![]() ![]() If the navy needs boats on the cheap and it needs them quick, why not procure diesel-electric SSKs in bulk? ![]() Fleet numbers are stagnant, the silent service needs at least 17 more attack boats according to last year’s shipbuilding plan, and no one pretends an 80-foot XLUUV, no matter how capable, can replace a manned sub displacing thousands of tons. This roundup of the latest news adds up to a compelling brief on behalf of acquiring conventionally powered attack submarines (SSKs). The fleet fights on despite losing individual units.Īnd fighting on in the face of adversity is what it’s all about in battle. By contrast, dispersing firepower, sensors, and command-and-control functions imparts resilience. Sinking a guided-missile cruiser or destroyer or knocking it out of action deducts a major share of the fleet’s overall battle strength across multiple missions, meaning anti-surface, anti-submarine, and anti-air warfare along with ballistic-missile defense. Navy tries to make good on its plan to disperse combat power among a much more numerous fleet rather than concentrate it in a few large, pricey, multi-mission hulls. The Orca constitutes promising tech as the U.S. Navy leaders have pegged the target percentage of nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) in upkeep and overhaul at any given time at 20 percent of the fleet, which currently stands at 49 SSNs. Submarine maintenance woes have also been much in the news, and in a doubleplus-ungood way. ![]() Yet the ship count dawdles around where it was back in 2016, even as Chinese shipyards mass-produce new surface combatants like sausages enroute to a 500-ship People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy fleet. After all, it’s pushing seven years since they imposed the 355-ship mandate. Whether lawmakers will follow through remains a nettlesome question. And provided Congress levies enough taxpayer money at last to construct, operate, and maintain such a fleet. Or it’s good news provided the shipbuilding complex can handle the extra load. That’s up from 299 in service today, and it would exceed the 355-ship fleet mandated by U.S. ![]() Navy delivered a classified shipbuilding plan to Congress this week espousing a 381-ship fleet, not counting uncrewed vessels, of which it wants 150 or so. Navy news has been a mixed bag of late is it ever otherwise? ![]()
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