The Department of Defense, as a whole, does not want to reinstate the draft and, under current conditions, would not do so even if Congress authorized it. *snip* (Now, if we ended up in a land war in Korea and one with Russia at the same time, for example, we'd be stretched ungodly thin and likely would have to reinstate the draft, if only to get enough people to handle Stateside caretaker/administrative duties while the combat types are all deployed simultaneously, but that's multiple contingencies happening simultaneously.)
Unlikey even THEN. Mass human wave attacks are no longer a problem. MLRS, JDAM, et al. Remember, we took out the Iraqi's in '91 with a .5 to 1 INFERORITY.
In the GG situation, the Navy might temporarily institute a draft to try to get back up to strength, but remember, along with the massive number of dead, the vast bulk of the fleet has also been lost, meaning that, while we could draft a quarter-million new sailors, we wouldn't have any ships to put them on--and it would take years to replace the lost ships; an immediate draft would likely result in our having tens of thousands of new sailors sitting around with absolutely nothing to do but chip-and-paint the barracks for the thirty-seventh time.
Nope. Recall and re-recruit the reserves/out of service personnel. I've pointed this out before, but the Navy has a LOT of 1 contract and out folks.
they'd be faster to reactivate, and require LESS training. Also: Outside a BASIC seaman, the average sailor needs about 6-9 months of training, much less radar, sonar, or god forbid, nukes. I say this again: Yes, losing 250,000 sailors HURTS. But it's not crippling, it's not anywhere NEAR as bad as the equivant in 1939 would be.
As for the Army/Marines? 2 years generally to produce a COMPTENT infantryman. Draft ain't happening... and if Pearl was hit again, and burning? Or gods forbid, we lost HAWAII? There wouldn't BE a draft, it'd be more "we're having lines a mile long" at each recruiting center.
But at this point in time? No, the draft would not have started. Indeed, the country's surviving shipyards would be, at best, just barely starting to cut steel for any new construction to replace the lost ships, so it's still premature to start building up the manpower to crew the new ships,
Agreed on the draft: See above for _why_.
Depends what they built. And how. Also: Remember, we don't assemble ships at one spot, nor as a first steel 'all the way to the superstructure' anymore. We do lego building. Honeslty, Bath and Mississippi's shipyards (Both "DD" (Zumwalt, 600 or so feet, 15kt) capable) likey have a dozen+ Burkes underway already. NOW, for a PRATICAL design? Even updating a Adams, as I suggested (last pure all gun DD), would take a few months (mostly new engine and electronics fit/design). But even they, likey are underway. BIG problem is getting the STEEL. It'd take at least 9 months to build brand new steelmills, and get those up and running, plus expand chip cutting, new gun pits, etc.
Ships themselves are easy. It's what goes INTO the ladies that are a pain.
As for the LCS/Frigates now (mutter): They're expressely DESGINED not to require a traditional military shipyard, Lockheed builds them and ships the bits to a civilian shipyard presicely for that reason.
particularly since most of those yards would likely see their construction docks filled with emergency repair jobs instead--meaning that they can only do prefabrication of superlifts and not actually start assembling the new ships until enough graving dock space is recovered/built to let them start using the construction docks for construction again.
Bzzt. Philly, Houston, New Orleans (which Avondale would have to be reactivated for pure building, [Thankfully, they're still doing oil and gas at sea rigs, so it's not TOO bad]but there's still a lot of repair capability), Brementon, San Diego, Mayport (Jacksonville Florida, which HAS a supercarrier drydock, I found out), Charlston, Oakland/Vallejo, Los Angeles, Portland, Do you want me to go on? All repair yards, not shipyards. They can and DO repair, but there is excess repair capability (it's only for REALLY MASSIVE damage, like Cole or Roberts (FFG's), that they get sent back to the builders, and a lot of times, that's because it'd lock up the routine mantiance Naval yards. NOT because of capability.
Could we not go into that chestnut of "human waves", ie "these nonwestern forces kicked our teeth in, we need an excuse for why"? And I hardly think that if the PVA in korea got away with leveraging local superiority and infantry infiltration to beat numerically and equipmentally superior UN forces, they aren't using human waves now.
But that's beside the point. I forsee issues for the building of new ships. A lot of the rare earth metals that go into fancy electronics are imported from countries across the Pacific. I imagine that the US has a reserve that they can extend through rationing, but that probably isn't exactly enough. IIRC, restarting production at unprofitable mines in Canada and California would take a few years, too.
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That's ... not completely accurate. More accurate is to say out of the 28 stragetic materials the US MAINLAND ITSELF only lacks 3. (We are low in the US for one of them which South Am and Canada and JAMAICA have.)
(We acutally have the highest reserves of 3 of them.) We import them because it's cheaper.
NOT because we don't have them. And 2 of the 3 we're missing Canada has, the other is a South Am nation (want to say Chile and possibly Peru)
We acutally produce MASSIVE (or can really easy, ie, within 3 moths!) excess of coal, and natural gas, for one, so US (Canada, all of the Americas, really) need for eletricty even WITHOUT my below question is solved. Multifuel engines help there, and if Fusion IS online, can you say cellose (corn STALK, Wheat stalk, leaves, etc) ethanol? Yes, yes you can! (and improved coal gasification to replace there) We WITH Canada and Mexico can easily drill enough wells and produce enough oil, WITHOUT the above, to meet our needs EASILY. (Hell, meet all of the America's!)
I won't go into all the technical reasons behind (or the amounts, or several other things) us not mining them ourselves (Hint: it's economic, mostly)
But, we do have them. And that's not counting going to every junkyard and recycling, recycling, recycling all those computers/electronics.
Which leads to a question I DO have (see below)
Plus, doesn't the US have some ships in the reserve fleets? If Sandy's trying to reactivate the old dinosaur burners like Kitty Hawk then in universe some of them are probably good enough to give another knock with.
I posted a wiki link to the Naval stuff on SB. I acutally thought we had MORE in reserve, but there's still a decent cluch of FFG and a few CG/DDG left. Carriers are a waste.
(JFK is a no way in hell)
The problem is that our reserve fleet is a bunch of landing ships, and two carriers.
We have no mothballed combat ships besides the musuem ships, and besides the Iowas NONE of them are actually combat capable anymore and even the Iowas are getting there. Remember lots of them were built sixty to eighty years ago with the thought of them lasting for forty years at most.
Incorrect: See link in SB about this, we acutally have about 15-20 ships that can be brought back in line as combat warships in 6 or so months, NOT counting the carriers or LP/LH ships Now, they aren't any better than
As for the resources problem...
I'm sure there is something that is sitting in the patent officer that could help.
*snicker* Which is my question, acutally
Since this is set in 2020's, or better, I understand...
here's a question.
How did Lockheed's fusion statement come out? If _successful_, as Lockheed in 2015 PROMISED. (Flat out STATED it would be commercially VIABLE in 5 to 10 years), a LOT of problems resource wise is solved. YOU can make most of the elements, we'd use IF you have enough power.
(and so are new ships' biggest headache: FUEL. Plop a fusion reactor in it, since they're supposed to be somewhat 'room sized' (10-20 or so feet wide/long, as I understand), heh, heh. Fixes the power generation issue, increases speed, and heh, heh, hehehehehe.)
Assuming V2 GG has Indy and her speed STILL in the 50+ knot range, she's likey fusion powered (Since Lockheed builds LCS,... why not?)
