This. Because turning a few into dedicated gunships strikes me as a very good idea.

That's kinda a "horseshoes and grenades" attack profile of "a 1000 lbs of warhead means I can hit 40 ft above the waterline and still ruin your day".

My biased opinion is that a stealthy TacTom would have been a better option as the basis than the (at the time) problematic JASSM-ER. With a higher starting range (900nmi vs 500 nmi) a stealthy Tomahawk Blk IV based AShM would have provided the USN with far better reach than LRASM. Which at 230 nmi isn't really long…

Unfortunately:

"This system is said to be one of the most advanced and adaptable maritime C4I in the world, and allows for virtually unlimited upgrades and configurations."

The RAND study also assumed Kadena was destroyed, ASBMs worked flawlessly (no carriers anywhere), Aegis was completely nullified both as a TBMD and for AAW, no F16s survived in Taiwan, no surviving Taiwanese air defense and the only operational base we had was at Andersen (Guam) so the number of F22s available was…

It would be a very short exercise as the only actual UCAVs available for a Red Flag are Reapers and some tech demos.

Guam is around 1500 nmi away or 72 hours at around 20 knots.

"Loaded message- this is not a news site man, this is an editorial platform. I have an opinion and a I state it clearly."

These two ships (and the MV-22) are to support OMFTS and STOM. In the context of inserting larger forces beyond SOF teams well inland the well deck ships are less effective as is the S-92 in comparison to the MV-22.

I didn't see the footage but not likely TLAM-D. The D won't hit just the top of a building but the building, the buildings near by, the street, maybe the next street over, etc. Probably a programmed warhead detonation at the right distance.

Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia is a stronger coalition because these are significant regional players.

When your coalition lists the Marshall Islands and Estonia it's weak.

What will get a lot of guys on the ground killed is no air cover because the navy pulled the ESG and CVBG out like they did at Guadalcanal and the closest air force runways are cratered so maybe you get 1 F-22 with a 10 min loiter time overhead from some place very far away.

We sank a few ships in RIMPAC 2008.

"But more than that, the devil is, as always, in the details. If you notice, two missiles hit the target, from a head-on vector. Not so coincidentally, that's pretty much exactly what you'd try to do if you wanted to take out an American Arleigh Burke-class destroyer."

Heh...I watched one SAG v SAG scenario where the group's OHP (sans Harpoon, SM-1) was included as missile bait by the commodore...

"Now, this is the part where I point out that study after study after study has proven that corporal punishment—even a light spanking—does not work. At all. "

Yes. Our old stuff is about as old as their old stuff. The B-52 first came out in 1952. The Fencer in 1967. The difference is they have an assload of them and depend on them more. The B-52 is just a low intensity bomb truck now with a very negligible nuclear deterrent mission. I guess if you loft enough AGM-86s…

Its the one that can operate in a (not too) cratered airfield or a stretch of highway as long as you can provide fuel and munitions.