{"id":20156,"date":"2020-09-24T23:37:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T23:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/24\/the-pentagon-is-eyeing-a-500-ship-navy-documents-reveal\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:48:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:48:35","slug":"the-pentagon-is-eyeing-a-500-ship-navy-documents-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2020\/09\/24\/the-pentagon-is-eyeing-a-500-ship-navy-documents-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon is eyeing a 500-ship Navy, documents reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon\u2019s upcoming recommendation for a future Navy is expected to call for a significant increase in the number of ships<\/a>, with officials discussing a fleet as large as 530 hulls, according to documents obtained by Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting documents to the forthcoming Future Navy Force Study reviewed by Defense News show the Navy moving towards a lighter force<\/a> with many more ships<\/a> but fewer aircraft carriers and large surface combatants. Instead, the fleet would include more small surface combatants, unmanned ships and submarines and an expanded logistics force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two groups commissioned by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to design what a future Navy should look like suggested fleets of anywhere from 480 to 534 ships, when manned and unmanned platforms are accounted for \u2014 at least a 35 percent increase in fleet size from the current target of 355 manned ships<\/a> by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers all come from an April <\/b>draft of inputs to the Future Navy Force Study conducted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. While the number will likely have changed somewhat in final recommendations recently sent to Esper, the plans being discussed in April are notable as they reflect what will likely be major shift in the Navy\u2019s future \u2014 and the expectation is that a larger-than-planned Navy based on the concepts laid out in the documents will remain intact in the final analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper himself hinted at that in comments last week. In a speech delivered at the think tank Rand<\/a>, the secretary called for a Navy of \u201cover 350 ships,\u201d specifically by increasing the Navy\u2019s shipbuilding funding account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn short, it will be a balanced force of over 350 ships \u2014 both manned and unmanned \u2014 and will be built in a relevant time frame and budget-informed manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the fleet compositions presented in the inputs broadly reflect the concept of a lighter fleet more reliant on unmanned or lightly crewed vessels that Esper described to Defense News in a February interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the ways you get [to a larger fleet] quickly is moving toward lightly manned [ships], which over time can be unmanned,\u201d Esper said then. \u201cWe can go with lightly manned ships, get them out there. You can build them so they\u2019re optionally manned and then, depending on the scenario or the technology, at some point in time they can go unmanned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future Naval Force Study, overseen by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist, kicked off in January after Esper decided he wanted<\/a> an outside take on the Navy\u2019s self-review of its future force structure. The OSD-led review tasked three groups to provide their version of an ideal fleet construction for the year 2045, one each by the Pentagon\u2019s Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation office, the Joint Staff, the Navy and a group from the Hudson Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\t