Top Navy Admiral: Fleet Size Doesn’t Always Matter
CNO Gilday says U.S. shouldn’t become like the Russians, with a big but incapable force.
MARCUS WEISGERBER | APRIL 4, 2022
NAVY MARINE CORPS RUSSIA
The U.S. Navy may become like the Russian fleet if it focuses solely on the quantity of ships instead of on whether vessels are properly maintained, armed, and crewed by well-trained sailors, the top admiral said Monday.
The comments made by Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, came a week after the Navy proposed to retire two dozen warships and use the money saved to buy new ships and high-tech weapons.
“We've had to make some very difficult decisions about [the] divesting of some platforms,” Gilday said at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “It's more than just a numbers game. It is a capabilities and a numbers game about fielding a combat credible force that can deter.”
Navy leaders have long said they need 355 ships, a number now mandated by Congress, to deter China. But that number has become fuzzier because it may count uncrewed as well as crewed ships. In recent months, Gilday has been talking about needing a fleet of 500 vessels of both types. The service has not updated its 30-year shipbuilding plan for several years, but in the meantime, the Biden administration’s 2023 budget proposal foresees the Battle Force fleet declining from the current 297 to 280.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/04/top-navy-admiral-fleet-size-doesnt-always-matter/363974/
