I think Randy's explanation is likely accurate... After all of the political battles Rickover fought against the surface navy, his objectivity was pretty much shot, and he'd lost sight of who the real enemy was.Jered wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:52 amSounds like he watched way too many Soviet propaganda videos.D5CAV wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:55 pm Back during RR's push for a "600 ship Navy", some skeptical members of Congress brought in ADM Rickover for testimony. They asked him how long the USN surface fleet, if it ever got up to over 500 ships, would last in a no-holds-barred conflict with the USSR. Rickover answered "About 48 hours". He was 70 at the time. The USN hastily retired him after that. Too much truth-telling is a bad thing for the Pentagon.
The "light carriers" are not a bad idea when you consider the actual purpose of the Marine assault ships, which is amphibious operations. The fighters they carry are not going to fight an entire enemy air force on their own, but it makes a lot of sense for the marines performing an amphibious assault to have their own organic air support that will always be there no matter how much or how little additional air support the Navy can afford to give them.