The following is the U.S. Navy General Guidance for the Classification of Naval Vessels and Battle Force Ship Counting Procedures, issued June 14, 2016. Read More
Tag Archives: battle force
Battle Over How to Count Navy Ships is Confusing, But Not New
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) leads ships from Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 during a maneuvering exercise on Sept. 23, 2014. US Navy Photo
Lawmakers and Navy leadership spent the past year going back and forth over how to count the number of ships in the Battle Force fleet. The Navy made some changes last spring that immediately increased the size of the fleet and complicated the ship-counting effort: certain ships would count only if they were forward deployed but not if they returned home to the United States. Congress pushed back, passing into law what was essentially a compromise counting rule – and the third methodology to be used in a one-year span.
As a result of the back-and-forth, the Navy’s most recent ship-count projection it submitted to Congress contains two sets of figures: one with the Navy’s preferred method, and one following Congress’s rule.
The dueling methods have led to confusing charts and tables earlier this year, but the conflict over how to count Navy ships is not new – the Carter and Reagan administrations both created their own sets of rules for counting ships. Read More
Navy’s New ‘Battle Force’ Tally to Include Hospital Ships and Small Patrol Craft
USNS Comfort (T-AH-20), one of the Navy’s two hospital ships that will be counted in the service’s ‘battle force’ as part of a new plan that reclassifies existing ships by assets in high demand by combatant commanders. US Navy Photo
This post was updated from its original version to include a reaction from Rep Randy Forbes (R-Va.), chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee.
The Navy is changing the way it counts its ships that will increase the hulls it has on the books by almost ten by including small patrol craft and hospital ships as part of its “battle force,” according to a March 7 congressional notification obtained by USNI News. Read More
Document: Mabus Notification to Congress on New Navy ‘Battle Force’ Tally
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, left, speaks with Spanish Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Jaime MuÒoz-Delgado y Diaz del Rio following the arrival of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) at Naval Station Rota, Spain on Feb. 11, 2014. US Navy Photo
The following is a March 7, 2014 notification to Congress from Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on the Navy’s new methodology for counting the number of ships in its battle force inventory. Read More
