Friday Reading

CDR Salamander applies the lessons of the past to the present and future in his Fullbore Friday.

Salamander parallels a theme seen over at Galrahn's place about the unconventional uses of conventional ships.

Salamander and Sid use history to warn of the dangers of "assuming" that speed and maneuvering outweigh armor. However, their "lesson learned" conflicts with the original vision of the "street fighter" which was to get numbers out there and assume a certain degree of "expendability." As I commented there:

Since the original premise of the "street fighter" proposed by Adm.Cebrowski and Capt Hughes was large numbers of inexpensive ships with small crews for taking the fight to the littorals, the question of the surivability of the LCS (because it has become the near opposite of the original idea of the original vision) just shows how far the idea has become twisted. We don't need Fletchers or Gearings, but we could use a whole bunch of high speed, low drag, relatively heavily armed small boys for littoral ops. And, to borrow from Galrahn, if we need to use "motherships" or (here's an idea) "tenders" as we used to for PT boats, the original LCSs (converted LCIs) and the like, then so be it.
Sea-basing...

Are tne ships expendable? Not at an insane level but there is risk in aerial flight and in sending any ship into combat. Numbers have a quality all their own.