The U.S. Navy Has A Plan To Reach A Fleet Of 355 Ships In 15 Years

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Warzone/The Drive: Here Is The Navy's Ultra Ambitious New Plan To Get To 355 Ships In Just 15 Years

The service will face huge challenges in meeting that goal and just sustaining those vessels will cost many billions more than it spends now.

The U.S. Navy’s latest long-term shipbuilding plan lays out an aggressive path to achieving its long-standing goal of having 355 ships by 2034, two decades earlier than its last estimate. But this ambitious plan isn't just about buying extra ships and the service says that when, and if, it reaches that total force size, it will cost $40 billion just to operate and maintain all of those vessels, more than thirty percent more than it spends on its fleets now.

The Navy published the latest edition of what it calls its “Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels,” on Mar. 21, 2019. It covers existing and planned procurement from Fiscal Year 2020 through Fiscal Year 2049. By the end of the 2020 fiscal cycle, the service expects to have 301 ships. The goal is to get that to the 355-ship target in Fiscal Year 2034, at which time the size of the overall force will hit a plateau.

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WNU Editor: I do not think this plan is going to happen. Congress will not accept a fleet with only 9 aircraft carriers. Another problem .... I can understand building a large number of small surface ships will achieve this 355 ship goal, but they will not have the missiles and fire power that many are predicting will be needed in the future. And as for the massive costs involved in reaching this goal, and maintaining this fleet, I do not see any political will in Congress to accept that.