News Story: Little Change in New US Fleet Plan

USS Cowpens one of several Cruisers to be Inactivated

By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s full 30-year shipbuilding plan dropped on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon, providing Congress with an annual update of the service’s strategies for the future size of the fleet, the types of vessels that will make up the force, and the number of ships to be bought each year.

The tables that make up the heart of the plan – charts that show year-by-year data through 2043 – were provided to Congress on April 24 at the request of the House Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee. The full plan provides supporting explanations, and comes with additional data, including detailed plans for the disposal of Navy ships.

As reported last month, there is little change between the new fiscal 2014 plan and last year’s version. The overall size of the fleet is about the same, but now centers on achieving a 306-ship fleet baseline — up from today’s 283-ship fleet but down from the previous 313-ship goal. Last year’s fleet plan saw the reaching the revised goal — actually 307 ships — in 2039, although the fleet size dances around the 300-ship level starting in 2020. The revised 2014 plan has the fleet hitting 300 ships in 2019, and reaching 306 ships in 2036.

Read the full story at DefenseNews