown up by ground mines. Mines - insidious thing. It is a shame when the missile cruiser Princeton is undermined by mines and then, during the long hours, not one of the American ships dared to approach the cruiser dying in front of his eyes. Only the Canadian frigate Atabaskan had enough courage and ability to successfully overcome the minefield and deliver an emergency batch and materials for emergency repair of the hull aboard the Princeton.
Shipyard experts inspect the damaged building of the Tripoli helicopter carrier
The cruiser "Princeton", cracked from the explosion in half. Glued back for $ 100 million
The incidents with the undermining of "Tripoli" and "Princeton" had great consequences: the command of the Navy and the ILC immediately abandoned plans for an amphibious operation on the coast of Kuwait.
Do not be ashamed when an ally shoots you in the back. Lies and betrayal - the eternal vices that exist since the creation of the world. But what happened off the coast of Palestine 8 June 1967 of the year turned into some kind of surrealistic farce with a purple tinge.
In the Sinai desert fierce battles rattled, and the USS Liberty USS electronic reconnaissance ship calmly patrolled in international waters 25 miles north-west of Arish. From here, no shots and cries of the dying were heard, the watch-free sailors enjoyed the Mediterranean sun and made bets: after how many days the Israeli army would break into Cairo? But Israeli Israeli reconnaissance planes are somehow unduly worrying over them. It is not good ...
- Calm down, Jimmy, they see our flag, white stars and the inscription GTR-5. They know who we are.
First, "Liberty" came under heavy attack "Mirage" of the Israeli Air Force. Having shot the entire ammunition of guns and the NAR, the fighters fled. They were replaced by the Meysters with napalm. Next came the torpedo boats. Israeli sailors at point-blank fire “Liberty” were fired from machine guns and a torpedo was thrown into the side of the unfortunate scout. And then, as if nothing had happened, they approached the board of the flaming Liberty and offered their help. It is still unclear what it was - an intentional attack or a tragic mistake. Israel apologized sparingly and paid compensation to the families of the 34 victims. The Americans pretended nothing.
34 dead, 173 injured. One of the most destructive attacks on the American ship since the end of WWII
In continuation of the “mine theme” - in April 1988 of the year in the Persian Gulf, an American rocket frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts blew up on a mine.
It is not a shame to blow up on a modern bottom mine. It is a shame to be blown up on the contact mine of the 1908 sample of the year. This is not just a shame, it's funny. Modern ships should be able to cope with such threats, sonars distinguish such mines in the water column at a distance of several miles. The main thing - do not sleep in the post.
However, it would be unfair to shift all the blame on the operator of the sonar station. On the frigates of the type "Oliver H. Perry", the under ANY / AN SQS-56 was installed. What this sonar represented was a simple fact that the use of SQS-56 instead of the “real” SQS-53, which were put on cruisers and destroyers, allowed 600 to save tons of displacement. In addition, the SQS-56 was high-frequency and was of little use for the search of sea mines.
The frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) at full speed!
The fact that the frigates "Oliver H. Perry" - incapable steel coffins, American sailors guessed long ago. A cheaper escort ship project built with a series of 50 units. They were supposed to be used to cover the transatlantic convoys in the event of the start of a nuclear-free Third World War. Alas, experience has shown that the hopes of the naval command were in vain. Too modest dimensions for the ship of the ocean zone, single-shaft design of the GEM, simplified means of detection, one-frame launcher Mk.13 (nicknamed in the fleet as “one-armed gangster”), an open air defense circuit, the absence of anti-submarine missile-torpedo ... perform tasks assigned to them or simply defend themselves against primitive means of attack.
Damage caused by a mine. 4 sailor contused. Damage estimated at 89 million.
The damaged "Roberts" returns to his homeland
This was well demonstrated by another incident in the Persian Gulf: in 1987, the frigate USS Stark was shot by an Iraqi Mirage aircraft. Yankees tell melancholy history about the perfidious attack and outraged by the perfidy of Saddam Hussein, who at that time was considered a friendly regime in opposition to Iranian religious fanatics. At the same time, somehow forgetting that we are talking about the newest warship 1984 built in, which came into the Tanker War zone is clearly not to admire the sea sunsets.
Yanki It was a minute since the discovery of the inclusion of the Mirage sighting radar - and about two minutes of missile flight time. At that moment, the frigate was in combat readiness No. XXUMX - all the systems of the ship were ready for battle, the crew was in combat positions. The crew immediately began preparations for repelling the attack, tried to use the SBROC jamming system, but did not have time ... Both missiles sank into the ship, destroying 3 sailors. Only complete calm and the lack of repetition of enemy attacks allowed the frigate to be rescued and towed to the nearest port in Bahrain.
As for the frigate “Samuel B. Roberts”, which had blown up on a mine, then several more mines were mined in the area of its explosion. Marking clearly pointed to Iran. At that time, the Yankees did not wipe away and decided to carry out a retaliatory "retaliation action" - Operation Praying Mantis ("Mantis") became the largest combat operation of the US Navy after World War II. The entire day, the carrier-based strike group led by the nuclear Enterprise, bravely fought two Iranian frigates with a displacement of 1500 tons each (60 times less than the aircraft carrier Enterprise)!, Three boats and two oil platforms.
Not to say that the result was impressive: the Americans managed to sink one rocket boat and the frigate "Sahand", having thrown into the unfortunate pelvis three anti-ship missiles "Harpoon" and four 454-kg guided bombs. It was not possible to sink the second frigate: the damaged Sabalan crawled to its native shores. Iranian boats, in retaliation, fired from the grenade launchers of the American ship of integrated supply "Willie Tide", and at the same time a pair of neutral tankers - the British "York Marin" and the Panamanian "Scan Bay". US marines landed on two oil platforms and engaged in vandalism. The cruiser "Wainwright" tried to shoot at the Iranian "Phantom", but could not bring down the fighter. Toward evening, the AH-1 SiCobra crashed, both crew members died.
What about mines? Mines remained. According to the US Navy, at present, the Chinese fleet has about 80 000 sea mines. Iran has about 2-3 thousand units. All in all, in service with all countries of the world can be up to a quarter of a million deadly traps!
In 2012, the US Navy organized the largest exercises in the Persian Gulf. The 34 ships of the allied countries, including a squadron of American minesweepers from 8, learned to search for exposed minefields. 3000 seafarers, specialized radars, sonars, sweepers, and sweepers - for 11 days, the “best fleet” and its allies were able to detect only half of the planned 29 minefields in the clear water. The Americans themselves confirm the following: in the event of the start of real hostilities with a strong adversary, vast areas of the oceans may be impassable for the “best fleet”.
Captured "Pueblo", shot by "Stark", shot down by a civilian airliner, a strange incident with the reconnaissance "Liberty", undermined by "Samuel B. Roberts", "Princeton" and "Tripoli" ... And how can you not recall the incident in the Black Sea, when Soviet TFR "Selfless" pushed back the American cruiser "Yorktown" from the Soviet territorial waters, turning the left side and the entire stern part of the American together with the harpoon missile launcher. So much so that the commander of the "Yorktown" Philip Dur was removed from office for the passivity of his actions and the loss of initiative in conditions close to combat.
Such a “dark matter” is hidden behind a beautiful video about the “best fleet”. Despite all the brilliance and splendor of polished decks, the Yankees are very bad in a combat situation.
Some funny technical features of the US Navy and the incredible adventures of American sailors in the new millennium will be the topic for the next story.
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