ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 23, 2014 ) The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) leads a formation of ships from Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 during a maneuvering exercise. Theodore Roosevelt participated in the exercise with the Peruvian submarine BAP Islay (SS 35), the guided-missile destroyers USS Winston Churchill (DDG 81), USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98), USS Farragut (DDG 99) and the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60). Theodore Roosevelt is underway preparing for future deployments.
The Warzone/The Drive: The Course To A 355 Ship Navy Is Becoming Increasingly Challenging To Plot
The Navy talks big surface fleet dreams but it is going to take some serious planning and tough decision making to realize those dreams.
There is a lot of souring rhetoric filled with grand hopes and dreams when it comes to achieving a 355 ship U.S. Navy fleet in the coming decades, but it's clear that the sea going service will have a much harder time finding a way to reach that goal than many would like to believe. Tough decisions that are critical to realizing a larger naval end strength, some of which include breaking with decades of established habits, many of which run counter to massive shipbuilding special interest influences, are fast approaching, or in some cases, they have already come and gone.
At every turn there is a risk and reward proposition, but the idea that the Navy will build its way to its 355 ship goal alone is a losing mindset that serves to satisfy the shipbuilding special interests and the Pentagon's obsession with obtaining new platforms at great cost over affordably updating the ones it already owns. Also, this grand wish for a 355 ship fleet—it has about 275 ships today—sits against the harsh reality that the Navy is already tired and fractured.
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WNU Editor: 2017 was not a stellar year for the US Navy, and 2018 is shaping up to be just as bad.
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