Originally Posted by
pr00ne
WEBF, this was 43 years ago! Hardly relevant to 2023, it was a different world.
Is the Earth no longer round and mostly covered by the sea? Does NATO not consist of North American and European countries connected by the Atlantic? Is maritime reinforcement and resupply no longer needed? Have the basics of probability, queuing theory, Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetic wave propagation and so on changed?
Sea Control is difficult to achieve without carrier aviation. Geography, Mathematics, and Physics show that attacking aircraft are best dealt with using fighters to kill the archers, not the arrows, and that the best chance of stopping anti ship missiles is to engage the launch platform. Similarly constant helicopter ASW operations are best supported by a big deck with multiple helicopters, and Physics shows that modern long range sonars need to work in conjunction with dipping sonar to achieve their potential - and
vice versa.
Originally Posted by A56
the amount of potential "trade" is pretty small - TBH the Russian navy isn't that much bigger than the RN these days if you look at post 1990 vessels and that's the whole fleet - including those in the Black Sea, the Baltic the Med and the Far East
Bear underwater: Russia’s undersea capabilities - Council On Geostrategy
As Vladimir Putin’s disastrous and ill-advised aggression against Ukraine continues to chew away at Russia’s ground forces, with no likelihood of rapid force reconstitution even when the war eventually ends, it is easy to see Russia’s military capabilities as wholly degraded. However, not only does Russia retain its strategic arsenal but, beyond some embarrassing losses in the Black Sea, its navy is almost wholly intact.
If Moscow wishes to project power or simply reassure itself that it is still a power of consequence in the future, it is likely to have to rely all the more heavily on its naval assets. This is something of an irony, as Russia has never been a major maritime power, its navy being regarded much more directly as an adjunct to its land operations. But given that the Kremlin currently considers itself as being, in effect, at war with free and open countries, and that it thus will develop its strategies on a global rather than theatre basis, the likelihood is that tensions in Europe will drive confrontation in the world’s oceans. Future defence planning – not least, the refresh of the United Kingdom’s (UK) Defence Command Paper, expected this summer – will have to reflect this continued and in some cases expanded maritime challenge...
You may have also noticed this:
UK and Netherlands to explore opportunities around new ships for amphibious operations - Royal Navy