The Three Biggest Challenges Facing U.S. Naval Shipbuilding

Defense Professionals ^ | 1/23/2010 | Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. The service has a clear vision of how to construct a networked, flexible fleet suitable for use across the spectrum of conflict. But it only gets $13-14 billion per year to build the warships that will populate that fleet. That isn't much for a country that relies on its Navy every day to sustain nuclear deterrence, assure free transit of sea lanes, and carry the global war on terror to the enemy.

However, with the government borrowing $4 billion per day to stay afloat and the cost of military pay and benefits rising faster than inflation, more money for shipbuilding will be hard to find. Here are the three biggest challenges Navy shipbuilding will face in the years ahead -- all of them money-driven.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding program are... Obama, Reid and Pelosi

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Exactly!

[SatinDoll]

Actually, I think it is because no one can imagine exactly what kind of war we will be fighting next.

What kind of fighting ships do we need to deal with terrorism? And how about piracy on the high seas? Shall we use small, fast and manueverable vessels to take out pirates?

Pirates must be dealt with mercilessly. I don’t think you can improve over ‘hanging by the neck from the yardarm until dead’, as a way to deal with pirates. It worked wonderfully well two hundred years ago and I bet it would do so today.

So, what is the future of naval warfare? That is the crux of this matter. How can we build a better navy without having those answers.

[sig226]

Interesting, but the writer needs to stop using cliches. The opening sentence is so hackneyed that people who use it should seek employment as wainwrights, coopers, and candlesmiths.

[SandRat]

and Unions, Unions, Unions

[PIF]

“So, what is the future of naval warfare? That is the crux of this matter. How can we build a better navy without having those answers.”

We’ll know as soon as crystal balls become practical... :)

Alternately we can continue of the path of unilateral disarmament by socialism, waiting until some other country attacks us and then start building canoes...

[flowerplough]

You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. But if the the shooting ever really starts, the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy’s ship salvaging capacities will be missiles, missiles, missiles. ‘Cause missiles and their “delivery platforms” are getting smaller and more accurate as rapidly as their range increases. Trillion-dollar carriers are fine for humanitarian aid, like after the Malaysian tsunami or the Haitian quake, and they can project and multiply force in brush wars and against insurgencies, but if it comes to real war, against a real enemy, the Navy is probably swimming.

[Strategerist]

You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. But if the the shooting ever really starts, the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy’s ship salvaging capacities will be missiles, missiles, missiles. ‘Cause missiles and their “delivery platforms” are getting smaller and more accurate as rapidly as their range increases. Trillion-dollar carriers are fine for humanitarian aid, like after the Malaysian tsunami or the Haitian quake, and they can project and multiply force in brush wars and against insurgencies, but if it comes to real war, against a real enemy, the Navy is probably swimming.

The Aegis system was at least designed as a missile defense system.

However the USN currently has no active defense against torpedoes; they either have to be decoyed, or simply evaded. And diesel-electric submarines with AIP have gotten unbelievably quiet. In terms of carrier defense ASW is probably a bigger concern right now than AAW, though both are quite problematic.

In a major high-end naval war it's quite possible nothing that floats on the water, on either side, will survive very long.

[wideminded]

I don’t think you can improve over ‘hanging by the neck from the yardarm until dead’, as a way to deal with pirates. It worked wonderfully well two hundred years ago

If that alone had worked, we would not have had to invade the "shores of Tripoli".

[SatinDoll]

The situation in today’s Somali is different that in the western Med back then.

That was state-sponsored piracy resorted to because the U.S. wouldn’t pay protection money. The Europeans did but we refused.

The Somali-based pirates aren’t a government-run extortion racket. They’re very young guys ordered by elders to go out and rob ships. I suspect it wouldn’t take long for a rising death toll among the younger generation to erode the authority of those elders. Most Somali’s would get the message loud and clear.