Originally Posted by
Wyntor
Listened to a US Gov guy on CNBC today waxing lyrical about how US and Venezuela could replace lost oil from Gulf.
I don't think the refining capacity exists, since the gulf nations also sell refined products, not just crude. However I am not an oil industry expert so I'll leave it at that.
Originally Posted by
BillS
sorry, unable to download video from i but here is a screenshot - no belief in validity. It does not look like Missiles
That's FFG-7 class. Last I checked, the USN stopped operating them, but a number were offered up to foreign navies.
Originally Posted by
dead_pan
Looks dubious to me - any of our resident navy experts care to weigh in on the type?
A Fig Seven.
The Simpson was decomissioned in 2015 (the last of the Perry Class the USN operated).
Aviation wise, they were built from the get go to have two SH-60B Seahawks on them...
FWIW, there was some talk about bringing them back, but ...
... June 2017,
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson revealed the Navy was "taking a hard look" at reactivating 7-8 out of 12 mothballed
Perry-class frigates to increase fleet numbers. While the move was under consideration, there would be difficulties in returning them to service given the age of the ships and their equipment, likely requiring a significant modernization effort. Although bringing the frigates out of retirement would have provided a short-term solution to fleet size, their limited combat capability would restrict them to acting as a theater security cooperation, maritime security asset. Their likely role would have been serving as basic surface platforms that stay close to U.S. shores, performing missions such as assisting drug interdiction efforts or patrolling the Arctic so an extensive upgrade to the ships' combat systems would not need to be undertaken.An October 2017 memo recommended against reactivating the frigates, claiming it would cost too much money, taking funding away from other Navy priorities for ships with little effectiveness.
Having operated from a few of them, I'll say that their expiry date was reached and they needed to be replaced by a good frigate.
What we got instead was the LCS, which is
...and to date has had little effectiveness.
Lose-Lose.
