The Navy is reassessing its longstanding goal of building and sustaining a 313-ship fleet in light of budget reductions and the reshaping of global military footprint, the chief of U.S. Fleet Forces Command said yesterday.
Adm. John Harvey told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Defense Writers Group that the Navy is going to have to cope with having fewer ships than anticipated and was reviewing its current force posture. There current fleet stands at about 285 ships.
“Circumstances have now changed,” Harvey said. “Our strategic shift, our pivot, is taking place.”
The Navy will have to optimize the amount of money Congress is willing to appropriate with the revised global strategy announced by President Barack Obama in early January that calls for expanding the military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
“Let’s figure out what kind of Navy matches those two together and here’s what well come up with,” Harvey said of the purpose the force structure review initiated by the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert.
The Obama administration’s heightened focus on the Asia-Pacific has raised questions as to whether the Navy–expected to play a key role in the new strategy–will have a sufficient number of ships to execute the plan.
Those questions were illuminated last week when the Pentagon provided a peek into its budget priorities for fiscal 2013 and the four years thereafter. The plan calls for early retirement of seven cruisers and two amphibious ships, and pushed the planned construction of two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and one Virginia-class (SSN-774) attack submarine beyond that five-year period.
Harvey said he was confident the Navy will be able to handle its missions regardless of the number of the final number of ships the service ends up with.
“I’ll deal with what we’ve got,” he said.