USNI – Based on the Navy’s current vision of its future fleet, the service will be too top-heavy in the coming years, having more large combatants than it says it needs and not enough small combatants. But many attractive options exist today to add lethal capabilities to these large combatants and to extend their lives, and fewer options exist to speed the growth of the small combatant fleet, leaving the Navy pondering how best to invest in its surface force, the service’s top requirements officer told USNI News.
The ongoing discussions are informing the ongoing Force Structure Assessment effort, due out by the end of the calendar year, and point to the challenges of investing in today’s fleet while also keeping in mind the balanced fleet the sea service hopes to achieve down the road.
Conversations continue regarding the fate of the Navy’s oldest cruisers, how many existing destroyers should be backfit with the newest capabilities to boost them to a Flight III-like configuration, and whether the future Large Surface Combatant can be accelerated, Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems (OPNAV N9) told USNI News in an interview last week.
