Just when you Need a Helping Hand – The Incredibly Shrinking Fleet
The last time I checked, despite some troubles with not enough water in the Panama Canal Zone, the oceans have not shrunk. Much of the world’s commerce still sails the oceans around the world carrying vital cargo and commerce of every kind from one place to another.
While this commerce has not diminished very much at all, the ability for a foreign power or terrorist group to disrupt that shipping has not diminished either. In fact, smaller craft with newer drone technologies have the ability to cause untold chaos in this day and age. You only have to read the news on a daily basis to see how these lower cost alternatives have wreaked havoc on the systems we all rely on to carry out our daily lives.
The October 7th surprise attack on the peaceful people in Israeli was begun by drone attacks on sensitive monitoring towers. Since that day, hundreds of attacks have been launched using drones and other technology that challenges our ability to counter it. Our answer in shooting down many of these attacks is to use million-dollar missiles that were designed for a different conflict.
Our navy is going through another crisis all of its own.
As more and more people are being deployed for longer periods of time, we are running low on recruits.
So, seeing this story today online was not surprising but certainly alarming.
Our strongest ally
Great Britain has been one of our strongest allies for many generations. We fought side by side in two world wars and they have helped us with manpower and support throughout much of the last twenty years. You could almost always count on them to pull their fair share (proportionately at least) as we faced the Global War on Terror. They have been unflinching in their support.
But it turns out that they are having some of the same issues we have been facing. The biggest seems to be not enough sailors. From a recent article:
Shortage of Sailors Forces Royal Navy to Retire Two Warships
Story by Lauren Fokas
The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom has fewer sailors than ever before. Consequently, they’ve had to decommission two warships because they simply don’t have enough bodies to run them.
And while some say that decommissioning the ships was the right choice and will enable the Royal Navy to focus on the future, others argue they should be enlarging the fleet, not shrinking it.
Recruitment at the Royal Navy is plummeting; intake decreased by 22.1% from March 2022 to March 2023.
This is significantly higher than the Army’s 15% decrease and even the Air Force’s 17% drop. In fact, things are so dire that any existing soldier can now receive a £500 bonus if they convince a friend to join.
Prior to World War 2, the British Navy was the powerhouse of the world.
They had more ships than even the United States and could dominate most of the shipping lanes just by sheer force of size.
The war changed everything though.
The United States geared up after Pearl Harbor and massively produced both warships and commercial ships. Britain was still reeling from the relentless air and submarine attacks which crippled their ability to keep up. Post war, their debt was still out of proportion to their income and the fleet shrunk in proportion.
From the article:
As of 2023, there were a total of only 26,330 active personnel in the Royal Navy. Which is staggeringly low compared to the 861,000 it had in 1945 and even the 62,000 it had in 1991.
And the bottom line is that if the Royal Navy wants to continue operating any of its warships, let alone all of them, they need recruitment numbers to improve as soon as possible.
A familiar problem
The United States is also struggling to recruit enough sailors. Pressure from a growing job market and increases in pay externally have caused huge problems for both retention and recruitment. Many senior technicians are abandoning ship for lucrative jobs in the civilian industries. And who can blame them. A military that has abandoned its core war fighting bias for a DEI focus has certainly drained the warrior spirit. Knowing that a leader can be punished for not using the correct pronouns has got to be a realistic reason why many are leaving.
I would not do as well in this navy.
I was raised in an older generation where performance and achievements were strictly linked to a warrior ethos. You had a hard life and you got used to it. Sacrifices were the norm. Space was limited on board a ship and the ship went into harms way. If you got sick, they handed you some aspirin and told you to suck it up.
The only feelings that were recognized were when you felt the bulkhead door in a casualty to determine if it was too hot to open. Or feeling your way through a smoke-filled compartment to fight a fire. Any other “feelings” were relegated to the beach if you were unfortunate enough to fall in love with some honey you met on liberty.
Too Harsh?
Probably. But in the end, you need sailors, and those sailors need to offer their sacrifices and sometimes their lives in exchange for a country’s freedom.
I don’t know what the answer is. I’m sure my dad’s generation looked at all the hippies I the sixties and thought the country was going to hell in a hand basket. His generation had it really rough when they sailed off to war. They ate food in cans and had very little of any of the modern conveniences my generation had. They fought a determined enemy to the death and came home to build a country filled with conveniences and advantages they never had. Maybe they did too good of a job. A few generations later and everyone is used to instantaneous gratification all of the time.
I hope the Brits figure out how to man their fleet. I hope we do as well.
Lately I struggle to encourage young people to enlist. It never used to be that way. I was the biggest cheerleader for the service. But I have a conscience. I feel guilty every time I see our kids being improperly used by politicians who do not have a warrior spirit. Especially when I see them get killed with no discernable strategy to justify their sacrifice. One of my prayers every day is for our men and women in uniform. It’s a hard prayer under the circumstances.
theleansubmariner 