Quote:
Originally Posted by mpipes
That is roughly what I came up with as far as operational ships, with about an equal number surviving but not operational for one reason or another.
I have almost all the Ohios surviving however. I don't think the Soviets could really track them in 1996-1998 time frame, and you could have paired each Ohio with an escorting Sturgeon to keep the survival chances high. 62 Los Angeles were in commission by the start of the war.
A good number of Sturgeons were still commissioned in 1994, when I think the brakes would have been applied to reducing the force and steps begun to expand as much as possible. Only a handful had been de-commissioned by 1994 (7-8). Surprisingly, all of the Skate class and most Permits were still kicking around and had not been scrapped (was shocked to discover that!). None of the updated Poseidon boomers had been scrapped either, and I think there were even 4 or 5 that had not been updated with Trident Is still available.
I still wonder how effective the Soviet surface force would have been. From what I understand, only a handful of surface units really concerned the navy and many thought they would break down in any long term war. It was that large submarine fleet that seemed to worry the Navy the most.
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I didn't even consider Reserve Fleet or Mothballs units. For those who don't know, the Reserve Fleet are units pretty much kept at sailing readiness but NOT officially crewed or armed. The Mothballs are laid up (and would require MONTHS to be "combat ready") in one of FOUR major places:
The Philidelphia Naval Yard
The James River VA
Suisan Bay CA
Brownsville TX
You should YouTube these places as they are REALLY COOL.
I did want to address one more thing I did find out. The reason the count is 55 LA Class subs is because one sub had an "engineering casualty" that sidelined it for 18 months, and 6 of the "flight I" subs (which can be identified by the diving planes positioned on their conning towers instead of on their bows) were undergoing their "midlife upgrades." Those upgrades involved digital fire controls, newer sonars that were flooded to give better acoustics, and newer reactor cores that produced more power. This upgrade takes between 24 and 36 months to do. The 3rd Seawolf was also completed but didn't enter service until 2000. This would probably be "expedited" as war loomed on the horizon. ALL of the other subs, the USS California, and the USS South Carolina were ALSO in the Reserves at this point. The Virginias were not active but not decommissioned yet. The Long Beach WAS decommissioned and both the Bainbridge and the Truxton were decommissioning. The 15 Perrys that are missing were with either the Coast Guard or the Active Reserves BUT they had lost their MK13 "One Armed Bandits" (the term Navy crews used for the MK13 Launcher).
I would like to point out two good book resources I have that have made my life MUCH easier researching these ships. The first is Modern Naval Combat (1988 ISBN 0-517-61350-6). The second book is The Encyclopedia of World Sea Power (1988, ISBN 0-517-65342-7) which is more a reference than a proper book (with explanations in it). It also lists and describes the various weapons these ships used. I also recommend The Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Their World Equipment Guide is almost as good as Paul's site. ALMOST...
