What was the size of the U.S. navy in 1990?

Factual Questions
1

I’m here at my mother’s house with my grandfather. He’s had some lousy experience with message boards, so I’m here to show him the amazing powers of the SDMB. He’s got a question:

What was the size of the United States Navy in 1990? How many ships were in the entire fleet at that time? He’s not asking, but just for fun, let’s break it down by type of ship as well.

I’m not sure where you would find this information, but I thought someone here might. Can the SDMB step up to the plate and impress my grandfather? I’d bet on hell yeah, if I was a betting man. . . .

DaLovin’ Dj

2 


Type                       9/30/90
Battleships                  4
Carriers                    13
Cruisers                    43
Destroyers                  57
Frigates                    99
Submarines                  93
SSBNs                       33
Command Ships                4
Mine Warfare                22
Patrol                       6
Amphibious                  59
Auxiliary                  137
Surface Warships           203
Total Active               570
3

BTW: I’d have had the answer to you a full two hours ago, if the Server hadn’t been acting-up.

4

That’s what I’m talkin’ about. How did you get the info? Is there a public place to access this kind of stuff or was it a jopb-related thing? Thanks!

DaLovin’ Dj

5

Is the USS Constution part of this list, if so what is it classified under? IIRC it was never retired from active service.

6

“Auxiliaries” – at least according to the current fleet list at www.hazegray.org

7

Sorry about that… It’s from a publicly accessable military resource, but I knew about it from my days in the Nav:
www.history.navy.mil

The actual page is: www.history.navy.mil/branches/org9-4.htm

8

When I add up those numbers, I get 773, not the claimed 570. It looks to me like there might be some overlap in the categories: I would imagine that the four “Command Ships” are carriers, for example, and aren’t SSBNs submarines?

Wait, I just realized that that last category is “surface warships”, all of which are in one of the other categories as well, so there’s my double-counting. But that means that “Command Ships” are, in fact, distinct from the other classes, and SSBNs (aren’t those ballistic missile subs?) are not counted as submarines.

For that matter, the Constitution is a frigate, but it’s probably not what they have in mind with the “frigate” classification there.

9

Presumably “submarines” means SSNs – did the USN have any conventional subs then? – i.e. ‘attack’ submarines. Command ships, IIRC, are separate vessels such as these.

10

Command ships are indeed seperate from both auxilliaries and surface combatants. Acting as command and control centers for entire fleets, they aren’t auxilliary, but at the same time, they aren’t combatants, either.

SSBNs are indeed different from run-of-the-mill submarines. In 1990, IIRC, the Navy still had to deisel-electric attack subs. I assisted in decommisioning one, but I can’t recall at the moment if it was in '90, or '89.

Also, not all auxilliaries are surface ships. Fer instance, AGSS-555, the USS Dolphin.

11

A quick dig uncovers the following non-nuclear subs that might have been in service (I dunno, just curious really):

USS Blueback (decomissioned late 1990)

This site claims 3 diesel subs were in use in 1987. Any idea what the other two were?

12

That’s the one.

I couldn’t remember if it was the Blueback or the Bluefish. Most of my work on that one was rewinding motors, rebuilding controllers, and other tender-based repair (51A/B) work, as the Navy was thinking of selling it to a South American country (the buyers rejected it as un-economical).

In '87, I was still on the Russell, and wasn’t paying any attention to diesel boats, so I’ve no answer for you there.