five reasons no nation wants to go to
war with the US Navy
the United States Navy is the largest
and most advanced Navy in the world
fielding everything from aircraft
carriers and maritime patrol aircraft to
submarines destroyers and unmanned
helicopters so when your editor asks you
to choose the Navy's five most lethal
weapon systems your most difficult
challenge is trying to narrow it down to
just five selections for this article I
bypassed the larger platforms such as
the aircraft carriers and amphibious
assault ships to be sure those are
actually the most lethal weapons in the
Navy's arsenal however everybody knows
them and as big platforms they're
actually the sum of many smaller ones
instead I wanted to highlight platforms
that were outstanding in some particular
way with an emphasis on the biggest bang
for the buck I also wanted to spread out
the selection it's easy to merely
include surface ships and submarines
ignoring aircraft in certain missions
before proceeding it's worth noting that
the Navy is currently on the cusp of a
technological revolution new ships
fighters radars lasers rail guns and
unmanned systems on the horizon in ten
years a repeat of this list may look
very different here's five reasons no
nation wants to go to fight with the US
Navy
number five our Lee burke-class
guided-missile destroyer named after the
legendary world war ii admiral the
arleigh burke-class destroyers are some
of the most balanced capable ships
fielded by any modern navy the
burke-class is the backbone of the fleet
with some 62 vessels comprising over a
fifth of all the ships in the Navy
the heart of the Burks combat systems is
in its ages radar system which is
capable of directing a variety of air
defense missiles against incoming
targets Aegis can coordinate the defense
of an entire naval surface group and
with new cooperative engagement
capability the Burks can fire on targets
at extended ranges using targeting data
from platforms such as the HUD Hawkeye
the burke-class is also capable of
launching evolved sea sparrow
air defense missiles against short and
medium-range targets NS m2 and sm6
missiles against long-range aerial
targets many destroyers also have a
ballistic missile defense capability and
can launch sm-3 missiles specialized for
engagement of ballistic missiles for
anti-submarine warfare the class has a
built-in sqq eighty nine sonar system
with a towed sonar system scheduled for
future upgrades the ship mounts six mark
46 anti-submarine torpedoes the ship's
embarked mh-60r anti-submarine
helicopters provide long-range
anti-submarine capability although only
later versions of the Burke class were
built with hangars for a modern ship the
Burke class is heavily armed with
conventional guns a 5-inch 127
millimeter gun is mounted on the bow
capable of anti-ship Shore bombardment
and even a limited anti-air role chew 25
millimeter guns and four 50 caliber
machine guns were added after the
suicide attack on the USS Cole in 1999
finally each ship has two phalanx one be
closed and weapon systems designed to
shoot down incoming missiles but capable
of firing on helicopters UAVs and small
boats as well
one area where the burke-class comes up
short is in its ability to engage enemy
ships the ships are anemic in their
anti-ship capability with only older
vessels even fielding eight aging
harpoon anti-ship missiles this has been
by design as no credible surface threat
has existed and the Navy's concentrated
on the global war on terror mission
missiles such as the Norwegian naval
strike missile and the Lockheed Martin
long-range anti-ship missile are in
development and hold great promise as a
future anti-ship missile of the fleet
the ships will likely be the longest
class in production ever fielded by the
US Navy arleigh Burke herself was
commissioned in 1990 and production is
expected to continue for another 15
years
that would mean nearly 40 years of near
continuous production for a single type
of destroyer number four ea-18g growler
electronic attack aircraft based on the
successful fa-18 F Super Hornet the EA
18 growler is an electronic warfare
aircraft with the performance of a
fighter unlike its predecessor the ea-6b
Prowler the growler is capable of being
used more aggressively pacing
high-performance fighter bombers on
dangerous missions the growler is
basically a two-seat Super Hornet with
90% commonality and some features
between the two planes the Super Hornets
internal m61 gun is deleted to
accommodate an a nal q 227
communications jamming system and a nal
q99 radar jamming pods are fitted to the
planes weapon stations
growler is three key capabilities
firstly it can conduct suppression of
enemy air defense missions in support of
drones or UAVs growler can jam
communication than enemy radars on the
ground and actively attack radars with
anti radar harm missiles second growler
can conduct standoff an escort jamming
against air defenses on the ground enemy
airborne early-warning platforms and
enemy fighters growler can keep up with
fighters conducting a counter air sweep
and keep enemy radars and communications
scrambled third growler is also capable
of what's called non traditional
electronic attack a somewhat mysterious
capability which supposedly allows it to
integrate with ground defenses in
addition to those capabilities growler
can also self protect allowing fighters
that would otherwise escort it to be
used elsewhere growler is as fast and
maneuverable as an f-18 F and can still
carry Amram air-to-air missiles for
defensive use despite its electronic
warfare designation it's still equipped
with an a PG 79 multimode das a radar
and a helmet mounted cueing system for
air-to-air combat 100 growlers have been
delivered as of May 2014 and another 15
aircraft have been approved as part of
the 2015 congressional defense budget
number three Virginia class attack
submarine one of the most successful
weapons programs of the post Cold War
period the Virginia class attack
submarine combines one of the most
advanced nuclear attack submarines with
an affordable shipbuilding program at
least 33 units are planned
each Virginia class is 377 feet long and
