5 Scary Reasons Why China, Russia & N. Korea Can't Kill the U S Navy

5 reasons why no one can beat the US Navy [Music] the United States Navy is the largest and most advanced Navy in the world fielding everything from aircraft carriers and maritime patrol aircraft submarines destroyers and unmanned helicopters so when your editor asks you to choose the Navy's five most lethal weapon systems your most difficult challenge is trying to narrow it down to just five selections for this article I bypassed the larger platforms such as the aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships to be sure those are actually the most lethal weapons in the Navy's arsenal however everybody knows them and as big platforms they're actually the sum of many smaller ones instead I wanted to highlight platforms that were outstanding in some particular way with an emphasis on the biggest bang for the buck I also wanted to spread out the selection it's easy to merely include surface ships and submarines ignoring aircraft and certain missions before proceeding it's worth noting that the Navy is currently on the cusp of a technological revolution with new ships fighters radars lasers rail guns and unmanned systems on the horizon in ten years a repeat of this may look very different [Music] arleigh burke-class guided-missile destroyer named after the legendary world war ii admiral the arleigh burke-class destroyers are some of the most balanced capable ships fielded by any modern navy the burke-class is the backbone of the fleet with some sixty two vessels comprising over a fifth of all the ships in the Navy the heart of the Burks combat system is in its Aegis radar system which is capable of directing a variety of air defense missiles against incoming targets Aegis can coordinate the defense of an entire naval surface group and with the new cooperative engagement capability the Burks can fire on targets at extended ranges using targeting data from platforms such as the HUD Hawkeye the burke-class is capable of launching evolved sea Sparrow air defense missiles against short and medium-range targets and sm2 and sm6 missiles against long-range aerial targets many destroyers also have a ballistic missile defense capability and can launch sm-3 missiles specialized for engagement of ballistic missiles Franti submarine warfare the class has a built-in sqq eighty nine sonar system with a towed sonar system scheduled for future upgrades the ship mounts six mark 46 anti-submarine torpedoes the ship's embarked mh-60r anti-submarine helicopters provide long-range anti-submarine capability although only later versions of the burke-class were built with hangars for a modern ship the burke-class is heavily armed with conventional guns a 5-inch 127 millimeter gun is mounted on the bow capable of anti-ship Shore bombardment and even a limited anti-air role chew 25 millimeter guns and four 50 caliber machine guns were added after the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 1999 finally each ship has two phalanx 1 be close and weapon systems designed to shoot down incoming missiles but capable of firing on helicopters UAVs and small boats as well one area where the burke-class comes up short is in its ability to engage enemy ships the ships are anemic in their anti-ship capability with only older vessels even fielding eight aging harpoon anti-ship vessels this has been by design as no credible service threat had existed and the Navy is concentrated on the global war on terror mission missiles such as the Norwegian naval strike missile and the Lockheed Martin long-range anti-ship missile are in development and hold great promise as a future anti-ship missile of the fleet the ships will likely be the longest class in production ever fielded by the US Navy arleigh Burke herself was commissioned in 1991 and production is expected to continue for another 50 years that would mean nearly 40 years of near continuous production for a single type of destroyer ei 18g growler electronic attack aircraft based on the successful fa-18 F Super Hornet the ei $18 is an electronic warfare aircraft with the performance of a fighter unlike its predecessor the ea-6b Prowler the growler is capable of being used more aggressively pacing high-performance fighter bombers on dangerous missions the growler is basically a two-seat Super Hornet with 90% commonality and some features between the two planes these Super Hornets internal m61 gun is deleted to accommodate an an al Q 227 communications jamming system and a nal q 99 radar jamming pods are fitted to the planes weapon stations growler has three capabilities firstly it can support suppression of enemy air defense missions in support of drones or UAVs growler can jam communications and enemy radars on the ground and actively attack radars with anti radar harm missiles second growler can conduct standoff and escort jamming against air defenses on the ground enemy airborne early-warning platforms and enemy fighters growler can keep up with fighters conducting a counter air sweep and keep enemy radars and communications scrambled third growler is awesome capable of what's called non traditional electronic attack a somewhat mysterious capability which supposedly allows it to integrate with ground defences in addition to those capabilities rouler can also self protect allowing fighters that would otherwise escort it to be used elsewhere growler is as fast and maneuverable as an f-18 F and can carry Amram air-to-air missiles for defensive use despite its electronic warfare designation it's still equipped with an a PG 79 multimode a say radar and a helmet mounted cueing system for air-to-air combat 100 growlers have been delivered as of May 2014 and another 15 aircraft have been approved as part of the 2015 congressional defense budget virginia-class attack submarine one of the most successful weapons programs of the post Cold War period the virginia-class attack submarine combines one of the most advanced nuclear attack submarines with an affordable shipbuilding program at least 33 units are planned each Virginia class is 377 feet long and 34 feet in diameter and weighs 7800 tons submerged each has 12 vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk missiles as well as for 533 millimeter torpedo tubes capable of launching mark 48 ADC AP homing torpedoes mines and torpedo tube launched