Republicans Reaffirm Commitment To Stronger U.S. Navy

Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives vow to fight for the military spending vital to keeping the U.S. Navy on track to deploy 546 manned and unmanned warships by 2045 as rumors swirl of lower military budgets under the Biden administration in the coming years.

The need to finance the massive U.S. budget deficit is putting pressure on Congress to scale back expenditures. The U.S. incurred a deficit of $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020 ending September 30.

This number was more than triple the deficit for fiscal year 2019, and amounted to 15.2% of GDP, the largest deficit as a share of the economy since 1945. The economic devastation caused by COVID-19 and the huge stimulus packages that kept the economy from going under were major reasons for the record deficit last year.

Senior Navy officers are publicly voicing concerns to members of Congress about the likelihood of flat or declining defense budgets in the years ahead in light of U.S. economic woes.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker said he expects to have a better understanding of the Biden administration’s priorities for shipbuilding once officials like deputy defense secretary nominee Kathleen Hicks and Neera Tanden, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, are confirmed by the Senate within the month.

Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the top Republican and the Ranking Member in the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), and Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia, Ranking Member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, affirm they'll push to maintain defense spending at current levels. Doing so will ensure money is available for the modernization and increased readiness for the Navy and the other armed services.

U.S. Navy warships

“And that means making sure that we stand by the funding levels that we’ve had in the past," said Wittman. "In fact, I would argue you have to be able to factor in an element of inflation to make sure we have the dollars necessary."

“You know that those dollars are needed, as we’ve seen in the National Defense Strategy, the 30-year shipbuilding plan, Battle Force 2045, however you want to parse it out. Those things are incredibly important,” he added.

Wittman and the Biden administration are on the same page in their assertion the emphasis on China as the main challenge for the Navy will drive U.S. strategy in Battle Force 2045 and make a larger fleet essential.

“You might have a debate about what classes of ships you want to prioritize or how you integrate unmanned platforms. But I think overall the idea is you have to be able to counter the Chinese and in turn our other adversaries, including the Russians that, while they’re not modernizing at the pace that the Chinese are, they have some pretty capable assets that do place the United States at risk. So you have to be able to do those things,” said Wittman.

Last December, the Navy released details of its immense warship building program that will ensure its capability to defeat the navies of China and Russia over the next half century.

The Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan proposes investing more than $167 billion for 82 battle force ships and 21 unmanned surface vessels (USVs), among other ships, to expand its total surface and subsurface fleets.

The enormous shipbuilding program will see the size of the fleet hit the long-sought-after 355-ship level by 2033 compared to a low of 271 ships in 2015 and some 300 today.

By 2045, the Navy will have 403 battle force ships and 143 unmanned vessels. This future fleet should include 11 aircraft carriers, nine amphibious landing ships, 57 amphibious warfare ships, 74 large surface combat ships, 66 small combatant ships, 72 attack submarines and 12 ballistic missile submarines.

An enormous increase in the numbers of robotic ships is key to reaching a 500-ship Navy and reducing the huge maintenance costs of manned ships. The plan projects spending $4.3 billion on 21 robotic ships from fiscal 2022 to 2026. (7 Feb. 2021)

High-Energy Lasers Will Arm 2 US Navy Warships This Year

The U.S. Navy is forging ahead with plans to arm an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer and a Littoral Combat Ship with laser cannons capable of destroying aerial drones and small fast attack boats.

The USS Preble (DDG-88), a destroyer of the U.S. Seventh Fleet that transited the Taiwan Strait in March 2019, will be the first Navy destroyer to be armed with the "High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance" (HELIOS). Integration of the powerful 60 kW HELIOS laser close in weapons system with the Preble will take place this year.

This historic milestone is the culmination of more than a decade of development work perfecting a ship-borne laser, or directed energy, weapon capable of cheaply and efficiently eliminating threats from small but dangerous weapons such as aerial drones. HELIOS is under contract with Lockheed Martin.

The integration of HELIOS with Preble follows a recent demonstration of full laser power in excess of the 60 kW requirement set by the Navy. HELIOS' scalable laser design architecture combines multiple kilowatt fiber lasers to attain high beam quality at various power levels.