34 feet in diameter
anyway 7008 undertones submerged each
has 12 vertical launch tubes for
Tomahawk missiles as well as for 533
millimeter torpedo tubes capable of
launching mark 48 ad cap homing
torpedoes lines and torpedo tube
launched unmanned underwater vehicles
subs of the class are also equipped with
lockout chambers for divers and can
carry seal mini submarines in addition
to their attack mission Virginia
submarines are also useful surveillance
platforms each has an extensive sonar
sweep with bulb sail and chin sonars
covering the front hemisphere sonar
arrays on the flanks and a towed array
to detect objects in the subs wake the
ship is equipped with electronic support
measures sensors for detection of enemy
signals and optronic sensors these
sensors can be augmented with data from
you UVs and Special Forces intelligence
can then be relayed to the surface and
Beyond via high rate data transmitters
the virginia-class is also a success
from a cost perspective the Seawolf
class that preceded it was a financial
disaster 29 submarines were planned but
the first three ships averaged 4.4
billion dollars each and plans for
further submarines were terminated the
Virginia is on the other hand have
commented an average of just under 2
billion each even better by 2011 they
were being delivered early in under
budget USS Mississippi was commissioned
a year early and 60 million dollars
under budget in May the US Navy ordered
10 submarines from General Dynamics
electric boat and Huntington Ingalls for
seventeen point six billion dollars
making the per unit cost a bargain at
1.76 billion under the agreement each
shipyard would churn out a submarine a
year for five years ensuring that two
submarines would join the fleet annually
number two ohio-class cruise missile
submarine
the four guided missile submarines SSG
ends of the ohio-class Ohio Michigan
Florida and Georgia are four of the most
heavily armed ships in the world each is
equipped with 154 cruise missiles and
can carry up to four platoons of Navy
SEALs originally constructed as
ballistic missile submarines each
submarine carried 24 nuclear-tipped d5
Trident submarine launched ballistic
missiles under the terms of the start to
treaty the United States was left with
for access ballistic missile submarine
hulls rather than decommission them the
u.s. navy paid four billion dollars to
convert them Jew carry conventionally
armed tomahawk land attack cruise
missiles twenty-two of the Trident
missile silos were converted to each
hold seven Tomahawk missiles the result
is a stealthy cruise missile platform
capable of firing 154 Tomahawk missiles
a unique capability that greatly
increases the US Navy's firepower the
precise loadout of each submarine is
classified but include some mixture of
block three tomahawk and block four
Tomahawk missiles timeout block 3c has a
single 1,000 pound conventional warhead
at a range of a thousand miles block 3G
has a payload of 166 cluster bomblets
and a range of 800 miles each missile
features multiple navigation methods and
can guide itself to target by inertial
navigation system terrain contour
matching digital scene matching area
correlation and GPS tomahawk block 4e
adds the capability for each missile to
conduct reconnaissance bomb damage
assessment and returning the missile can
send back an image of the battle area in
order later while new target data is
drawn up and then substitute a new
target for the old one the missile is
also significantly cheaper than previous
tomahawks
the remaining two Trident launchers were
converted for use by Navy SEALs and
feature lockout chambers for exiting the
submarine underwater the ohio-class SS
GN s can each carry 66 seal commandos as
well as embark a combination of two
submarines or drydock shelters
the ohio submarines fired their first
missiles in anger on March 19 2011
during Operation Odyssey Dawn USS
Florida fired 93 tomahawks against
Libyan military targets in the future
the cruise missile submarines could be
used as mother ships for unmanned
underwater vehicles uuv x' number one
USS Ponce
it may seem strange for an aging
amphibious transport dock to be on this
list and indeed a week ago it wouldn't
it made the cut the 43 year old USS
Ponce launched in July of 1971 served
four years as a transport for US Marines
now it's an afloat forward staging base
and the first ship in the US Navy
operationally armed with a laser weapon
Wednesday the US Navy revealed that the
laser weapon system or loss is now an
operational weapon system the laser
system is cleared to be fired in combat
the laser system is designed to target
unmanned aerial vehicles slow-moving
helicopters and fast patrol craft in a
video released by the Navy on YouTube
the laser detonates rpg-7 anti-tank
rocket burned out the engine of a small
boat and shot down a small unmanned
aerial vehicle the process appears to
take a fraction of a second the US Navy
claims that per the Geneva Convention
the laser will not be used to target
individual humans it's safe to say
however that detonating explosive
devices fuel or causing catastrophic
damage to a vehicle could have lethal
consequences for the crew no details
exist on the range of the laws or how
many shots it can fire in an engagement
the laser light does not appear visible
to the naked eye the system appears to
be aimed by a shipboard operator using a
modified video game controller in a
world of high cost weapon systems one of
the most remarkable things about laws is
the cost laws cost only 69 cents per
shot with apparently only one shot
needed to disable a small boat the
Griffon missile which the US Navy had
also considered using against small
boats cost 99 thousand dollars each ram
the point defense system that might
otherwise engage UAVs cost well over 250
thousand dollars per missile laws even
compares favorably with the 20
millimeter cannon round fired by the
Phalanx close-in weapon system well we
don't know how much the entire law
system actually costs
these per shot numbers are encouraging
laws is a 30 kilowatt laser system the
US Navy plans to test more powerful 100
to 150 kilowatt systems within the next
two years
you