Defense Outlook 2016 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442259201
Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Navy

Concerned that the number of Navy ships was too low for the global missions being required, Congress continued its restrictions on retiring cruisers and LSDs. The Navy had planned to retire three LSDs entirely and to put 11 of the 22 CG-47-class cruisers in reduced operating status. The inactivated cruisers would be modernized in the future and brought back into active service in increments in the 2020s as other cruisers retired at the end of their service lives. Fearing that the ships would be stripped and never reactivated, Congress balked. The Navy reluctantly agreed on a plan whereby the LSDs and cruisers would stay on active duty and be modernized in groups. This plan, called “2/4/6,” mandates that two ships go into modernization at a time, the work last no more than four years, and no more than six ships be in maintenance at any given time.

Continuing the theme of expanding the number of ships, Congress added three ships—a Joint High Speed Vessel, an Afloat Forward Staging Base, and half a destroyer. The Navy must pay for the other half in the FY 2017 budget.)

Announced in 2014, the Optimized Fleet Response Plan put ships on a regular cycle of training, maintenance and deployment. That was good for readiness and quality of life but had the effect of reducing time deployed. The FY 2016 budget expanded the plan’s implementation.

The National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund, established in 2015 to help the Navy pay for the expensive Ohio-replacement submarines, continues its nebulous existence. Congressional authorizers want to do something to help Navy shipbuilding, which is facing a bow wave in the years ahead. However, appropriators, and the department, regard this as a gimmick and provided no funds. So the fund continues with its existing, and not very helpful, transfer authorities.

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