The Navy will also arm the Littoral Combat Ship USS Little Rock (LCS-9) with an even more powerful weapon. Little Rock will be the first warship to deploy a 150kW HELIOS laser weapon system, making this warship the first in its class ready to go to war with this weapon.

HELIOS in combat

The Navy said lasers deployed aboard its LCS fleet contributes to a layered laser defense effort, and boost the LCS’s lethality to counter fast-attack craft and aerial drones.

Little Rock will receive HELIOS during its upcoming deployment later this year amid efforts to boost the LCS’s lethality, said Vice Adm. Richard Brown, Commander of Naval Surface Forces.

The warship will likely deploy to U.S. Fourth Fleet whose area of responsibility covers the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans around Central and South America.

HELIOS will assist LCS warships in its surface warfare mission to counter fast-attack craft and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and detect incoming targets.

The ongoing effort to bring more lethality to the LCS fleet is meant to dispel rumors LCS aren’t survivable or lethal enough in surface combat, said Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Small Combatants and Ship Systems.

Little Rock is a monohull Freedom-class LCS. The LCS fleet comprises two hulls: a monohull version built in Wisconsin by Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri, and a trimaran version built by Austal USA in Alabama. (Jan. 16, 2021)

US Navy Will Deploy More Littoral Combat Ships to Indo-Pacific

 The U.S. Navy will surge the deployment to the Indo-Pacific of its fleet of littoral combat ships (LCS) this year even as the incoming administration of President Joe Biden is signaling it will move forward with the "Pivot to Asia" strategy of the Obama administration.

Among the most modern ships in the Navy, LCS' are ideally suited to operating in the Indo-Pacific because their shallow draft allows them to maneuver in waters with a depth of only four meters. Their shallow draft is well suited for Indo-Pacific operations due to the many shallow-water ports in the region that impede larger warships.

The Navy has funding to build 35 littoral combat ships. Of this total, 21 have been commissioned into the Navy and are operational. Four warships will be decommissioned starting 2022, however.

Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, Commander, Naval Surface Forces, said the LCS warships assigned to Asia will lead the Navy's ongoing campaign to resolutely counter China's growing influence in the region. Chinese expansionism is being spearheaded by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which is becoming a formidable blue water navy.

Kitchener said the Navy has identified missions the LCS will fulfill in U.S. Seventh Fleet, the largest of the forward deployed Navy fleets.

Based at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, the fleet commands up to 70 warships, 300 aircraft and 40,000 Navy, Marine Corps personnel, and Coast Guard support personnel.

"If you look at the things we want to do and the Seventh Fleet ... that's what (Vice Adm. William Merz, Commander, Seventh Fleet) wants to use them for," according to Kitchener. "And there's a lot of capability there. They're going to be on the front lines.

Kitchener said littoral combat ships are useful platforms, especially in the Pacific, where the Navy and Marine Corps are focused on littoral (or close to shore) operations in a contested environment and expeditionary advanced base operations.

USS  Gabrielle Giffords

Adm. Michael M. Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, last week asserted he's committed to making good use of the Navy's 31 littoral combat ships.

The littoral combat ships that will be deployed to Asia will be among the most lethal in the fleet, said Gilday. LCS can bring a lethal capability to day-to-day competition at sea, said Gilday.

"I'm going to deliver that with LCS in this decade," vowed Gilday.

Every LCS will be armed with the Kongberg Naval Strike Missile (NSM), said Kitchener. He also said the Navy is continuing to study how to make the warships more lethal.

"I think it's going to become exciting," he said. "We've just got to deliver a sustained plan of how many we're going to get out there next year, maybe the following year. And we've got to meet that requirement."

NSM is long-range, precision-strike weapon anti-ship and land-attack missile that can find and destroy enemy ships from up to 185 kilometers away. It was designed specifically for littoral water ("brown water") scenarios.

Kitchener noted the USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) that operated in the South China Sea in 2020 was the first LCS to get the missile, which is called the RGM-184A in Navy service. (Jan. 14, 2021)