300 ship Navy? Not if you count it correctly!

If you aren't reading Eric's ELP Blog then you're missing out.  I might not always agree (he has a hard on for the Stryker and I tend to like the vehicle) but he gives me something to chew on.

To the point.  He did an article that gives an alternate view on the number of ships in the US Navy...check this out...

The U.S. military services are at war with each other to battle for shrinking funding. We hear, time and again, that the U.S. Navy does not have enough ships. That the U.S. Navy's goal of 300 ships is at high risk of being out of reach. Things are bad. How will we fight future wars?
What you have been told is not true.
Here is the current breakdown of the 422 ships managed by the Navy (minus Pueblo and Constitution)

Commissioned (USS);
1 Afloat forward staging base (*see USS Ponce)
10 Aircraft carriers
9 Amphibious assault ships
2 Amphibious command ships
10 Amphibious transport docks
54 Attack submarines
14 Ballistic missile submarines
1 Classic frigate (*see USS Constitution)
22 Cruisers
62 Destroyers
12 Dock landing ships
15 Frigates
4 Guided missile submarines
3 Littoral combat ships
13 Mine countermeasures ships
13 Patrol boats
2 Submarine tender
1 Technical research ship (*see USS Pueblo)
Non-Commissioned (USNS);
1 Ammunition ship
1 Cable repair ship
5 Cargo ships (5 of 12)
14 Dry cargo ships
4 Fast combat support ships
4 Fleet ocean tugs
1 High speed transport
2 Hospital ships
2 Instrumentation ships
2 Joint high speed vessels
4 Maritime prepositioning ships
1 Mobile landing platform
5 Ocean surveillance ships
15 Replenishment oilers
4 Salvage ships
7 Survey ships
1 Fuel tanker (1 of 2)
19 Vehicle cargo ships (19 of 56)
Support (MV, RV - or no prefix);
2 Barracks craft
2 Cargo ships (2 of 12)
3 Container ships
2 Dry docks
1 Fast sea frame
11 Large harbor tugs
1 Oceanographic research ship
1 Self Defense Test Ship
2 Torpedo trials craft
6 Tugboats
2 Unclassified miscellaneous
Ready Reserve Force ships (MV, SS, GTS);
2 Aviation logistics support ships
5 Cargo ships (5 of 12)
6 Crane ships
1 Fuel tanker (1 of 2)
37 Vehicle cargo ships (37 of 56)
Totals;
Commissioned: 248, Non-Commissioned: 92, Support: 33, Ready Reserve: 51.


The U.S. Army has another 50

And the USAF has 3 which move around munitions. These are charted but useless without the job they were made for.
The United States Coast Guard? This is a valid count as this organisation has ships siphoned off supporting expeditionary warfare. It has about 244 cutters. Real "Littoral Combat Ships".
The United States has about 721 ships committed to National Security.
Many of these that are not traditional heavy hitters could be weaponized quickly to carry Tomahawk boxes or other similar missile-in-a box solutions.
The United States has a "Navy" scattered among many organisations doing national security work. When the DOD cries about not having enough ships to fight wars, don't believe them. And, lately most of those wars have been of the Operation:USELESS DIRT kind.

That's a common sense look at the US Navy's ships that many ignore.  I look forward to seeing how one of the Navy guys shoots down ELP's ship count.

The number that jumped out at me was the number of Destroyers.

We're talking about Burke class warships that have been called modern day battleships.  If that analysis is correct then we are well served by the Navy we have and the 300 number is not as alarming as many would have us believe.