Report to Congress on Next-Generation Logistic Ship

July 14, 2022 8:22 AM

The following is the July 13, 2022, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Navy Next-Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS) Program.

From the report

Introduction 

The Navy’s Next-Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS) program envisages procuring new medium-sized at-sea resupply ships for the Navy. The Navy’s proposed FY2023 budget requests $3.0 million in research and development funding for the program. The Navy’s five-year (FY2023-FY2027) shipbuilding plan programs the procurement of the first NGLS in FY2026 at a cost of $150.0 million and the second in FY2027 at a cost of $156.0 million.

Terminology 

The Navy’s Combat Logistics Force (CLF) ships, also called underway replenishment (UNREP) ships, are logistics ships that resupply the Navy’s combatant ships (e.g., aircraft carriers, surface combatants, and amphibious ships) at sea, so that the combatant ships can continue operating without having to return to port.

The Navy’s current CLF ships include oilers (TAOs), dry cargo and ammunition ships (TAKEs), and fast combat support ships (TAOEs). In these designations, T means the ship is operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) with a mostly civilian crew, A means auxiliary ship, O means oiler, K means cargo, and E means ammunition (i.e., explosives). (In some documents, TAO, TAKE, etc. are typed as T-AO, T-AKE, etc.) These CLF ships are large auxiliary ships.

Anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities aim to create a defended area around a country that in time of conflict would be a “no-go zone” for opposing military forces. Operational concepts are general approaches for how to use military forces for achieving certain objectives. Fleet architecture refers to the types and mix of ships that make up a navy.

New Fleet Architecture and Operational Concepts 

To more effectively counter the improving A2/AD capabilities of China in particular, the Navy wants to begin shifting to a new, more distributed fleet architecture that is to include a reduced proportion of larger ships and an increased proportion of smaller ships. This more distributed fleet architecture is intended to support a new Navy and Marine Corps operational concept for countering adversary A2/AD forces, called Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), and an associated new Marine Corps operational concept called Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO).

DMO aims at avoiding a situation in which an adversary could defeat U.S. naval forces by concentrating its attacks on a relatively small number of large, high-value U.S. Navy ships. Under EABO, relatively small Marine Corps units armed with anti-ship cruise missiles and other weapons would hop on and off islands in the Western Pacific to conduct “shoot-and-scoot” operations against adversary ships.

Download the document here.

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