One problem with the article about convoys is that ultimately the issue is framed as one of resupply at sea rather than supplying American forces fighting across the seas.
One thing that I really liked was this suggestion:
Additionally, we can increase the convoy's ability to be successful by adding modular defenses to existing platforms or developing logistics platforms with defense capabilities similar to what the modern-day destroyer has aboard. This is an area where containerized payloads and launchers may be a low cost, high leverage measure.
I wrote about using container ships as auxiliary cruisers equipped with containerized systems. I called them modularized auxiliary cruisers, and one use I mentioned was to escort convoys to free up warships for sea control duty. That was especially important as our post-Cold War fleet became more top heavy with fewer high-capability ships. The rise of Chinese naval power required a means to expand naval power for non-sea control missions that the Navy warships would need to focus on controlling the seas.
The value of the modularized auxiliary cruisers would be enhanced by being part of a network-centric force. Yes, I saw the converted ships operating independently in a lower-threat theater to free up a high-end destroyer. But I also envisioned the ability to use modularized auxiliary cruisers as weapons trucks that would remotely increase the magazine capacity of warships with search and targeting capabilities for anti-ship, anti-air, anti-submarine, or land attack missions.
Later Military Review published an article of mine ("The AFRICOM Queen") proposing a variant of that kind of ship used as a power projection platform around Africa.
The convoy article changes my idea a bit more by opening up the possibility of spreading out the power that I would have put on modularized auxiliary cruisers and instead putting such defensive systems on a lot or all of the merchant ships in the convoy. You lose cargo capacity but that seems like a good price to pay. If the various armed merchant ships are networked the defenses are more resilient to losses if attacked.
I like that idea.
I find it hard to believe that the need to protect merchant ships is under question. The only question should be how to do it and convoys of one sort or another has been proven by hard experience in two world wars. Putting much of the convoy escort on the merchant ships themselves might be the answer to that question.
