A new version of desired structure of the US Navy’s ships composition has been published online.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) leads a formation of ships from Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 during a maneuvering exercise, Sept. 23, 2014 (Photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Katie Lash)
The US Navy has finally published a new version of desired structure of its ships composition – the executive summary of the Navy’s 2016 Force Structure Assessment (FSA). The document was being prepared for a long time and, obviously, its publication was delayed until the announcement of the US presidential election’s results. When Donald Trump, who advocates for the fleet, consisting of 350 ships, won, the US Navy realized that the time ‘to show all the aces’ has come.
The new desired structure is conservative in nature and does not take into account results of a parallel work within the framework of the study of the ‘structure of the fleet of the future’ (the Future Fleet Architecture).
The FSA 2016 reveals the required number of fleet’s ships for solutions of strategic tasks in conditions of limited resources and an acceptable level of risk. The US Navy asked regional Commands to provide their own estimate of the need for the naval forces in the framework of scenarios, covered in documents of the Global Force Management for 2017. So, a fleet, consisting of 653 ships is required in order to meet all their needs with minimal risk and perform routine tasks. This, of course, is a completely unrealistic level.
During an analysis of the requirements of the regional Commands, a series of overlapping, non-priority and non-critical requirements was reduced, and the US Navy came to the number of the fleet of 355 vessels that is 15% more than the level, determined in the FSA 2014. Mainly requests for possible conflicts of high intensity were kept. Apparently, ideas of the ‘postmodern fleet’ in the US Navy are gradually coming to the end.
So, there are results of the FSA 2016 – an objective force of 355 ships – and the changes from the FSA 2014update.
Photo: news.usni.org
The main ‘winner’ is the fleet of attack submarines, which is planned to be replenished with 18 vessels – its growth rate is 47%. Large surface combatants are at the second place (+18.2%). The 12th aircraft carrier also looks impressively.
The post is based on the article appeared at prokhor-tebin.livejournal
