A Bit of a Different Look at Strategic Threats

Thinking 'out of the box' about the shrinking Navy and its submarines, reminds me of Lt. Dale Hicks, with whom I had the pleasure of serving. He was a swell guy. Before SSNs he had served in LTAs (blimps). SSNs put blimps out of business like Germany's new diesels and the war on terror's budget is putting SSNs out of business...slowly but surely.

Modernized blimps would probably do a fine job denying acces to homeland littorals at costs the Pentagon could digest cheaply. Crew size is minimal and Al-Zarqawi's stash of heat seekers would not work well at much distance. Now, who wishes to scoff that our modern Navy would ever consider such folly?

How about this scenario: Mexico gets furious with U.S. policies, abrogates all treaties and cuts a deal with China to develop mixed used ports (military and commercial) on our doorstep. Our close ties with India obviously do not help.

posted by Vigilis @ 9:09 PM