And while much has been written on Chinese military ambitions at sea, we seem to have forgotten Beijing’s commercial maritime activity, which has also increased dramatically, in terms of both shipbuilding and investments in port infrastructure around the globe. Seapower is a major priority for Beijing-the question is whether it’s a priority for Washington, D.C.With the United States drawing down in the Middle East and starting to realize the long-awaited “ pivot to the Pacific,” Chinese naval expansion and the troubling practices of Chinese distant-water fishing fleets have risen to the top of the list of global and national security concerns plaguing our top strategists. In the meantime, China continues to crank out ships, having commissioned nine cruisers and destroyers in 2021 alone. The reliance on uncrewed warships to fill gaps in capabilities could backfire if the tech fails to work as advertised. Will the Navy pull off this ambitious expansion in just 23 years? There are good reasons to be skeptical: the failure of the Zumwalt and Littoral Combat Ship programs, the inability of the Navy to build a successor to the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, and technical delays and cost overruns with the first of the Ford -class aircraft carriers, have cost precious time and reduced confidence in the Navy. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon Renfroe The Seahawk medium displacement unmanned surface vessel (MUSV) is currently participating in the RIMPAC 2022 naval exercises off the coast of Hawaii. The Navy is currently experimenting with four uncrewed warships: Seahawk, Sea Hunter, Nomad, and Ranger at the multinational 2024 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercises. Still others will act as “floating magazines” for the rest of the fleet, their decks stacked with anti-air, anti-submarine, and anti-ship missiles, as well as land-attack cruise missiles.
Some robo-ships will act as sensor pickets, sailing at the edge of a battle group to provide extended sonar and radar coverage, while others will autonomously chase enemy submarines. Robotic warships will be smaller and cheaper than regular warships, due to the lack of life-support systems for human crews, and sail either autonomously or under remote human control. The Navy is betting big on robotic warships that will boost the number of available ships in the fleet. One-hundred and fifty uncrewed robotic ships. Whether the Navy can sustain 3.5 frigates a year to reach this goal is up for debate. The first Constellation frigate is projected to enter service in 2026, leaving the Navy only 16 years, including construction time, to build 56 ships. After the failure of the Littoral Combat Ship program, which produced more than 30 small, under-armed, mechanically unreliable frigate-sized ships, the Navy is pivoting to a new design based on the European FREMM-class frigates. Fifty-six Constellation-class guided-missile frigates, 56 more than the current fleet. Navy would operate 523 warships in its battle fleet.Īrtist conception of a Constellation -class guided missile frigate. For context, the Navy currently operates 300 battle force ships, defined as “warships capable of contributing to combat operations, or a United States Naval Ship that contributes directly to Navy warfighting or support missions.” That number of ships is the highest in 20 years, after sinking to a post-Cold War low of 275 in 2015.
The analysis, “ Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan 2022” (NAVPLAN), represents a considerable growth of the U.S. The service also wants another aircraft carrier, more destroyers, and a boost in the number of frigates and submarines. That’s according to the service’s latest fleet study, released earlier this week, which recommends a fleet of 373 manned ships and 150 unmanned warships by 2045 in an attempt to preserve global dominance in the face of a growing Chinese navy. Navy warships will be “ghost ships,” sailing the seven seas without a human crew. Of the 523 warships, 150 will be robots with no sailors aboard.The plan calls for the service to grow by 223 ships, or about ten ships per year.Navy plans to have a total of 523 warships, according to its latest fleet analysis.
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