Ship news: why the United States needs dozens of giant battleships
The United States intends to create "the deadliest weapons" — this is how Donald Trump described plans to build a new type of battleships. According to the US president, these ships will have a record displacement and the most advanced weapons, including nuclear cruise missiles, hypersonic complexes and combat lasers. The United States is working on updating its entire military machine: upgrading B-52H bombers, replacing outdated Minuteman III missiles, and developing unmanned aircraft. How effective the new battleships can be and what other weapons programs America is currently spending money on is in the Izvestia article.
How effective can the new battleships be?
According to a statement by Donald Trump, the Trump-class battleship construction program for the US Navy involves the creation of 20-25 ships with a displacement of about 30-40 thousand tons. Apparently, the laurels of the most powerful Russian heavy nuclear missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov project 11442M did not let Trump sleep, and here is the answer.
— Battleships will be the most armed ships — artillery, missiles. Hypersonic weapons will be deployed on the ships — a variety of hypersonic complexes, modern electric railguns and powerful combat lasers, which many have already heard about," the US president said. — The battleships will also carry sea-based nuclear cruise missiles, which are currently being developed and will soon be put into service. It will be the deadliest weapon!
The creation of a new class of battleships is a very serious and ambitious program of the American military—industrial complex. Initially, it is planned to build the lead ship of the USS Defiant series, followed by the second one. Further plans include eight more ships. And in the future, their number may reach or even exceed 25.
The armament is expected to be futuristic: everything that is currently in development, Trump would like to see on new ships. The money is there, and the budget has just been signed.
Of course, the question arises as to how effective such a large ship would be in modern warfare. A few hypersonic missiles, which will be extremely difficult to repel, and the "pride of the nation", all the funds invested in it, will go to the bottom. In conditions in which the enemy will have space intelligence data and modern anti-ship systems, the lifetime of such ships in the event of a full-scale armed conflict will be insignificant. In this case, such expensive ships are needed only for intimidation actions or for parades.
How the US is upgrading its nuclear forces
In addition to the announced construction of battleships, America is implementing several more programs to create the latest weapons. They cover all areas of the nuclear triad — the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (developed, preparing for mass production and deployment), the new generation Columbia nuclear missile submarine (two submarines are under construction) and the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber (also preparing for mass production).
B-21 Raider
The LGM-35 Sentinel is a silo—based intercontinental ballistic missile with separable warheads. It will replace all 400 currently deployed rather old American Minuteman III ICBMs. The Sentinel will be solid-fuel and three-stage, and will repeat its predecessor in many ways. The United States places only high reliability requirements on such missiles, and no unique innovations are expected in them.
But there will be a lot of them in the B-21 Raider bomber. In the future, this development should replace the B-2 and B-1B aircraft in the US strategic aviation arsenal. In the 1970s and 1980s, American "strategists" had a narrow "specialization" - they could only carry atomic bombs and cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. But in the 1990s, the requirements for such aircraft changed — now they had to be able to take part in any operations. This approach was retained during the development of the B-21 Raider. And in addition to this program, modernization of the fleet of the oldest B-52H aircraft is also beginning. After the upgrade, they should last until the 2050s.
The U.S. naval nuclear component is now as follows: 14 Ohio-class submarines are serving with Trident-II missiles, and the first two of the 12 Columbia-class submarines are already being built to replace them. These are the most modern and silent submarines. There are fewer missiles on them than on Ohio — each will carry 16 Trident-II, but a new release. Perhaps their deployment will lead to some reduction in the naval nuclear component, but it is also likely that after 2040, the United States will begin building an even more modern series of missile submarines.
What other weapons programs is America implementing?
In addition to the strategic programs described above, there are others that are no less ambitious. For example, the development and production of a huge number of different high-tech aircraft drones. Drones are wingmen (capable of flying in conjunction with manned combat aircraft and similar in characteristics) for naval and land aviation, reconnaissance, reconnaissance and strike, long-range and short-range kamikazes. There are dozens of programs in operation simultaneously for the Air Force, the Navy, and the Army.
Production plans for the fifth-generation F-35 fighter are underway. Almost 1300 units have already been built for different countries. The aircraft has many disadvantages, but neither the United States nor its closest allies have any options to choose from.
There are also programs underway to produce updated models of tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, helicopters, boats, and all the rest of the variety of weapons and military equipment. It's not for nothing that the United States now has an almost trillion-dollar military budget, the largest in the world. Trump is pumping money into the military-industrial complex and, apparently, will expect a certain reciprocity and full loyalty.
What should other players do in the arena of global military confrontation? It probably makes no sense to enter an arms race when there are more reasonable and asymmetric responses. Any ship can be sunk and any plane can be shot down. Therefore, it is necessary to develop all effective weapons systems that negate such superiority. Of course, such solutions need to be developed and implemented. That's what we're doing.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
