US Navy cut ships in new shipbuilding plan
Each year, the US Navy submits a report to the US Congress on its plans for shipbuilding for the next thirty years. Although in some cases it is allowed not to submit a report in the first year after the election of a new president, in 2021 the Navy did not skip submitting plans to Congress. The most interesting nuance of the report is the departure from the standard of 355 ships, which the US Navy previously adhered to.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at a hearing on June 17, 2021, called 355 US ships "a good target," but stressed that he was working on "the right mix of capabilities." A report presented to Congress says the manned fleet is only 321 manned ships and could potentially reach 372 manned ships.
The fleet of 321 ships will be a departure from the previous course of maintaining the number of ships in the US Navy at 355 units, which was explained by the need for an adequate response to threats from China and Russia. The decrease in the number of planned ships is due to the correlation of the plans of the Navy with the real financial capabilities of the country and those budget constraints that were the result of a difficult post-pandemic year.
At the same time, the head of the Office of Naval Operations of the US Navy, Admiral Mike Gilday, emphasized that the United States, based on the current capabilities, can afford a fleet of about 300 ships. There is very little hope that the budgets of the Navy will increase dramatically, according to the admiral.
The report presented to Congress also states that in addition to 321 (or 372 at best) ships, the fleet unmanned surface and submarine ships will also be included - from 77 to 140 in total. Thus, the total number of ships in the US Navy, according to the presented plan, may vary from 398 to 512 units. By 2023, the naval command plans to submit a revised plan that will correlate military needs with financial capabilities, as well as with a technical component.
Also, the document emphasizes the course of the Navy for special attention to submarines. But a sharp increase in the number of submarines and unmanned underwater vehicles is not planned until the late 2030s, when the purchase of Columbia-class submarines ends.
Maintaining superiority under water is a strategic priority for the US Navy in the face of growing confrontation with other powers. But plans to increase the number of submarines would face the need to expand the production capacity of the shipbuilding industry, and Washington does not yet have such opportunities.
Special attention in the report was paid to the development of the fleet's capabilities during coastal operations: here the emphasis is on interaction with the US Marine Corps, the inclusion of light amphibious warships in the fleet, ensuring confident actions of the Marine Corps units during operations in the coastal zone.
The implementation of coastal operations, as noted in the report, requires a new combination of the capabilities of traditional combat and amphibious assault ships, as well as transport ships: combat ships provide fire support for the operation, amphibious assault - landing of marines, transport - delivery of goods.
It is also known that the US Navy will decommission seven cruisers, two attack submarines, a tug, an amphibious dock ship and four coastal-oriented warships. The costs of their modernization were recognized as meaningless.
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