Guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG-67) conducts carrier strike group integrated operations USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) on June 10, 2021. US Navy Photo
The Senate Armed Services Committee has crafted legislation to give the Navy more ownership over its fleet architecture studies, according to the text of the annual defense policy bill released this week. Read More
Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125) launching at Ingalls Shipbuilding on June 5, 2021. HII Photo
The Navy and the Pentagon are crunching numbers on two separate sets of studies that will map out the size of the service’s future fleet as defense budgets are set to stay static for the foreseeable future, officials familiar with the studies told USNI News. Read More
USS Daniel Inouye (DDG-118) at Bath Iron Works
The Pentagon submitted an abbreviated long-range shipbuilding report to Congress that does not show construction past the Fiscal Year 2022 budget request, according to the document reviewed by USNI News on Thursday. Read More
In this aerial photograph, the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) sits at Pier 3 at Newport News Shipbuilding division. The ship is approximately 76 percent complete and is progressing through final outfitting and testing. Huntington Ingalls Industries photo.
This story has been updated to include a statement from a Pentagon spokesperson.
The Pentagon is performing a “budget relook” of the Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 proposal, with Navy shipbuilding topping the list of items for reassessment, USNI News has learned. Read More
Island of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) is landed onto the flight deck during a mast-stepping ceremony at Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., on May 29, 2019. US Navy Photo
This post has been updated with additional information from the Navy, the Office of Management and Budget and reaction from Congress.
The administration today released a long-range Navy shipbuilding plan that is likely to set up a fight for resources between the Navy and its sister services and between the Pentagon and Congress over how quickly to pursue these changes. Read More
Adm. Mike Gilday addresses the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2024 in Alumni Hall on Aug. 7, 2020. US Navy Photo
The chief of naval operations remains mindful of deployment lengths, crew sizes, maintenance capacity and other measures of a healthy fleet even amid calls to grow the Navy to 500 ships or more, during what could be an important time in determining the future of the Navy. Read More
Defense Secretary Mark Esper tours the avenger class minesweeper USS Devastator, docked at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on Oct. 28, 2020. DoD Photo
At the beginning of the year, the Navy and Marine Corps sent a new fleet plan to Pentagon leaders that called for relying on smaller ships and unmanned vessels to meet future missions and defeat future adversaries. The Pentagon rejected the plan.
Nine-months later, Pentagon leaders reached the same conclusion: the Navy needed to be more distributed and weighted towards small combatants and unmanned craft.
What did that additional effort really get the sea services? Not much, according to some officials involved in both processes.
Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Jason Thompson watches an amphibious assault vehicles (AAV) depart the well deck of amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego (LPD-22) in 2016. US Navy Photo
The Navy and Marine Corps are further putting their money and their effort towards greater naval integration, as the services work together on tactics for blue-green operations and a spending plan that supports those new tactics. Read More
Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks in the Pentagon Briefing Room, Washington, D.C. on Sept. 14, 2020. DoD Photo
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Defense Secretary Mark Esper is open to increasing Navy budgets to support a new shipbuilding plan and future force design, he said today in a speech at RAND Corporation’s Los Angeles office. Read More
USS Stout (DDG-55) travels alongside the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD-5) during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz on May 31, 2020. US Marine Corps Photo
The Pentagon still has not submitted a legally mandated shipbuilding blueprint to lawmakers this year because Defense Secretary Mark Esper felt the Navy had not developed a “credible pathway” to achieving a 355-ship fleet, the nominee to lead a top Pentagon office said today. Read More
