Special From Geostrategy-Direct.com

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates last week said in a speech that the U.S. Navy is facing asymmetric warfare threats and questioned whether naval forces that are very expensive should be pared back.

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At the lower end of the threat spectrum is the Lebanese terrorist group Hizbullah that has used anti-ship missiles against the Israeli navy during the 2006 summer war. Iran also is “combining ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, mines, and swarming speedboats in order to challenge our naval power in that region,” he said.

The higher end of what Gates called the “access-denial spectrum” is the effort to erode what has been a virtual monopoly by the United States on precision guided weapons. These include “long-range, accurate anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles that can potentially strike from over the horizon,” he said, without mentioning that the main developer of these weapons is China.

“This is a particular concern with aircraft carriers and other large, multibillion-dollar blue-water surface combatants, where, for example, a Ford-class carrier plus its full complement of the latest aircraft would represent potentially a $15 (billion) to $20 billion set of hardware at risk,” Gates said.

Additionally sophisticated underwater threats are growing, including the use of sonar-evading stealth submarines that could “end the operational sanctuary our Navy has enjoyed in the Western Pacific for the better part of six decades,” Gates said.

Gates said budget constraints are forcing the military to reduce its efforts to maintain an 11 aircraft carrier strike group.

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