A few thoughts about tugs:

As I've been reading Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil, a 1952 book about logistics in the Pacific in WWII, I've been struck how often the topic of tugs has come up: ships that were saved because of their presence, or perhaps lost due to their absence.
Some examples that jumped right out: that the carrier USS Yorktown might have been saved at Midway, had the Navy yet appreciated the value of fleet tugs.
That the carrier USS Hornet and destroyer USS Porter might have been saved at the Battle of the Santa Cruz islands if tugs had been available:
And that tugs were able to help save three heavily damaged cruisers after the Battle of Tassafaronga:
By my count it looks like the USN started WWII with 20 or so ocean-going tugs (ATs) available. And then over the course of the war, as lessons were learned, the USN built 200+ more (ATAs and ATFs), many of which served for decades more. shipbuildinghistory.com/smallships/aux…
During the war, the Navy also built or converted 40-odd dedicated rescue and salvage ships (ARSs) that were also crucial to repairing battle damage and rescuing crews. shipbuildinghistory.com/smallships/aux…
This all made me wonder - now that we have reason to worry again about USN ships potentially being disabled in combat in the vastness of the Pacific, how are we doing in this area - tug and salvage capability - now?
From what I can tell, here are the numbers: for its worldwide responsibilities, the USN currently has 3 fleet tugs (T-ATFs) - 1 each in the Pacific, Atlantic, and in Bahrain. msc.usff.navy.mil/Portals/43/Pos…
MSC also owns 2 Safeguard-class salvage and rescue ships (ARSs) and 1 additional civilian tug (MV Gary Chouest). msc.usff.navy.mil/Ships/Ship-Inv…
Since most of MSC's current tugs & salvage ships are ~40 years old, there's a new class of 8 ships in the works - the Navajo-class - intended to replace both the fleet tugs and salvage ships with a single platform, and based on a commercial design. news.usni.org/2020/01/16/nav…
An obvious question for me: how does the PLA Navy stack up here?

One sometimes hears the PLAN described as a brittle and inexperienced force, unlikely to be able to succeed in real-world combat. How well have they provided for forces to conduct recovery and salvage?
Here are the numbers, from ONI's latest PLAN identification guide:
- 14 tugs (ATAs)
- 13 PLAN rescue/salvage ships (ARSs), w/ 27 more under Ministry of Transportation

Worth noting IMO is that these are all likely to be located in the western Pacific. oni.navy.mil/Portals/12/Int…
The PLAN also has a new class of 6000 ton ocean-going tugs under production, with some sources indicating a likely run of 21 hulls. navyrecognition.com/index.php/news…
So does the USN have a Tug Gap that needs to be closed?

Not specifically so, but IMO the relative lack of this capability is symptomatic, along with stories of double-pumped deployments and the like, of trying to run a worldwide Navy on the cheap...
...against an authoritarian maritime power of the first order, one who seems to have an iron will to challenge the Western naval superiority that has underwritten the world order as we've known it since WWII.

Fin.

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More from @tshugart3

2 Jan
Logging in and getting ready for what promises to be one of the largest multiplayer virtual fleet battles in history:
We already have 6000+ players logged on in our alliance's forward staging area, just waiting to go into the fight. My corporation has already sent in a 256-person fleet, and is forming up four more to go soon:
Finally undocked, fleet standing by for orders.
Read 10 tweets
2 Dec 20
Here's a 3-part axiom I think US defense thinkers & planners should consider in devising concepts for the defense of US/allied vital interests in the Western Pacific.

Plans for major conflict against the PLA should not rely on any of the following to win:
- Units or forces that require anything but episodic communication or data flow.

(Ex.: UxVs that rely on consistent human oversight to do their job, esp. given current policy restraints on lethal autonomous weapons.)
- Any important fixed and hard-to-repair object or facility on or within the 2nd island chain.

(Ex.: fuel tanks, HQ buildings, repair facilities, comms equipment, etc.)
Read 5 tweets
30 Nov 20
From CDRPACOM himself: China's ASBMs are not just "carrier-killers" anymore...
...for more detail as to why, see this thread from a couple of months ago:
Also from CDRPACOM at the Halifax conference, more confirmation of the ability to hit moving targets with ASBMs: "Davidson noted that China earlier this year tested two new anti-ship ballistic missiles — the DF-26 and DF-21D — against a moving vessel."

armynow.net/china-rockets-…
Read 4 tweets
24 Nov 20
This headline, even more than the article it references, raises unwarranted doubt in the integrity of US nuclear command and control.

US nuclear forces only execute nuclear strikes authorized by the President. Period.
The intention of the authors, as indicated in both the intro and conclusion of the articles, seems to be to opposition to the provision of limited nuclear strike options as part of US nuclear strike planning.
Reasonable people can certainly disagree (and they have, often) about whether limited nuclear strike options are a good idea - see the endless debate on Low Yield Trident SLBMs. defense.gov/Newsroom/Trans…
Read 24 tweets
8 Nov 20
Some Sunday fun:

The @EveOnline experience: what I observed participating in virtual fleet battles in one of the world's largest massively multiplayer online games - and what it could mean for defense thinkers.

Thread follows:
For some time there's been DoD interest in looking at video games for inspiration & sources of innovation in defense technology. Anyone who's spent much time playing both modern games & using military tech knows that defense firms could sure learn plenty. wired.com/story/will-rop…
Not long after I started playing @EveOnline, a persistent-world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) focused on virtual spacefaring, it occurred to me that this was a platform from which DoD and defense thinkers could learn a lot. eveonline.com
Read 86 tweets
5 Nov 20
While you're all hanging out at your computers clicking "refresh" for election news: a few thoughts on this recent response to @AaronFriedberg in @ForeignAffairs:
The article itself provided a forum for Dr. Friedberg to respond-to-the-response itself, so I won't belabor the general international relations points made either in the original article or in the response, or in his final rejoinder.
What I would like to address is the specific assessment of the response's authors on the shape of China's growing military capabilities: that they appear to be the "banal reality" of a normal country building normal capabilities merely commensurate with growing economic power.
Read 17 tweets

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