unmanned underwater vehicles subs of the class are also equipped with lockout chambers for divers and can carry seal mini submarines in addition to their attack mission Virginia submarines are also useful surveillance platforms each has an extensive sonar suite with bulb sail and chin sonars covering the front hemisphere sonar arrays on the flanks and a towed array to detect objects in the subs wake the ship is equipped with electronic support measure sensors for detection of enemy signals and optronic sensors these sensors can be augmented with data from you--you've ease and special forces intelligence can then be relayed to the surface and Beyond via high rate data transmitters the virginia-class is also a success from a cost perspective the Sea Wolf class that preceded it was a financial disaster 29 submarines were planned but the first three ships averaged 4.4 billion dollars each and plans for further submarines were terminated the Virginia's on the other hand have come in at an average of just under two billion dollars each even better by 2011 they were delivering early and under budget USS Mississippi was commissioned a year early and 60 million dollars under budget in May the US Navy ordered 10 submarines from General Dynamics electric boat and Huntington Ingalls for seventeen point six billion dollars making the per-unit cost a bargain at 1.7 six billion dollars under the agreement each shipyard would churn out a submarine a year for five years ensuring that two submarines would join the fleet annually ohio-class cruise missile submarine the four guided missile submarines SSG ends of the ohio-class Ohio Michigan Florida and Georgia are four of the most heavily armed ships in the world each is equipped with 154 cruise missiles and can carry up to four platoons of Navy SEALs originally constructed as ballistic missile submarines each submarine carried 24 nuclear-tipped d5 Trident submarine launched ballistic missiles under the terms of the start to treaty the United States was left with 4x s ballistic missile submarine hulls rather than decommission them the US Navy paid four billion dollars to convert them to carry conventionally armed tomahawk land attack cruise missiles 22 of the Trident missile silos were converted to each hold seven Tomahawk missiles the result is a stealthy cruise missile platform capable of firing 154 Tomahawk missiles a unique capability that greatly increases the US Navy's firepower the precise loadout of each submarine is classified but includes some mixture of block three tomahawk and block four tomahawk missiles tomahawk block three C has a single 1,000 pound conventional warhead at a range of a thousand miles block three D has a payload of 166 cluster bomblets and a range of 800 miles each missile features multiple navigation methods and can guide itself to target by inertial navigation system terrain contour matching digital scene matching area correlator and GPS tomahawk block 4e adds the capability for each missile to conduct reconnaissance bomb damage assessment and retargeting the missile can send back an image of the battle area in order Lichter while new target data is drawn up and then substitute a new target for the old one the missile is also significantly cheaper than previous tomahawks the remaining two Trident launchers were converted for use by Navy SEALs and feature lockout chambers for exiting the marine underwater the ohio-class SSG ends can each carry 66 SEAL commandos as well as embark a combination of two submarines or drydock shelters the Ohio submarines fired their first missiles in anger on March 19 2011 during Operation Odyssey Dawn USS Florida fired 93 tomahawks against Libyan military targets in the future the cruise missile submarines could be used as mother ships for unmanned underwater vehicles uu V's USS Ponce it may seem strange for an aging and fibia s-- transport dock to be on this list and indeed a week ago it wouldn't have made the cut the 43 year old USS Ponce launched in July 1971 served four years as a transport for US Marines now it's in afloat forward staging base and the first ship in the US Navy operationally armed with a laser weapon Wednesday the US Navy revealed that the laser weapon system or laws is now an operational weapon system the laser system is cleared to fire in combat the laser system is designed to target unmanned aerial vehicles slow-moving helicopters and fast patrol craft the laser detonates an rpg-7 anti-tank rocket burned out the engine of a small boat and shot down a small unmanned aerial vehicle the process appears to take a fraction of a second the US Navy claims that per the Geneva Convention the laser will not be used to target individual humans it's safe to say however that detonating explosive devices fuel or causing catastrophic damage to a vehicle what AM lethal consequences for the crew no details exist on the range of the laws or how many shots it can fire in an engagement the laser light does not appear visible to the naked eye the system appears to be aimed by a shipboard operator using a modified video game controller in a world of high cost weapon systems one of those remarkable things about laws is the cost laws cost only 69 cents per shot with apparently only one shot needed to disable a small boat the Griffin missile which the US Navy had also considered using against small boats cost 99 thousand dollars each Ram the point defense system that might otherwise engage UAVs cost well over 250 thousand dollars per missile laws even compares favorably to the 20 millimeter cannon round fired by the Phalanx close-in weapon system well we don't know how much the entire loss actually costs these per shot numbers are encouraging laws is a 30 kilowatt laser system the US Navy plans to test more powerful 100 to 150 kilowatt systems within the next two years you

Channel: U.S. Military Technology

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Keywords: us navy, navy, ship, warship, aircraft, submarine, naval, military, united states navy, aircraft carrier, laser weapon system, ea-18g growler, arleigh burke-class, u.s. navy, virginia class submarine, ohio class submarine, us military, usa, us warships, weapon, technology, us navy in action, us navy ship, united states, uss ponce, warships, u.s.military technology

Id: pcmCx7ZlixE

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020