The Chief of Naval Operations said the upcoming integrated Force Structure Assessment (FSA) will not count unmanned vessels in the battle force ship count and that the service needs a higher topline budget to increase the fleet size and maintain maritime overmatch.
The final numbers for the 2020 FSA, planned to be released within a few weeks in line with the fiscal year 2021 budget request, will add unmanned vessels on top of around 355 ships, Adm. Mike Gilday said at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium on Jan. 14.
Recent press reports said the Defense Department and White House were considering using unmanned vessels to maintain a 355-ship fleet goal while increasing spending on readiness and maintenance and decreasing the planned manned vessel force. Last week, the Senators from Maine wrote to Secretary of Defense Esper in opposition to this plan (Defense Daily, Jan. 8).
“The final numbers that will come up in a couple of weeks when we release the assessment – those final numbers will not include unmanned,” Gilday said on Tuesday.
Gilday noted Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly has said the FSA will include upwards of 355 battle force ships and the CNO added unmanned vessels will be added to that.
“Plus unmanned…we haven’t made a decision yet that those are going to be included as battle force numbers numbers because we can’t say. I can’t tell you exactly what’s going to be on those ships yet, I have no idea. Its responsible, right?,” Gilday continued.
The CNO said this is part of the rigor in which the Navy bases its budget when it goes to Congress and explains shipbuilding numbers decisions to staff members there.
He emphasized in order to reach that 355-ship goal the Navy needs more money.
“355 in 10? Sure, if we get the dough.”
Gilday said the Navy needs a higher top line budget number “if you believe that we need overmatch in the maritime, if you believe that in order to execute distributed maritime operations and to operate forward in great numbers now, that we need more iron? Then yes, we need more topline.”
He noted 1 percent of the DoD budget amounts to $7 billion a year in the shipbuilding accounts. The Navy’s shipbuilding budget over the last 10 years has ranged from $19 to $22 billion.
Gilday said given the higher fleet size goal and the ongoing work on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), you can compare it to when the Ohio-class SSBN was being built in the 1980s.
“When we were building Ohio in the ’80s, Ohio was about 20 percent of the shipbuilding budget. Right now Columbia’s about 20 to 25 percent and in FY ‘26 to ‘30 its going to be about 32 percent. A lot of dough.”
In the 1980s the Navy’s percentage of the DoD budget was 38 percent while it is now 34 percent, Gilday said.
One-third cuts across each of the services does not reflect the [National Defense Strategy] given the pacing threat of China and Russia, he added.