"Purchase recommendations?" Topic

I am looking to make a medium investment into either 1/3000 or 1/2400 modern naval. However, I don't know what ships to purchase. The only manufacture that does a fleet pack is NavWar (that I could find) and I do not like their order system. This means that I need to put together a list to purchase and since my knowledge is rather limited I'd like input from some the TMP naval gaming community. So my question is: If you were going to put together a shopping list of 12 ships per side for Modern Naval Gaming which forces and ships would you purchase?

I'm looking at two zones of conflict: Atlantic (including Med & North Sea) and Pacific (including Indian ocean)

When you say "modern navy" what period do you mean?
Cold War – 80s
Post Cold War – 90s – 00s
Modern Modern – teens

2nd edit
I forgot Seawulf

1/2400
GHQ has a, very, few teens ships – more Chinese than any other
Viking Forge ditto
Seawulf has the RN Darings for teens

GHQ has additional models in the Post Cold
Viking Forge ditto
Seawulf has the Type 23 (Dukes) and Type 42 Batch 3 (Sheffields)
also Canadian Iroquois TRUMP

GHQ has a decent selection of Cold War Soviets, UK, USA models
Viking Forge has a large Cold War selection of USA, some Soviet, better selection of German, Chinese, Japanese, merchants
Superior (if they are actually available check with Alnavco) has large Soviet, USA, some French, Italians, UK
Seawulf has an excellent Royal Navy, Canadian Navy, Argentine Navy, a few Soviets, and a fantastic group of RN auxiliaries and merchants.

Shapeways has large selection of Post Cold War to teens in both 1/2400 and 1/3000

All of these can be ordered over the net
1/3000 well Navwar and Denian (who are also hard to contact)

edit
There is also the Post WW2 to 70s
Viking Forge has a good USA selection
Superior (same caveat)has some Soviets and USA
maybe Shapeways too

Thanks for the response Dragon6. Perhaps, I should've been more clear as to what I am looking for. I've got lists all the manufacturers so that is not the issue (but still thanks for your input). I am looking for recommendations for which current ships for each force to make a decent game. for example, I know that for the USA I should get a couple of Arleigh Burke class destroyers and perhaps a Ticonderoga. I am hoping to get suggestions for relevant countries in the areas I mentioned.

Another manufacture of 1/2400 is CnC.

Don't model any of the US ships. They are just collision magnets.

I think I'd go for 1/6000 scale Hallmark ships from Magister Militum. Makes more scale sense for modern missile ranges and table sizes.

Private – are you looking for something like this?
A carrier strike group[1] (CSG) is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers or frigates,[2] and a carrier air wing of 65 to 70 aircraft. A carrier strike group also, on occasion, includes submarines, attached logistics ships and a supply ship. From Wiki.
You can increase the number of cruisers and small ships and make sure that you include at least 1 if not two Supply ships.
I would also build a Marine Amphibious Ready Group as an alternative (a different variety of ships) with escorts (reuse of your DD's and FFG's).
For the opposing forces that is a tougher call since they change based on ship availability (the Russian Navy has really suffered in recent years) or changing geographic dynamics and/or world situation. The Chinese Navy (which I would say is the most comprehensive variety of ships in the South China Sea region) is probably the most interesting to fit out. Other regions like the Gulf you would end up very asymmetric with Iranian fast boats as the opposing force. I hope this helps some.

Rouges1: Yes, that's a start. Thank you.

OK, I'd include a supply ship with the carrier group. You'd be looking at one carrier (Nimitz-class, the Ford isn't deploying yet), one Ticonderoga-class CG with the VLS systems, two Burke-class DDGs. No frigates left in the Navy.

The 'phib group would have one LHA or LHD, one LPD, and one LSD, plus a couple destroyers for AA cover.