re: #374 Athos

Unfortunately, I think the Navy is making the same mistake they, and the Air Force, made in the early 60’s regarding fighters - but not equipping them with guns. Many of the newer ships seem to have fewer and smaller guns - and a heavier dependency on missiles (particularly vertically launched). One of the early lessons learned from the grounding of the USS Port Royal was that the stress / twisting of the hull jammed many of the vertical launch tube hatches closed rendering those missiles unusable.

navies that cannot take on the USN ship for ship will use swarming tactics with small craft, like the incident with Iranian speed boats about a year ago.
In the long run they would get their asses whooped, but in the short run they can inflict heavy damage on any vessel that isn’t properly armed to deal with such an attack. And with a President like Obama that might be all they need before they get a surrender notice.
A surface version of the CIWS or Typhoon would be a solution to this problem.

and a different president.