Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60) in 2014. US Navy Photo
The Navy has not made a final determination if it will reactivate decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in its push to expand to a 355 ship fleet despite an internal report that said reactivating the ships could cost in the billions. Read More
US Marine Sgt. Maj. Allen Goodyear, the squadron sergeant major for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, signals for an F-35B Lightning II to take off from the flight deck of the USS Essex (LHD-2) during Exercise Dawn Blitz. US Marine Corps Photo
The Navy’s director of amphibious warfare warned that pursuing a light aircraft carrier option in lieu of amphibious assault ships would limit the Marines’ options for responding to operational commanders’ needs, and instead urged faster shipbuilding and experimenting with new ship groupings to increase operational flexibility. Read More
USS Rentz (FFG-46) in 2009. US Navy Photo
THE PENTAGON — If recommissioned, seven retired Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates would serve as basic surface platforms, stay close to U.S. shores, assist drug interdiction efforts or patrol the Arctic without an extensive upgrade to its combat systems, the Secretary of the Navy said on Wednesday.
Sailors assigned to the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Elrod (FFG-55) pose for a photo in front of the ship before her decommissioning ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk in 2015. US Navy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. – While all options are on the table in the Navy’s push to field a 355-ship fleet, when it comes to reactivating ships in the inactive fleet, the service is realistically only looking at seven decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates (FFG-7), Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told USNI News on Thursday. Read More
USS Kauffman (FFG 59) decommissioning ceremony in 2015. US Navy Photo
Studies are underway to “take a hard look” at putting eight mothballed Oliver Hazard Perry frigates back into service as well as extending the life of existing Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers to help the Navy reach its goal of a 355-ship fleet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said on Tuesday. Read More
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson holds an all-hands call aboard the littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS-4). US Navy Photo
The Navy can begin building up its fleet size in the near-term through accelerating hot production lines of relevant warships, but going forward it will need to focus on the weapons, unmanned vehicles and networks that will boost the capability of both individual hulls and the fleet as a whole. Read More
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency tests its Sea Hunter unmanned vehicle — the technology demonstration vessel it designed, developed and built through its anti-submarine warfare continuous trail unmanned vessel program, or ACTUV — in Portland, Ore., prior to an April 7 commissioning ceremony. DARPA photo.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If the Navy wants to pursue the key tenets of three recently completed Future Fleet Architecture studies – a distributed and networked fleet that relies on unmanned vehicles and electromagnetic warfare tools to survive and win in a highly contested environment – it will need to quickly invest in technologies that allow U.S. forces to complete a targeting faster and stop the enemy from doing so at all, lead participants from the three studies told lawmakers. Read More
The following is the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Architecture Study, one of three required by the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, that are tasked with crafting the U.S. Navy fleet of 2030. Read More
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG-65), left, and the Nimitz-class Aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) transit the Philippine Sea on Sept. 23, 2016. US Navy Photo
A variety of Navy studies point towards the need for a bigger fleet to handle global requirements, and the upcoming change in administration and end to the Budget Control Act spending caps may present an opportunity to begin thinking creatively about what the future larger fleet may look like. Read More
