Well, a new month isn't looking better than August. Let's look at our Pacific fleet, shall we?
One of these days I'll do more damage to my forehead than to the wall:
The U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet, which now controls most of the warships in the U.S. Navy has had a lot of embarrassing personnel and leadership problems in the last decade. These only became visible to the general public when there were major mishaps, like ship collisions or anything that involved loss of life. In 2017 these problems became so bad, and public, that the commander of the Pacific Fleet was fired (relieved) for failure to do his job.
Recently it became public that the Pacific Fleet, which not only most American warships but also most navy personnel and overseas bases, suffered a more serious but generally unpublicized problem. Between 2016 and 2018 Pacific Fleet submarines, and their two support ships (or tenders) did not receive the required computer and computer network security inspections. A recent navy-wide audit of cybersecurity found that COMSUBPAC (Pacific Fleet Submarine Command) was unable to get enough qualified cyber security specialists to carry out the required inspections and deal with any problems discovered.
Pivoting to the Pacific with more and better ships, subs, and planes isn't fully effective if the support doesn't pivot, too.
I've been worried about our surface fleet seemingly led by woke officers more worried about paperwork and diversity training than actual ship handling and warfighting skills. But I wasn't without hope:
Let's hope our submarines and naval aviation can hold the line until the surface fleet is fixed.
And now even our submarines that I counted on are suspect? Wall. Meet head again.
Just what is deterring our enemies these days? We need to know because it sure isn't the steely resolve of our military and civilian leadership.
