Naval War Starting Questions

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

What I find even MORE interesting is that roughly 60-70% of the US naval strength was of 1940's and 50's vintage with upgrades consisting of little more than the addition of a newer radar and fire control systems and often replacement of a gun turret with a missile system of some type.

Yep, that was President Reagan & Navy Secretary John Lehman's biggest lever: the fleet was really aging, and many ships needed replacements. Nearly all of those postwar DDs were replaced by Spruance-class DDG and Perry-class FFG by the '90s. And the Spruances are being replaced by the Burkes, just much more slowly.

Their second biggest lever was that same Soviet build-up.

Edit: by "lever," I mean argument to get funding for new ships, of course.