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The US Department of Defense is assessing that the Navy should cut two of its aircraft carriers from the fleet, and freeze the large surface combatant fleet of destroyers and cruisers around current levels.
In addition, the Navy should add a large number of unmanned or lightly manned warships to its inventory, according to documentation obtained by Defense News.
The study, according to Defense News, calls for a fleet of 9 aircraft carriers, down from the current 11, and for 65 unmanned or lightly manned surface vessels.
The surface force should also remain between 80 and 90 large surface combatants, and a significant increase in small surface warships to between 55 and 70.
The assessment is a push by the Pentagon to review the Navy structure, and repeats calls by US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper – to stop emphasizing on aircraft carriers as the most important piece in the US Navy as a means of force projection, and instead, emphasize on unmanned technologies that can be more easily sacrificed in a conflict and can achieve their missions more affordably.
None of this is officially confirmed.
“We will not comment on a DoD product that is pre-decisional,” said Navy Capt. Brook DeWalt.
A former Navy captain, and current analyst at Telemus Group, Jerry Hendrix commented on the report.
“The deployment models we set – and we’re still keeping – were developed around 15 carriers so that would all fall apart,” Hendrix said, referring to standing carrier presence requirements in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. “This would be reintroducing reality. A move like this would signal a new pattern for the Navy’s deployments that moves away from presence and moves towards surge and exercise as a model for carrier employment.”
Esper has taken a keen interest in Navy force structure, telling Defense News in March that he had directed the Pentagon’s Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), along with the Navy, to conduct a series of war games and exercises in the coming months of 2020, to figure out a way to focus on a lighter Navy.
“I think once we go through this process with the future fleet — that’ll really be the new foundation, the guiding post,” Esper told Defense News. “It’ll give us the general direction we need to go, and I think that’ll be a big game changer in terms of future fleet, for structure, for the Navy and Marine Corps team.”
Regarding the aircraft carriers, Mark Esper said that he saw a lot of value in keeping them as part of the Navy.
“This discussion often comes down to a binary: Is it zero or 12?” Esper said. “First of all, I don’t know. I think carriers are very important. I think they demonstrate American power, American prestige. They get people’s attention. They are a great deterrent. They give us great capability.”
Esper said that the Navy just needed to focus in integrating unmanned and lighter combatant technology in its ranks more than anything.
“What we have to tease out is, what does that future fleet look like?” Esper said. “I think one of the ways you get there quickly is moving toward lightly manned [ships], which over time can be unmanned.
“We can go with lightly manned ships, get them out there. You can build them so they’re optionally manned and then, depending on the scenario or the technology, at some point in time they can go unmanned.
“To me that’s where we need to push. We need to push much more aggressively. That would allow us to get our numbers up quickly, and I believe that we can get to 355, if not higher, by 2030.”
This is specifically aimed against possible confrontation against China, as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said in 2019.
“I know that the future fleet has to include a mix of unmanned,” Gilday said. “We can’t continue to wrap $2 billion ships around 96 missile tubes in the numbers we need to fight in a distributed way, against a potential adversary that is producing capability and platforms at a very high rate of speed. We have to change the way we are thinking.”
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Day 72 of Corona Virus outbreak: 0 infections on Admiral Kuznetsov carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov did take action in fight against ISIL. That is more good positive action for mankind than the entire US Navy did since 1945. Why? Because since 1945 US Navy only fought on the wrong side, for the bad guys – for global oligarchy.
The Jew cunts even attacked the Americunt navy and killed mucho lardasses. USS Liberty.
It’s a bit occupied right now, sans crew…..
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/admiral-kuznetsov-russia%E2%80%99s-hunk-o%E2%80%99-chunk-junk-aircraft-carrier-wont-die-134277
Theyve finally worked out their sitting ducks with the missile technology Russia and China now possess. The U.D is so broke the only things they will be sailing are canoes.
You are not wrong, they are dead broke and totally polarized internally and exposed as a failed state. Smarter people have known that the cunts were a paper tiger anyway, but having created multiple stronger enemies the Americunts are literally up the creek without a paddle in a sinking canoe. The murderous arrogant fuckwits deserve everything that is coming to them.
The deadbeat fuckers are dying of the Pimpeovirus on these floating rusting pieces of shot anyway. Internal Pentagon estimates that over 40% of Americunt military is infected.
We need 600 of them just before the become obsolete.
I’m amazed that US taxpayers haven’t figured out how much this virtual dick wagging is costing their grandchildren. Think about how much it costs to launch an airstrike from a carrier. The cost of the ships, fuel, manpower, support aircraft, strike aircraft …. all to put a explosive charge on some piss poor arabs head. It’s the most ridiculous, most expensive way to blow shit up humans have ever created.
Who knew the delivery of a single bomb could create so much wealth distribution?
Begrudgingly, they have commenced with the pullback. Thank God. They are masking it but, the footprint cannot be hidden. Finally, Capt. Obvious is now center stage and in charge at some of the meetings. The DoD still has to keep up appearances and talk the talk but, they don’t want none of what is waiting out there for them. My take all.
The cold hard reality of finance is now staring the Pentagon in the face. The US Navy should be able to get away with 6 carriers. All that blood and money, loss of credibility on the World stage, pissing off half the World to rack up an unfathomable amount of debt for the benefit of the few.
Well that’s a start, but they really need to go even lower. The US government spends just over half of it’s budget on the military, and the over-sized carrier-fleet is a big part of that cost.