Holmes: Pearl Harbor and the future of U.S. sea power
In a disjointed way, the impressions I brought back from a recent trip to Pearl Harbor say something about the future of American sea power.
The basic sinews of sea power - commerce, merchant and naval fleets, and strategically located overseas bases - remain the same. So long as the United States remains an Asia-Pacific power, Hawaii will remain a bridge to this vital theater. And sure enough, Pearl Harbor has lost none of its bustle since I was last there, when the Cold War was in full swing.
But the complexion of sea power has changed since the Cold War. Fleet-on-fleet battles seldom take place nowadays. In fact, the U.S. Navy fought the last such action 65 years ago, at Leyte Gulf in the Western Pacific. A dominant navy helps the United States "hedge" in case a rival fleet - the Chinese Navy being the most obvious candidate - comes to pose the kinds of challenges once posed by the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Soviet Navy.
Maintaining the U.S. edges in high-tech wizardry and combat proficiency remains a must. Even so, it's perhaps fitting that the retired battleship USS Missouri, a big-gun dreadnought intended solely to command the sea, went into drydock in October for a much-needed overhaul. The battlewagon commemorates the end of World War II in 1945, just as the nearby hulk of USS Arizona reminds visitors of the Japanese aerial attack of Dec. 7, 1941.
The Missouri was designed to duel the likes of the Imperial Japanese battleship Yamato or Germany's Bismarck. It had little function aside from pummeling enemy fleets at sea. But World War II saw this traditional mission eclipsed. Aircraft carriers displaced battleships as the fleet's premier warships. Battleships were relegated to support status, bombarding enemy coasts and defending carriers against air attack. Ultimately, they were deactivated.
Navies, then, are taking on new functions - as well as old functions, like battling pirates, that command new attention.
Another mildly jarring sight greeted visitors to Pearl Harbor in late October. Immediately within the main gate sat the Japanese Aegis destroyer Myoko, one pier over from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie.
Lake Erie made headlines in 2007 when it brought down a satellite whose orbit was decaying. Observers - especially in China - interpreted the shootdown as a
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